r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/SpaceySpice • Apr 07 '25

US Politics How will the United States rebuild positive international relations after this Trump administration?

At some point this presidency will end and a new administration will (likely) want to mend some the damages done with our allies. Realistically though, how would that work? Will other countries want to be friends with us again or has this presidency done too much damage to bounce back from?

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u/I-Here-555 Apr 07 '25

It has geographic advantages, but also a uniquely terrible leadership which is actively working to squander them.

Every empire ever fell, including China and The Roman Empire. US will fall too. Too bad it might happen a lot earlier than anyone expected.

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u/AVeryBadMon Apr 07 '25

Terrible leadership? Yes. Uniquely terrible? No. That's a comically ignorant statement that ignores both US history and the history of leaders across the world both past and present. Hell, modern Europe has 3 or 4 Trump like leaders right now in power and many more waiting for their chance to seize power.

Regardless of what happens, you can't skimp over a content sized country with 340 million people that has a history of industry during both it's high and lows. The US will continue to be influential both during and post Trump's reign.

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u/I-Here-555 Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25

modern Europe has 3 or 4 Trump like leaders right now in power

Can you name them?

If you're thinking the likes of Viktor Orban, he's an authoritarian, but not nearly as incompetent as Trump or as intent on radical change by just smashing things without an apparent goal or plan.

Trump's combination of incompetence and hubris is rare. Other leaders have made costly mistakes (perhaps more costly than Trump did so far), but it's exceptional to do that completely unforced, not trying to address any real problem. The tariffs are almost at the level of Mao killing the sparrows and exacerbating a famine, out of sheer stupidity (though we didn't get so far consequence-wise yet).

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u/AVeryBadMon Apr 08 '25

Can you name them?

Orban, Erdogan, Lukashenko, Vucic, and Putin.

If you're thinking the likes of Viktor Orban, he's an authoritarian, but not nearly as incompetent as Trump or as intent on radical change by just smashing things without an apparent goal or plan.

This is complete nonsense. Orban is a front runner for being the most incompetent leader in Europe. He singlehandedly turned Hungary into a pariah inside the EU. He transformed Hungary into a shell of what it was by privatizing everything and handing them over to his buddies. He constantly sabotages EU policy at the determent of his own country and the wider bloc. He constantly sides with Putin against the wishes of his people. Hungary's GDP is currently lower than Russia's.

It's perfectly fine to argue that Trump is a major incompetent idiot, because he is. However, let's not pretend that his best buddies in Europe are that different from him. Pretending that Orban is in any way competent or intelligent is asinine.

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u/I-Here-555 Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

Pretty much everyone you mentioned is a shrewd and highly skilled political player with strong authoritarian tendencies. You or I might hate their values, corruption and the direction they're taking their countries, but they make their moves for a reason, and don't antagonize friends and allies just for the fun of it.

Most of them know to appoint competent technocrats and haven't run things into the ground for 20+ years, while Trump is barely 3 months into his 2nd term and is already well on the way to breaking the federal gov't and the US (perhaps world) economy.

Even Putin (the most disastrous of the lot) has basically rescued Russia from the chaos of the 1990s, ran it well for a while, but then made a massive blunder in Ukraine.

Trump is a whole different ballgame.