OPINION: Donald Trump has turned America into a laughingstock on the global stage. Why that’s a problem for everybody.
River Harper (SFS ‘24) is a journalist for the Western Europe and Canada section and a guest writer for the Caravel's opinion section. The content and opinions of this piece are the writer’s and the writer’s alone. They do not reflect the opinions of the Caravel or its staff.
Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally in Arizona. (Wikimedia Commons)
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If you’re one of the very few Americans that can leave the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, you might notice something strange: people don’t really like you anymore.
Of course, some would say that this isn’t exactly a recent development. We Americans are known for our touristic tendencies, with theme parks like Disneyland and Universal bringing in millions of visitors each year. Outside of the United States, where we are guests, we have long had a reputation for being obnoxious, annoying, and ignorant of different customs and cultures.
Even so, other countries have still accepted America as a global superpower and a role model for democracy, and most recognize the benefit of being “open for business” to American tourists, diplomats, and politicians. This sort of grudging respect has been made possible by strong leaders we’ve had in the past such as Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight Eisenhower.
However, the age of respect that we had grown accustomed to has come to an abrupt end in the era of Donald Trump. His nationalistic ideology of “America First” has reached so far and wide that other countries have stopped bothering to translate it into their own languages. His nationalistic proclamations have predictably led to mockery from news organizations and late-night talk shows around the globe. More worrisome is the fact that other countries have seen this ideology as a ringing endorsement to preach the same in their own country. Not only has Trump’s strategy made Americans abroad look selfish and greedy, other countries have begun to ignore the need to help others during a time when global cooperation is needed.
It would obviously be impossible to talk about America’s standing in the world without mentioning the unmitigated disaster that has been the United States’ response to COVID-19. Americans have long been exceedingly proud of their country’s ability to guide the world through crises. The one Jenga block of the coronavirus has made the entire tower come crashing down. While other world powers like Germany and China have daily infection rates that are a fraction of those found in the United States, the United States’ handling of COVID-19 has led to more than eight million cases and 220,000 deaths.
President Trump’s efforts to deliberately mislead the public regarding COVID-19 have even led to many countries not wanting to accept U.S. tourists. Although this doesn’t affect all Americans, traveling has always been an important symbol of status for American culture, and seeing citizens of other countries be able to do it while we’re stuck at home watching reruns of The Office is nothing short of embarrassing.
What every American should be most concerned about are the implications that our country’s worsening reputation has on foreign policy and national security. With several countries discovering that they can play Trump like a fiddle, the amount of foreign interference in our elections has become one of our top national security concerns. Coupled with Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters of color around the country, we are facing the biggest threat to our democracy that America has ever seen.
The attitudes of nationalism and “America First” have led to political turmoil in other countries as well, particularly in Europe. This is made even more frightening by right-wing extremist attacks in the German cities of Hanau and Halle against Muslims and Jews, where the perpetrators in both attacks cited Trump as a key inspiration. The fact that Trump is polling worse than the coronavirus in Germany isn’t even reassuring when you consider that there are Germans who see him as an inspiration to kill innocent people.
Some supporters of Trump have a very different perspective on these issues and argue that he is actually advancing the interests of the American people. They contend that other countries have actually taken advantage of the U.S. for years. Specifically, they think that China has unfairly manipulated its currency and exploited their own citizens to work for an unlivable wage. China’s main motivation for doing this, Trump maintains, is to steal manufacturing jobs from the U.S. and harm our economy in the process.
Another core tenet of Trump’s belief system is his accusation that the other member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are abusing America’s finances as well. This allegation stems from the fact that the United States spends significantly more money on NATO defense than any other country. America is spending its taxpayers’ money to protect the rest of NATO, while countries like Germany spend next to nothing in comparison. According to Trump, this is blatantly unfair because America has to spend billions protecting other countries instead of using the money for its own citizens. Implementing the “America First” initiative will supposedly solve these issues by standing up to other countries that have benefited from America’s ill-advised generosity over the last several decades.
In a vacuum, some of these claims may be founded. China is definitely not our friend, and countries like Germany and France could definitely step up more on defense spending. While Trump definitely has a point on some of these issues, he is going about it in an inflammatory and dangerous way. Alienating other countries by accusing them of taking advantage of the U.S. is not an effective way of getting things done. The negative effects of this aggressive attitude can be seen by Europe’s increasing willingness to work with China instead of the U.S. on travel, trade, and even technology. On the national security front, Trump’s hard stance on Iran has led the country to allegedly acquire ten times as much uranium as they had when he took office. In contrast, Vladimir Putin now has free reign to influence our elections, kill U.S. soldiers, and assassinate his political opponents, all without fear of sanctions from the United States. One thing is clear: Donald Trump’s foreign policy shows that he is not putting America first―rather, he is putting himself first.
If Trump trashing America’s reputation is worrying, the solution might seem very simple: replace him with Joe Biden. There isn’t a silver bullet to fix this problem, but removing Trump from office is certainly a start. This election is undoubtedly one of the most important in American history, and efforts by foreign governments to influence it in both directions only supports this claim. Joe Biden is by no means a perfect candidate, and he would definitely not have been my first choice for president. But one of the main reasons I still support him is because I know he will stop the bleeding and bring us back to normal. It might take a while, but our role as a world superpower will soon be restored, which I’m very thankful for, because flights won’t be cheap for much longer.
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