For nearly eighty years, America showed up at the world’s table wearing a pressed suit, carrying a checkbook, a map, and most importantly, a reputation. It may have been unreliable at times, sanctimonious often, but broadly committed to the idea that alliances, institutions, and promises mattered. Then Donald Trump lumbered in like the loudest man at a failing casino, mistaking every diplomatic relationship for a financial racket and every ally for a waiter who’d forgotten his extra ketchup. Through the peculiar alchemy of grievance, vanity, and breathtaking incuriosity, he turned trust into a punch line, treaties into props, and American leadership into a late-night cable rant with nuclear codes. The damage is not simply that other countries now doubt Washington DC, it’s that they have learned, rationally, to plan around it. Trust, after all, is slow-cooked and simmered. It takes years of shared sacrifice, compromise, and occasionally swallowing your pride. And, trust was simply burned to charcoal by one Donald Trump who was convinced the smoke meant dinner was ready.
Have you tried democracy? I've asked this for about 5,000 hours. Before I saw the documentary hot coffee I didn't know that I had been brainwashed not to sue. The incompetence of government customer service convinced me they were too dumb and lazy to fix anything. I was afraid of the government and I knew I'd have to face my fear as toastmasters taught me. Due to a confluence of coincidences I found myself at the televised county board meeting lectern collecting plaintiffs for massive wrongful death class action suit against the government. After my speech The stranger stop me in the hallway and gave me her business card. She was the top county Health official and she wanted to give me what I asked for. Due to the technical nature of my evidence a very thin slice of professionals even understood what I was talking about. I spent those 5,000 hours trying to convince them to duplicate my win. They were either brainwashed as the documentary hot coffee documents or they were brainwashed that anxiety depression anger habit providers could not be questioned.
Eye health recommends refocusing our eyes while reading for 20 seconds every 20 minutes:"The 20-20-20 rule is a simple and effective habit: every 20 minutes, look at something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. "
IMHO, "look at something" should be an eye chart which is a scientific metric for refocusing. Why are there no eye charts in libraries? Because when Americans come up with a question about something they never Google:"science of" that something. THE REASON YOUR LIBRARY DOES NOT HAVE A EYE CHART IS BECAUSE NO ONE HAS SUED THEM TO PUT ONE UP. Thus the lack of eye charts in libraries is an indication of fear of government combined with anti-science?
Democracy requires suing and science and both require evidence and asking for evidence causes rage in Americans. To start a fight with an American using only seven letters, just wait till the American makes a most dubious claim and and ask them:"based on?"
I'm coming to consider Trump as America's id: he's part of what we've been all along. Not infrequently over the decades, the U.S. has "lumbered in like the loudest man at a failing casino, mistaking every diplomatic relationship for a financial racket and every ally for a waiter who’d forgotten his extra ketchup." For starters, think Vietnam, the entire Reagan administration, and the invasion of Iraq. (The recent attack on Iran is like a parody of them all.) The casino might serve as a metaphor for our economic system, more or less capitalism, which needs to be continually restrained by our political system, more or less democracy, lest it undermine the latter and eventually bring it crashing down.
In the past, our better nature, or instincts, or maybe angels have managed to reassert themselves and at least start to repair the damage before the casino loudmouth lumbers back in -- much too soon this time, and with malice aforethought. The crucial lesson is that neither Trump nor Project 2025 came out of nowhere. Big Money has been trying to sandbag "we the people" since at least the late 19th century. They helped crash the world economy in the aftermath of 1929, and then did their damndest to undermine the New Deal and its successors.
Fortunately Trump and his current crew are nowhere near as smart as, e.g., Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller and the plutocrats of yesteryear -- or as philanthropic either. So "we the people" have yet another chance to wise the hell up and get capital back under democratic control.
If anyone who remembers the U.S. involvement in Latin America, they know that America also showed up with funding and weapons to disrupt any regime change they consumed "communist".
And before that came Vietnam and Indochina, and before that came Iran in 1953 . . . Before the Russian Revolution, "communism" wasn't the big bogeyman: the scary menaces in those decades included socialism, labor unions, and freed Black people.
I’m not going to believe that America cannot emerge from this nightmare stronger than ever, but it will take many years to convince the rest the world that Trump was an aberration, if indeed that is the case.
But is Trump an aberration? Or does he merely reflect the ethos of a dying republic? Why have so many Americans continued their support for this Administration?
It will start quickly if voters turn out every Republican. That will tell the world we are serious about America, our Allies, and keeping our honorable commitments to the world.
I'm 70 years old; I do not believe we'll recover (and maybe not even emerge) in my lifetime. This is due in the largest part to the Republican Party (in which I used to be enrolled) and secondarily to the largest media companies. The damage to our credibility is too great and Canada's example is just the start...
The press has such a huge responsibility for where we are (ok, the Supreme Court too with Citizens United and their vile undermining of the Voter Rights Act and more). What was a responsibility to share the truth has also emerged as profiteering and pandering. Everyday they keep sharing the lunacy of the emperor who wears no clothes... when we know the best way to irritate and make him irrelevant is to stop the minute by minute coverage. (If a Lake is renamed and no one covered it, did its name change?)
At 70, you possibly voted for Reagan (2x), Bush I and Bush II (2x), plus Trump (2x). If you read history of those presidents you will find the present was ordained by the continued wearing away of democracy, the continued bellowing of racism and the undeserving poor, and the promotion of the wealthy 1% over the rest of Americans.
Of course we can but ONLY if we have both Civilian & Military Tribunals where we prosecute every member of the Trump Regime as they have ALL committed both Crimes Against Humanity & Crimes Against Children
It can be similar to what South Africa did after apartheid finally ended:
We must rejoin the ICC & let them also indict & try them for these crimes
If Democrats retake Congress nothing less than aggressive attempts to impeach & try Trump & all who obeyed him will restore America's reputation & honor
I look to Germany as an example. It took about 30 years after World War II for its image to be rehabilitated. It may not take us quite that long, but as long as there is the threat of a MAGA Republican being elected President, the world will not be able to trust that America is a reliable ally. Regaining trust will require a repudiation by the Republican Party of MAGA and a few elections to prove it has been completely exterminated.
Not in our lifetime, for many of us. If we make better choices in November, and in 2028 and beyond, then yes. Both achieving and sustaining will be challenges.
Trust is gained by the spoonful and lost by the bucket. Lots of buckets to refill.
We're doomed to live in this mess until we make the social cost of being a jackass unaffordable. We will remain a laughing stock until we cut out the cancer of ignorance that's eating us from the inside. We are so hellbent on "freedom" that a large portion of us believe we are entitled to our own facts. Our confused electorate will keep voting, proudly ignorant, and we'll remain at absurd levels of dysfunction until we address it. The legal system will not bail us out. We decided long ago that democracy and near-absolute freedom of speech are more important than a harmonious society.
The only obvious corrective measure left is a brutal court of public opinion. We need to ostracize, shun, mock, and ridicule those of us who revel in ignorance. No more being polite, no more sharing a Thanksgiving table with your racist uncle, no more reserving a seat at the table of polite society for the willfully uninformed. We've been given a very good filter for who these people are... they wear red hats and voted for a repugnant con man thrice. That is the silver lining to this hellscape. We know exactly who these people are, they have taken off their masks. So, be rude, be loud about it, and make it clear that willful ignorance is the policy of toddlers.
It’s going to take a lot - including some constitutional amendments - to even claim we have done what we can to prevent another administration like this one. Maybe 10-15 years from now. And by then our economy will be far behind others.
Unless 1/3rd of the Nation (otherwise known as MAGA) who brought this white supremacy nightmare to power (though it's been present since the Mayflower), suddenly grow a conscious (or self deport themselves); the rest of the world will look upon us as they now do: the greatest threat to the planet. Then there is no honor among thieves... (the sticky fingered clowns) who run the country. Never mind that they also double as white supremacist sociopaths.
Agreed. Trump is the symptom, these people are the root of the problem. We need to shun these clowns publicly and let them know their 15 minutes is up. Progressives have been too polite and look where it's gotten us. We need to be loud about our intolerance of our most rotten demographic.
Great article Mr. Beschloss..I do believe we can 'rebuild' our image in the world and regain trust, but we will need to do so by holding those accountable who have committed the crimes and violated so many of the values we hold dear. It will take years and some immense humbling. Thank you.
(Hit post to quickly, sorry about that) The new president will have to appoint hundreds of panels to address all of the devastation the rogue regime has created and each panel will have to focus on one topic and fix it.
I believe that it will take at least a generation to repair the damage done by this immoral
Regime.
When he dies, (Please God, SOON) the tsunami of revelations about him will drown any MAGAt still clinging to some delusion. I believe 10 years on, it will be hard to find anyone who says they supported this.
Every single day is damaging to the USA. If he tries to cancel the midterms, there will be blood.
The world’s faith in the US was lost because we elected Trump twice. One might forgive us for electing him once, but not twice. One term should have been a sufficient lesson. Something is wrong with us.
Prudent countries will look elsewhere for reliable economic partnerships. China stopped buying agricultural product’s from us. Canada is looking to the European Union as a substitute market.
Even if we right the ship in the next four years, our recent history suggests that countries will be wary of relying on us for a very long time.
America really had no honor to begin with. This country has averaged a war every two years of its existence, and that has not stopped. During World War II and immediately after, it looked like some rehabilitation might have been occurring, but that stopped pretty promptly with the Korean War. He has never recovered since then and is not likely to. The fact that American citizens were willing and are willing to tolerate an evil criminal like Trump is not particularly reassuring to other countries. We are not going to trust the U.S. for many, many years, if ever.
For decades the US enjoyed an inflated level of respect and honor based more on our financial status and military muscle than on our contributions to the wellbeing of the earth or its creatures. We build on land stolen from Indigenous Peoples, whom we still force into unremitting poverty. And we have never rewarded or even acknowledged that the wealth and much of the (once) cultural richness of this country came from the labor of enslaved Black people and non- European peoples barred from many financially rewarding paths.
As a person who tries, however imperfectly, to follow the Way of Jesus ( a path similar to that of other major wisdom traditions) I am heart-sick at the MAGA and WCN blather about a “Christian” nation. Many of their goals and practices are antithetical to the teaching of Jesus. ( See Matthew:8 for one stunning example.)
There’s an old saying that respect is owed but trust must earned. The US absolutely could earn trust and honor in the world someday but I see little evidence the intention to do so. First, our people must put aside material idolatry, celebrity worship, trivial pastimes, and get their heads up from devices, talk to each other, educate themselves and BE honorable. As an octogenarian, I intend to spend my remaining time supporting and encouraging younger people who could build such a country.
I’m presently reading The Art Spy (Michelle Young) about Nazi efforts to steal the cultural patrimony in French museums and private property and the countermeasures to protect the treasures.
There is nothing separating what the Nazis did and what Toddler is doing. The American people must throw off the heinous mantle in a sufficiently resounding way to even begin a process toward recovering this nation’s standing.
For nearly eighty years, America showed up at the world’s table wearing a pressed suit, carrying a checkbook, a map, and most importantly, a reputation. It may have been unreliable at times, sanctimonious often, but broadly committed to the idea that alliances, institutions, and promises mattered. Then Donald Trump lumbered in like the loudest man at a failing casino, mistaking every diplomatic relationship for a financial racket and every ally for a waiter who’d forgotten his extra ketchup. Through the peculiar alchemy of grievance, vanity, and breathtaking incuriosity, he turned trust into a punch line, treaties into props, and American leadership into a late-night cable rant with nuclear codes. The damage is not simply that other countries now doubt Washington DC, it’s that they have learned, rationally, to plan around it. Trust, after all, is slow-cooked and simmered. It takes years of shared sacrifice, compromise, and occasionally swallowing your pride. And, trust was simply burned to charcoal by one Donald Trump who was convinced the smoke meant dinner was ready.
Wow! what a statement and so true. i hope his allies
Have you tried democracy? I've asked this for about 5,000 hours. Before I saw the documentary hot coffee I didn't know that I had been brainwashed not to sue. The incompetence of government customer service convinced me they were too dumb and lazy to fix anything. I was afraid of the government and I knew I'd have to face my fear as toastmasters taught me. Due to a confluence of coincidences I found myself at the televised county board meeting lectern collecting plaintiffs for massive wrongful death class action suit against the government. After my speech The stranger stop me in the hallway and gave me her business card. She was the top county Health official and she wanted to give me what I asked for. Due to the technical nature of my evidence a very thin slice of professionals even understood what I was talking about. I spent those 5,000 hours trying to convince them to duplicate my win. They were either brainwashed as the documentary hot coffee documents or they were brainwashed that anxiety depression anger habit providers could not be questioned.
Eye health recommends refocusing our eyes while reading for 20 seconds every 20 minutes:"The 20-20-20 rule is a simple and effective habit: every 20 minutes, look at something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. "
IMHO, "look at something" should be an eye chart which is a scientific metric for refocusing. Why are there no eye charts in libraries? Because when Americans come up with a question about something they never Google:"science of" that something. THE REASON YOUR LIBRARY DOES NOT HAVE A EYE CHART IS BECAUSE NO ONE HAS SUED THEM TO PUT ONE UP. Thus the lack of eye charts in libraries is an indication of fear of government combined with anti-science?
Democracy requires suing and science and both require evidence and asking for evidence causes rage in Americans. To start a fight with an American using only seven letters, just wait till the American makes a most dubious claim and and ask them:"based on?"
I'm coming to consider Trump as America's id: he's part of what we've been all along. Not infrequently over the decades, the U.S. has "lumbered in like the loudest man at a failing casino, mistaking every diplomatic relationship for a financial racket and every ally for a waiter who’d forgotten his extra ketchup." For starters, think Vietnam, the entire Reagan administration, and the invasion of Iraq. (The recent attack on Iran is like a parody of them all.) The casino might serve as a metaphor for our economic system, more or less capitalism, which needs to be continually restrained by our political system, more or less democracy, lest it undermine the latter and eventually bring it crashing down.
In the past, our better nature, or instincts, or maybe angels have managed to reassert themselves and at least start to repair the damage before the casino loudmouth lumbers back in -- much too soon this time, and with malice aforethought. The crucial lesson is that neither Trump nor Project 2025 came out of nowhere. Big Money has been trying to sandbag "we the people" since at least the late 19th century. They helped crash the world economy in the aftermath of 1929, and then did their damndest to undermine the New Deal and its successors.
Fortunately Trump and his current crew are nowhere near as smart as, e.g., Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller and the plutocrats of yesteryear -- or as philanthropic either. So "we the people" have yet another chance to wise the hell up and get capital back under democratic control.
If anyone who remembers the U.S. involvement in Latin America, they know that America also showed up with funding and weapons to disrupt any regime change they consumed "communist".
And before that came Vietnam and Indochina, and before that came Iran in 1953 . . . Before the Russian Revolution, "communism" wasn't the big bogeyman: the scary menaces in those decades included socialism, labor unions, and freed Black people.
I’m not going to believe that America cannot emerge from this nightmare stronger than ever, but it will take many years to convince the rest the world that Trump was an aberration, if indeed that is the case.
But is Trump an aberration? Or does he merely reflect the ethos of a dying republic? Why have so many Americans continued their support for this Administration?
It will start quickly if voters turn out every Republican. That will tell the world we are serious about America, our Allies, and keeping our honorable commitments to the world.
I'm 70 years old; I do not believe we'll recover (and maybe not even emerge) in my lifetime. This is due in the largest part to the Republican Party (in which I used to be enrolled) and secondarily to the largest media companies. The damage to our credibility is too great and Canada's example is just the start...
The press has such a huge responsibility for where we are (ok, the Supreme Court too with Citizens United and their vile undermining of the Voter Rights Act and more). What was a responsibility to share the truth has also emerged as profiteering and pandering. Everyday they keep sharing the lunacy of the emperor who wears no clothes... when we know the best way to irritate and make him irrelevant is to stop the minute by minute coverage. (If a Lake is renamed and no one covered it, did its name change?)
At 70, you possibly voted for Reagan (2x), Bush I and Bush II (2x), plus Trump (2x). If you read history of those presidents you will find the present was ordained by the continued wearing away of democracy, the continued bellowing of racism and the undeserving poor, and the promotion of the wealthy 1% over the rest of Americans.
Of course we can but ONLY if we have both Civilian & Military Tribunals where we prosecute every member of the Trump Regime as they have ALL committed both Crimes Against Humanity & Crimes Against Children
It can be similar to what South Africa did after apartheid finally ended:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(South_Africa)
We must rejoin the ICC & let them also indict & try them for these crimes
If Democrats retake Congress nothing less than aggressive attempts to impeach & try Trump & all who obeyed him will restore America's reputation & honor
Hear hear!
I look to Germany as an example. It took about 30 years after World War II for its image to be rehabilitated. It may not take us quite that long, but as long as there is the threat of a MAGA Republican being elected President, the world will not be able to trust that America is a reliable ally. Regaining trust will require a repudiation by the Republican Party of MAGA and a few elections to prove it has been completely exterminated.
Not in our lifetime, for many of us. If we make better choices in November, and in 2028 and beyond, then yes. Both achieving and sustaining will be challenges.
Trust is gained by the spoonful and lost by the bucket. Lots of buckets to refill.
We're doomed to live in this mess until we make the social cost of being a jackass unaffordable. We will remain a laughing stock until we cut out the cancer of ignorance that's eating us from the inside. We are so hellbent on "freedom" that a large portion of us believe we are entitled to our own facts. Our confused electorate will keep voting, proudly ignorant, and we'll remain at absurd levels of dysfunction until we address it. The legal system will not bail us out. We decided long ago that democracy and near-absolute freedom of speech are more important than a harmonious society.
The only obvious corrective measure left is a brutal court of public opinion. We need to ostracize, shun, mock, and ridicule those of us who revel in ignorance. No more being polite, no more sharing a Thanksgiving table with your racist uncle, no more reserving a seat at the table of polite society for the willfully uninformed. We've been given a very good filter for who these people are... they wear red hats and voted for a repugnant con man thrice. That is the silver lining to this hellscape. We know exactly who these people are, they have taken off their masks. So, be rude, be loud about it, and make it clear that willful ignorance is the policy of toddlers.
It’s going to take a lot - including some constitutional amendments - to even claim we have done what we can to prevent another administration like this one. Maybe 10-15 years from now. And by then our economy will be far behind others.
Unless 1/3rd of the Nation (otherwise known as MAGA) who brought this white supremacy nightmare to power (though it's been present since the Mayflower), suddenly grow a conscious (or self deport themselves); the rest of the world will look upon us as they now do: the greatest threat to the planet. Then there is no honor among thieves... (the sticky fingered clowns) who run the country. Never mind that they also double as white supremacist sociopaths.
Agreed. Trump is the symptom, these people are the root of the problem. We need to shun these clowns publicly and let them know their 15 minutes is up. Progressives have been too polite and look where it's gotten us. We need to be loud about our intolerance of our most rotten demographic.
Great article Mr. Beschloss..I do believe we can 'rebuild' our image in the world and regain trust, but we will need to do so by holding those accountable who have committed the crimes and violated so many of the values we hold dear. It will take years and some immense humbling. Thank you.
(Hit post to quickly, sorry about that) The new president will have to appoint hundreds of panels to address all of the devastation the rogue regime has created and each panel will have to focus on one topic and fix it.
I believe that it will take at least a generation to repair the damage done by this immoral
Regime.
When he dies, (Please God, SOON) the tsunami of revelations about him will drown any MAGAt still clinging to some delusion. I believe 10 years on, it will be hard to find anyone who says they supported this.
Every single day is damaging to the USA. If he tries to cancel the midterms, there will be blood.
The world’s faith in the US was lost because we elected Trump twice. One might forgive us for electing him once, but not twice. One term should have been a sufficient lesson. Something is wrong with us.
Prudent countries will look elsewhere for reliable economic partnerships. China stopped buying agricultural product’s from us. Canada is looking to the European Union as a substitute market.
Even if we right the ship in the next four years, our recent history suggests that countries will be wary of relying on us for a very long time.
America really had no honor to begin with. This country has averaged a war every two years of its existence, and that has not stopped. During World War II and immediately after, it looked like some rehabilitation might have been occurring, but that stopped pretty promptly with the Korean War. He has never recovered since then and is not likely to. The fact that American citizens were willing and are willing to tolerate an evil criminal like Trump is not particularly reassuring to other countries. We are not going to trust the U.S. for many, many years, if ever.
For decades the US enjoyed an inflated level of respect and honor based more on our financial status and military muscle than on our contributions to the wellbeing of the earth or its creatures. We build on land stolen from Indigenous Peoples, whom we still force into unremitting poverty. And we have never rewarded or even acknowledged that the wealth and much of the (once) cultural richness of this country came from the labor of enslaved Black people and non- European peoples barred from many financially rewarding paths.
As a person who tries, however imperfectly, to follow the Way of Jesus ( a path similar to that of other major wisdom traditions) I am heart-sick at the MAGA and WCN blather about a “Christian” nation. Many of their goals and practices are antithetical to the teaching of Jesus. ( See Matthew:8 for one stunning example.)
There’s an old saying that respect is owed but trust must earned. The US absolutely could earn trust and honor in the world someday but I see little evidence the intention to do so. First, our people must put aside material idolatry, celebrity worship, trivial pastimes, and get their heads up from devices, talk to each other, educate themselves and BE honorable. As an octogenarian, I intend to spend my remaining time supporting and encouraging younger people who could build such a country.
I’m presently reading The Art Spy (Michelle Young) about Nazi efforts to steal the cultural patrimony in French museums and private property and the countermeasures to protect the treasures.
There is nothing separating what the Nazis did and what Toddler is doing. The American people must throw off the heinous mantle in a sufficiently resounding way to even begin a process toward recovering this nation’s standing.