Weekly Wisdom | Trump's 1st Year
This past Tuesday marked one year since President Trump was inaugurated. And what a year it has been! With a cabinet full of all-stars and America First populists, Trump 2.0 has executed his nationalist agenda to near perfection thus far. Beyond his many policy victories, President Trump is remaking both the United States and the international landscape as the globalists’ generational beliefs are challenged.
Let’s go further:
The international rules-based order, or New World Order, was crafted by the elites of Europe and the United States post-WWII. The United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, the WHO, NATO, and other UN-aligned institutions were created for increased economic and political integration among the world’s countries.
While these institutions helped the U.S. wield unprecedented hard and soft power for decades, the last 30 years have shown that this globalist system has started to harm American interests. The catastrophic rise of China, an emboldened Russia, excessive American deindustrialization, and the loss of national sovereignty are among the negative consequences of the status quo.
Domestically, President Trump’s most significant task to thwart the loss of American sovereignty was to close the border with Mexico and start interior deportations of illegal immigrants. There are tens of millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. from around the world, and some of them commit crimes and/or use welfare intended for citizens. The globalist elite around the world see no issue with flooding their countries with hordes of illegal immigrants. Naturally, an “invasion” of this magnitude undermines elections, social cohesion, and brings economic decay. The globalists want to destroy the national sovereignty of every country; President Trump does not.
The “opening” of China to the U.S. in 1972 from the Nixon Administration was a massive mistake. Allowing China into the WTO in 2001 was an even bigger mistake. Why? Significant American and European deindustrialization followed, while China developed rapidly. China's economic power enabled it to develop into a great military power. President Trump sees re-industrialization and AI dominance as critical tools to keep the U.S. as the dominant economic and military superpower. The globalists, in contrast, don’t see the rise of China as problematic. In fact, many admire the CCP's authoritarian nature.
The rest of the West—Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and the EU—has lately been acting more like the CCP and less like the United States. Most politicians and their constituents now hold views that closely mirror those of the increasingly radical Democratic Party. Looking at globalist institutions such as NATO and the UN, it is evident that they no longer serve the vital interests of the United States. By contrast, President Trump is realigning American foreign policy toward hemispheric dominance and reasserting the Monroe Doctrine. As a result, the priorities of globalists—such as the Russia‑Ukraine war—do not figure prominently in his strategic calculus.
As Prime Minister Carney of Canada recently said, President Trump is dismantling the New World Order. Under President Trump’s leadership, China is on notice, NATO is on the rocks, and American exceptionalism is making a comeback in the minds of patriotic Americans. President Trump’s first year was a direct and loud repudiation of the internationalist agenda that’s been shaping the world for the last 80 years. And we should all be grateful for that!
