getting rid of usaid gets rid of lot of us regime bribery
Is Donald Trump actually trying to unwind and reorient the American empire?
Hegemony was going to end sooner or later, and now the U.S. is basically choosing to end it on its own terms. It is the post-American world order – brought to you by America itself. Even the tariffs on allies, viewed under this angle, make sense, as it redefines the concept of ‘allies’: they don’t want—or maybe rather can’t afford—vassals anymore, but rather relationships that evolve based on current interests. You can either view it as decline – because it does unquestionably look like the end of the American empire – or as avoiding further decline: controlled withdrawal from imperial commitments in order to focus resources on core national interests rather than being forced into an even messier retreat at a later stage. In any case it is the end of an era. [Emphasis added.]
Seen in a context of strategic retreat, Trump’s belligerence toward Greenland and Canada, for example, appears more like an empire stepping back from the world stage and building trenches closer to home.
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