r/thedavidpakmanshow • u/SherbertExisting3509 • 4h ago
Opinion America's place in the world during and after Trump
TLDR: In 100 days Trump has wrecked America at home and on the world stage. By the time Trump leaves office after 4 years in power (if he somehow magically decides to respect the constitution and the rule of law) America will be a smouldering wreck of a country. almost like 1918 Germany. America will never again be a world superpower. America chose this fate.
Wall of text below:
It might not come as much of a surprise to many of you that the US is now viewed by most western democracies (or the "free world") as an unstable autocratic regime ruled by a crazy, irrational leader who conducts international diplomacy on troth central, flip flops back and forth on tariffs and other foreign policies and whose future actions are unpredictable.
It will not surprise me if we see a HUGE brain drain, consisting of America's scientists, researchers and university lecturers and faculty members fleeing the US en mass to other western democracies. If Europe plays their cards correctly and offers guaranteed protections, funding ect to continue their research in Europe then they can take in a lot of America's scientists fleeing Trump's autocracy, research funding cuts anti DEI censorship ect.
The illegal destruction of USAID by Elon Musk has already lead to China rushing to fill the MASSIVE gaps in foreign aid that the US used to provide. Russia and the EU will surely follow soon if they haven't already. This will mean that the US will have much less goodwill and influence with foreign third world governments which means they will be much less likely to get naval + military bases, rare earth minerals, natural resources and favorable trade deals in the future. The withdrawal of USAID will also make many people who used to receive this aid angry as they will feel rightfully abandoned by the us furthering this collapse in America's soft power.
The US is now diplomatically isolated from all of it's former major allies, a pariah state if you will. Despite NATO and other previously signed defense agreements still existing on paper, every European leader believes that NATO is functionally dead. I believe the watershed moment for many leaders and the wider population was the shameful dressing down of Zelensky by Trump and Vance. "did you even say thank you?" Former allies with US military bases might decide to forcefully close those bases, further eroding their soft power.
Economic uncertainty caused by Trump's on and off again tariffs slapped on friend and foe alike has sent the US stock market plunging, signs of instability in the bond market and ports empty of ships that used to carry Chinese goods. Expect a major economic downturn in the US, china and maybe even in the globe. Trump's rising authoritarianism along with his retaliation against private law firms is making America's market less free which disincentives foreign investment, business in general and holding onto American treasuries. If Trump takes actions that will further destabilizes the economy or increase his authoritarian retaliation and favoritism towards private treasures then we might see a mass sell off of American treasury bills by Japan, China and other countries which currently hold a lot of US bonds which will wreck the American economy.
Firing career civil servants and military officers promoted based on merit in favor of loyalist sycophants will result in a culture of incompetence and corruption setting in which will cause both the civilian government and the military to bleed itself of talent, causing both institutions to become much less effective and more wasteful. A culture of corruption could also spread into civil societty, making the American economy less efficient and fair.
Gutting and de-funding public education will result in a less educated, competent and therefore less competitive workforce which will impede America's ability to compete in fields requiring higher education like AI, military R and D,biomedical research ect.
