Judicious leadership is what is absent in the current U.S. regime. Trump has overplayed his hand in his obsession with being a strong and tough leader; sadly, the other branches of government have surrendered their power to rein him in. Only in the Trump world order are bullies treated with deference; being a bully is seen as an art of leadership while threats against friends, allies and foes are perceived as the art of deal making and a formidable platform for negotiation. However, threats discourage than foster collaboration and compromise power.
MAGA Trump believes the U.S. must rule by strength, force and power. He believes through its military might, the U.S. must be able to demand and obtain from the world whatever it desires. But that is rather a simplistic way of seeing the world; in an intertwined world of complex threats, security and leadership of the U.S. depends not just on its military might but also on strong and principled diplomacy.
Contrary to Trump’s beliefs, withdrawing from international obligations does not make the U.S. safer and better. Global threats do not recognise national borders; countries bear global responsibility and need a global approach to tackle them. The U.S. does not need to withdraw from its global commitments to prioritise its interests, it needs both.
The rest of the normal world considers use of threats as a regressive, poor and high-risk negotiation strategy; threats erode trust, foster hostility, and often escalate conflict rather than resolving it. While threats may force short-term concessions in power-based negotiations, they frequently damage long-term relationships, reduce the potential for mutual gain, and risk out-of-control situations.
Restraint and empathy, not military might, are values that have made more friends and allies for the U.S. over the years, a fact that Trump and his sycophants seem to ignore. Trump’s regime does not listen, but lectures; it does not open itself to learn but threatens. However, the reality is that the U.S. will only enhance its safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them not bombing or tariffs and other forms of intimidation.
Trump’s presidency has chosen sabre-rattling, the hostility route over diplomacy in international relations; it has sought to assert its perceived and real power and influence, instil fear on other countries to ‘agree’ on trade deals or end armed conflict or intentionally use aggression and instil fear internally to force his will on American voters who share views different from his. The targeted attacks on Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, attacks on Minneapolis City in Minnesota and the consistent diabolical attacks on US-Somali Ilhan Omar, a member of the Democratic Party and the U.S. representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district since 2019 save as examples of how low POTUS47 is prepared to stoop for power.
Far from compliance, what we are witnessing is the effective isolation of both President Trump and the U.S. from the global stage as allies quietly defy him and diversify, and internally, there is overt violation of the U.S. Constitution, deplorable and violent behaviour, including the murder of American citizens on US streets by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ‘ICE’ agents who clearly believe that they are above the law and that lies from their leaders are enough protection for their crimes.
Relationships work best when negotiations are founded on reciprocity not animosity where intimidation is employed to force one party to submission; focusing on intimidation rather than mutual interest is negligent short-termism focusing on the now not the long-term relationships.
Evidence indicates that Trump’s threats are not working as both perceived in his mind; he has not become stronger; he has not resolved 1 let alone 8 wars in real life. It is apparent that Trump rarely evaluates the consequences of his threats, not only for the other party but also for himself. Threatened partners are diversifying their international relationships. The threats are not working also because others are increasingly noticing he is too inconsistent and unreliable to act on many of the threats; tariffs have been placed and removed as frequently as one changes their undergarment.
MAGA is not making America great again in the short-term and will compromise the future. Trump’s prejudice confuses the past, worse still, it threatens the future by making the present inaccessible; it is narrowing the U.S’ reach and reducing its global influence. Bullying friends and allies does not bring them closer but pushes them away to find and form alternative partnerships. The biggest flaw in Trump and his allies lies in their view of the world in terms of a zero-sum game; Trump is transactional and does not believe in multilateralism. But evidence indicates that the U.S. has been the single largest beneficiary of post-1945 world order of multilateralism. Globalisation, like any human created system is not perfect but it requires improvement than erasure, when managed well, it is broadly a positive-sum force: America gains if its friends and allies are stronger. But Trump’s approach threatens to turn it into a negative-sum game, and that will cost America big.
MTHWAKAZI HUB 
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