Weakening America

For President Donald Trump, Saturday’s big military parade is clearly akin to keeping up with the Joneses. He’s seen the military parades usually associated with the world’s dictators and he likes the symbolism. He’ll wrap himself in the flag on June 14 and pretend he’s made America stronger.
But Donald Trump has demonstrated in recent months, more clearly than ever before, that he has no understanding of what has made America strong— and he has done more than any previous president to undermine our nation’s true strength.
America’s power is found not in its tanks or its missiles, but in the principles that it has promoted (often imperfectly) since its founding. Principles like the rule of law, freedom of expression, the power of science and education, and an openness to the world. These principles have helped America build the world’s largest, most diverse, and most vibrant economy, which has enabled us to win friends and shape global policies that bring untold benefits to the U.S. It has made America the place that attracts the best and brightest from around the world, for higher learning and for economic opportunity.
We have used our nation’s wealth and good will to aid other countries in the aftermath of disasters, famine, or health emergencies. And, in turn, those countries have worked cooperatively with us to address the world’s major challenges.
Missiles and tanks represent hard power that can be difficult to use constructively in the modern age. America’s soft power, the power of its example, is what has made our nation successful on the global stage. President Trump equates fear with respect, but that’s a fundamental miscalculation at the very heart of his disastrous presidency.
Donald Trump has demonstrated that he has no interest in being President of the United States. That’s a job that, first and foremost, requires humility and a respect for the Constitution and the checks and balances that the founders wisely enacted to maintain a limited form of government and keep would-be dictators in check.
Rather than serving as President, he has operated as an autocrat, issuing daily decrees on his every passing whim. He has continuously used the authority of his office in lawless ways designed to undermine the rule of law and the very concept of fairness and equity that are implicit in a founding document that declares all of us are created equal.
Donald Trump has abused his authority to destroy law firms over the clients they lawfully represented. He has abused his authority to try to destroy some of the country’s most prestigious institutions, such as Harvard University, which bring thousands of the most talented and ambitious individuals in the world to our shores every year, many of whom at least used to go on to build successful American companies.
He has ruined America’s reputation as a place of freedom, a place where everyone could speak and write freely without fear they’d be hauled off the street by masked goons and stuffed in a windowless van enroute to a gulag.
He has eliminated virtually all foreign assistance, which, for relative peanuts, saved lives and created goodwill towards America around the world.
He has gutted federal funding for vast amounts of scientific research, which allowed American researchers to advance scientific discovery across the board, including advances in medicine, engineering, and high tech.
He has literally and intentionally destroyed our relationships with key democratic allies, while endlessly kowtowing to dictators like Vladimir Putin.
He has undermined respect for the office of the presidency itself by creating an openly corrupt pay-for-play system in which money buys everything from direct access to the president to pardons for MAGA-friendly criminals.
He has illegally overturned the international trading system, directly harming the U.S. economy and undermining our influence overseas, giving major advantage to competing countries, like China. And he has done so with virtually no strategy or clear idea of his ultimate goals. It’s been utter chaos.
He has withdrawn the U.S. from virtually every international organization or convention, reducing our ability to provide input and influence on key global issues.
No president in American history has done more to weaken the United States and undermine its interests worldwide than Donald Trump. He has been an unmitigated disaster. He undoubtedly hopes that Saturday’s flag-waving pomp and pageantry will deflect America’s attention from this sad and obvious reality.