∞ The Weak Strongman - Timothy Snyder
Many Americans fear Trump, and so imagine that others must. No one beyond America fears Trump as such. He can generate fear only in his capacity as neighborhood arsonist, as someone who destroys what others have created. America’s friends are afraid not of him but of what we all have to lose. America’s enemies are not frightened when Trump kicks over the lantern and sets things on fire. Quite the contrary: he is doing exactly what they want.
But I fear that this was just the characteristic American mistake of imagining that, because Americans react submissively to Trump’s words, others must as well. For words to matter, there has to be policy, or at least the possibility that one might be formulated. And for there to be policy, there have to be institutions staffed with competent people. And Trump’s main action so far, or really Musk’s action so far, has been to fire exactly the people who would be competent to design and implement policy. Many of the people who knew anything about Ukraine and Russia are gone from the federal government.
Timothy Snyder makes a convincing argument that the current U.S. President is merely posturing as if he has real power over the global political arena. While I’m not a political analyst by any means, common sense suggests that these actions indeed weaken the United States, bewilder U.S. allies, and ultimately play into the hands of Russia and, perhaps to an even greater extent, China.