U.S.A. is leading the rapid race to the political decadence; the country’s democratic credentials under the Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) have come under intense global scrutiny. In the MAGA era, transactional, isolationist politics as opposed to multilateralism dominates the agenda. Threats have replaced diplomacy; it is a dangerous era where politics is cultic in nature, the President is godlike, and the moral bar is so low that Trump cannot say or do wrong.
Increasingly, democracy is being usurped in full view of the global community by a country that for years had set itself up to be an example for what democracy should look like, a country that has made fighting for democracy everywhere its business and convinced the world protecting human dignity and rights everywhere were its priority and that all its perceived meddling in internal affairs of other countries was not only in good faith but a legitimate intervention to ‘protect’ human rights and to get rid of ‘bad political actors’.
Flagrant display of moral decadence in the U.S. politics under MAGA raises bad optics for American political interests globally; it shows yet again the vulnerabilities of democracy and the importance of public engagement to protect it.
None of the Trump behaviour comes as a surprise – he did tell the American people during his campaign in 2024 that he wanted to be a dictator on day one; he is delivering on his promise. The flurry of unconstitutional Trump Executive Orders and memos issued in his first 100 days in office, including tariffs, clearly spelt out his deep-seated obsession with power, being ‘tough’ and leaning away from democratic principles.
Right now, bigotry thrives under the ‘stars and stripes’ banner, and abhorrent behaviour is normalised – the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (Epstein co-conspirator) being moved to the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp where she reported being “much, much happier” in a transfer facilitated after an ‘interview’ with the deputy AG and former criminal defence attorney for the sitting President, a President with a penchant for insulting female journalists who choose not stroke his ego but dare to do their journalistic jobs, a President brazenly using his influence for business deals, a partisan Supreme Court dismantling the Voting Rights Act, etc., for the benefit of the ruling party.
The recent unprecedented settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns blocks the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from reviewing tax filings that Trump, his family and his businesses made in the past. In the settlement the government has agreed to create an almost $1.8bn (£1.3bn) ‘anti-weaponisation fund’ aimed at compensating individuals “unfairly” investigated by previous administrations. This attempt by Trump to reward the January 6th (the J6ers) insurrectionists and other criminals acting in the interest of MAGA leadership marks another low.
By paying insurrectionists who attacked law enforcement agents, the Trump government gives a permission structure that incentivises his sycophants to perform further violence in the name of MAGA.
We need to look at the U.S. socio-political design objectively and judge its impact (not stated intentions) globally for what it is, not what we wish it should be – forget the Christianity claims; this is a bigoted capitalist system that has little to nothing positive for developing democracies to learn; it has little to no place for the average person, women and non-white citizens; this is a system saving the interests of the rich elite white straight men; a political setting where money not brains make policy. This is a system founded on a vulnerable constitution.
The U.S. under MAGA can no longer be held as the beacon of democracy or political normalcy across the globe; it is turning back the clock and no longer wants the responsibility of protecting democracy anywhere, including within the U.S. borders – the killing of U.S. citizens engaging in legal protests being an example; it is not a land of opportunity; it can no longer be trusted as the leader and standard for good governance, rules-based order, the fight against racism, and the protection of immigrants.
Any governance structure whose institutions are only as good as the ethical standard the leader is prepared to settle down on is patently weak. The U.S. system has arguably been always permissive of bigotry but heavily relied on the high moral standards most of the previous leaders set themselves to protect it.
MAGA has awakened the world to the reality of inherent weaknesses in U.S. systems. Although federal courts have generally held strong, other institutions – the congress and the Supreme Court – have so far failed to rein Trump in. Under Trump the optics for U.S. politics are not great; military might does not reflect systemic perfection. Reducing reliance on the U.S. is important for every country; systems and institutions must closely align with countries’ socio-cultural needs, norms and values.
FURTHER READING:
The Myth of “Coequal” Branches of the Federal Government ~ The Imaginative Conservative
How Trump’s IRS settlement could block tax audits of him, his family and their businesses – BBC News
Tax world gawks at Trump audit agreement: ‘Never seen anything like this’ – POLITICO
A second U.S. citizen was killed by federal forces in Minneapolis. Here’s what we know | PBS News
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