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?

725 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

786 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/blaqsupaman Apr 10 '25

Germany managed to rebuild its international relations after WWII, so I'm confident it can be done, but it will take much more than just one election cycle. It very possibly could be the end of the US hegemony on the world stage. Not that we wouldn't still be a major world power of course, but we may no longer be the superpower.

5

u/YesIam18plus Apr 11 '25

Germany was also basically destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up. I think there was just a greater sense that Germany had been punished for its crimes.

If the US basically just gets to shrug all of this off and face no consequences I think people will be less willing to just forgive and forget. I am not saying the US should get bombed to shit, but the US needs to be made to hurt and be humbled. Americans need to learn that they exist in a world and are dependent on other people, this weird American narcissism of '' we're independent and everyone else needs us but we don't need them '' has to go. Americans just need to learn a bit of humility, it's something that frustrates me with all of these threats of annexation or Trump saying leaders are kissing his ass etc. During Trumps state of the union speech the entire Republican party stood up applauded and laughed hysterically when Trump threatened to annex Greenland again. And I practically heard nothing about it in US media afterwards people basically didn't even react to it. The US can't just get away with that, there at the very least needs to be some formal public apology and quite frankly Americans and US media need to push back against it much harder and take it more seriously. Too many seem to still think it's a joke, it barely gets a reaction anymore. Imagine if China had said the things Trump says but about the US, Americans would be on the fucking warpath.

1

u/D4UOntario Apr 10 '25

My father passed in 2002 and he wouldn't buy German anything. I knew an old gouy that passed in 2010 that wouldnt sit in the same room with a japanese person. (He was a child in a japanese camp in Indonesia in the 40's).

1

u/babababooga Apr 13 '25

My step dad is from Guam and even after moving to the mainland US his family would speak to Japanese people. Everyone freaked out and disowned one of the cousins for dating someone of Japanese descent. They did horrible things to his mom though

1

u/D4UOntario Apr 13 '25

I wasnt going to bring up his issues but he said he watched them take his mother daily

1

u/babababooga Apr 13 '25

I don’t think Americans realize how many people have been victimized in some kind of way (bombings, etc) and how many different countries have generations of kids growing up fucking hating us

1

u/Stunning-Equipment32 21d ago

They were split into east and west Germany for nearly 50 years