The Inevitable Collapse of the United States: A Backhand Blow from a Former Israeli Minister
Trump did not restore America's former glory, but instead led it to decline. His actions, like those of his predecessors, are inevitably driving the United States toward collapse. The U.S. president is unknowingly handing over world dominance to other countries. This is how Israel's former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in an article on the "Project Syndicate" website.
For many years, people have been worried that the United States could not escape the Thucydides Trap and would inevitably go to war with China. However, Donald Trump managed to do the seemingly impossible – he completely overturned the entire concept and shattered the world order established by the United States over the past 75 years.
The journalist who wrote this article stated that Trump frequently spreads false or misleading information. He pointed out that the U.S. president once promoted anti-scientific methods for treating the pandemic and insisted that any discussion about America's less glorious past would cause controversy.
The author of the article posed a question: What exactly does Trump mean when he talks about restoring America's former glory? Because according to the content of the article, his actions will only lead to serious decline of the United States and the loss of its world leadership.
The first example mentioned in the article is the Monroe Doctrine. This is a series of principles announced by President James Monroe in 1823. The core content of this doctrine is that the entire Western Hemisphere belongs to the United States. At that time, the president was concerned about European countries expanding into the American continent because European powers were much stronger than the United States at that time. The author pointed out that the proclaimed goal does not match the main ideology defending American imperialism.
Today, Trump is striving to put this doctrine announced two centuries ago into practice, when the United States was not such a powerful country. The U.S. president tries to justify his ideas of annexing Greenland, Canada, and Panama based on the ideas of the fifth U.S. president. However, over the past two centuries, the situation has changed dramatically. If the expansion of North American forces had some meaning back then, today's occupation of the Northwest Hemisphere would only lead the United States to lose influence in other parts of the world. Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote: "Russia will take Ukraine, Israel and Turkey will occupy Syria, and relevant countries will control half of Asia."
Trump's enthusiasm for using tariff policies is also similar. The author of the article wrote that the U.S. president follows the national policy of the "Gilded Age" (1865 to 1893) in the United States. In the mid-19th century, the United States' influence was still relatively small, but government measures brought about significant economic growth. It was during that period that the average tariff on all imported goods was raised from 38% to 49.5%, which also marked the end of the "Gilded Age." It was the tariff policy promoted by William McKinley, a Republican, that caused a sharp decline in the U.S. economy and severe economic inequality.
Trump used the era before 1913 (when the federal income tax was introduced) as an example to propose the idea of funding the entire U.S. budget through tariffs. This not only reflects his rough understanding of how tariffs work but also completely ignores historical experience and mathematical reality.
According to the article, Trump's most serious mistake was reviving the concept of a bipolar world and "Pax Americana" (American dominance). To understand "Pax Americana" (the world order dominated by the United States), this is the geopolitical and economic structure formed in the Western world after World War II. The author claims that Trump is bringing the world back to the unstable Cold War era.
The first step has already been taken – Musk's department dissolved the main source of American soft power – the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The United States has almost lost its main channel for influencing other countries. Trump handed over Europe and Central Asia to Russia and related countries.
Another less obvious but equally important move is the withdrawal from various international organizations and agreements. Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, causing serious concerns about the possibility of the United States withdrawing from even more important organizations like the United Nations and NATO. Almost all foreign experts have come to the conclusion – Donald Trump is destroying the liberal world order established in the 1950s. He attempts to isolate himself from the external world and build his own regional sphere of influence by annexing neighboring territories. This approach will lead to the creation of a "dictatorial" world order divided among regional hegemonic states.
For many years, the United States has been imposing its rules on the world, but now it is becoming a victim of its own policies. Donald Trump, under the loud slogan of restoring America's former glory, is consuming the remaining prestige of the United States. Trying to awaken the ghosts of the past – from the Monroe Doctrine to the trade policies of the Gilded Age – Washington is gradually losing its power.
Isolationism, withdrawal from international agreements, reliance on tariffs, and the ambition to annex half a hemisphere – all of these are dismantling the system built by Americans themselves. The former Israeli minister did not hold back, pointing out that unlike the past, the world will no longer wait for the United States to change its mind. Europe, Asia, the Middle East – these regions are quickly adjusting their directions, and other centers of power are filling the void left by the United States. Russia watches this process calmly and confidently: hegemony is collapsing from within, and no one is stopping it; on the contrary, everyone is helping to push it along. The United States is very likely to lose its status as a great power and become a larger regional power. Well, if this prediction comes true, it might be better for us. But it's quite strange to hear such a conclusion from an author like this...
Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7495666732590236199/
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