America Is Dead; Long Live America

The rug is being pulled.

Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash

It’s been a long six years, but finally, the Nazis are no more, and the world war is over. Europe lies in tatters, its once great empires exhausted and decimated. Africa and the Middle East, pillaged of their resources to fuel these war machines, are cracking under exploitation. Asia lies broken, with great empires fallen, new borders drawn, and fledgling nations struggling to set root. The only nation to come out of this relatively unscathed is the US. Its industrial powerhouse, untouched by bombs and bolstered by the war effort, is now the strongest on the planet. Its military is now one of the largest and best-equipped ever. With the world being weak and available, this was America’s chance to ascend from a rag-tag, isolated colony to the defacto global power, and they seized the opportunity with both hands. The dollar was made the global currency through brute force, enabling them to bend and twist any nation to their whim. By further bolstering their military, they came to dominate NATO, placing them as the defacto world police, able to bully and coerce any country on Earth. This thinly veiled global empire is the foundation of modern America. For better or worse, it has enabled its meteoric prosperity over the past 80 years. And, in just a few months, Trump has torn it all down, with America’s empire now being set to fall.

The manner in which Trump has achieved this feat is an almost beautiful display of stupidity and arrogance. It is the political equivalent of Trump going, “Hold my beer”, attempting a backflip, and proceeding to break his neck and soil himself upon landing. Everyone who is even remotely aware of the real world knew Trump’s tariff plans were moronic — to the point where many, including myself, thought it was just hollow rhetoric. Boy, were we wrong!

It isn’t just the fact that the actual tariffs are so self-harming. They aren’t a tax on countries; they are a tax on US consumers. Blanket tariffing close military and economic allies can only hurt these vital ties. And tariffing China up the wazoo will never work, as the US relies so heavily on Chinese imports, while the US only makes up a fraction of Chinese exports, meaning China has a massive advantage in a trade war. These factors alone make the plan stupid. The lack of consistency, the sudden decisions, and the flip-flopping make it impossible for companies to plan, and so these tariffs crashed the US economy. But it’s also the lack of support to bolster domestic production or scale local production with tariffs. As such, the isolationist goals of these tariffs can never happen!

It’s obvious that Trump only did this to bend the world to his whim. “Come and kiss my boots, and maybe I will lift the tariffs.” But this isn’t a playground; adults know it’s better to walk away, as to kowtow to a bully is to be held under their thumb forever. And, because the world is painfully aware that Trump might be here to stay, that is just what they are doing.

The EU and China are forging closer ties in response, with leaders on both sides encouraging cooperation. The EU is looking to massively relax Chinese EV tariffs, and China is actively asking what it can do to mend economic ties. Greenland, under threat of greater tariffs if Denmark doesn’t hand over the territory to the US, is expressing interest in setting up a free trade agreement with China. China, Japan, and South Korea are also reportedly forging closer ties in a joint response to the tariffs. In other words, long-time enemies are now starting to collaborate and isolate themselves from the US.

The world is also looking to dethrone the dollar. The euro is the second largest currency in the world. In the wake of Trump’s economic debacles and incoherent policies, the world is now eyeing the euro up as a replacement for the dollar as the global reserve currency. After all, it is almost as large as the dollar and now seems significantly more stable. The European Central Bank has hinted that they are working to make this happen, and there are plenty of rumours spiralling that multiple countries inside and outside the EU want this to happen. If this does occur, it will take time, but it will be devastating to the US, as the EU will replace them as the world’s economic power.

There are only two reasons any nation has ever wanted to capitulate and cosy up to the US. Firstly, it grants them a favourable global economic position, as the US controls the global currency. And secondly, it grants them significant military protection. Given these two factors, most nations are happy to be moderately exploited or manipulated by the US. My own country, Britain, has committed literal war crimes for the US and brutally privatised half our government to US companies, all to ensure we have a positive global economic standing and sit under the US military umbrella. The same is true for most EU countries, Canada, Australia, and even vast swathes of the global south. Trump has already decimated the US’s ability to provide economic stability to these countries. Surely he won’t be a complete dingus and remove the last reason they even remotely value ties to the US: military protection?

Yeah, he destroyed that too.

Trump has now stopped all military aid to Ukraine. Not only that, but a leaked memo revealed that Trump will cut all US funding for NATO. Just as a reminder: Putin openly wants to reunite Russia’s old imperial territories, meaning he doesn’t just want Ukraine; he wants Poland, Finland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and others. The US abandoning Ukraine and NATO is such a stab in the back — particularly as the historic US’s ramping up of military power has meant that for decades, it made little sense for the EU to seriously grow its militaries, as they simply wouldn’t see a return on their investment, given that the US was soaking up all the kickback of Western military power. As such, the EU is now incredibly vulnerable.

So, what do they do? Well, Europe knows a thing or two about dealing with authoritarian bullies.

The Ukraine Contact Group has already raised over €21 billion in new military aid for Kyiv, independent of the US government. The EU is in the process of raising a further €40 billion for Kyiv. This should be more than enough to replace the US’s shortfall. Beyond that, the EU has pledged to spend €800 billion to rearm themselves totally independently of the US, and the EU is reportedly preparing to transition the control of NATO away from the US in the next few years. In other words, the EU and the whole of NATO are on course to shed all reliance on US military protection. This means that many countries, such as Ukraine or others in the global south, will stop giving influence and wealth to the US in return for military support and start looking to the EU instead.

I cannot stress how much this military shift would impact global politics. Much of the US’s global economic success is through military pressure. That is one of the reasons why the US funds Israel so heavily, because it keeps the Middle East and its fossil fuel reserves open for US exploitation. But with France moving to recognise Palestine as a state and once the EU has a far less fossil fuel-based economy, the entire dynamic of the Middle East alone will be inexorably changed if the EU dethrones the US as the global military leader.

In truth, the foundations of modern America weren’t its economic influence or military power but rather the faith of the globe. This trust is what empowered and enriched America for decades. But, in just a few months, Trump has taken these pillars of US affluence — the very things which have shovelled wealth and power to America at unprecedented levels — and taken a giant, steamy, Big Mac-derived turd all over them. And the world are turning heel and running away as fast as possible before they get dragged into this self-indulgent shit show.

This is mostly great news for those on my side of the fence. We should get far more sovereign freedom, and our economy has a serious chance of flourishing. But for those inside America, this is a death sentence. If you thought the economy and wealth inequality were bad before, just wait until you see how bad it will get when the very things that made America so prosperous are taken away. The vibrant, thriving America you once knew is dead, killed by a cretinous cancer from within. That isn’t to say that something better can’t bloom from the ashes, but for that to happen, you need to recognise reality so that you can move forward in the right direction. America is dead; long live America.

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Sources: The Guardian, MSN, Reuters, Reuters, Euractiv, Will Lockett, Reuters, Reuters, Fortune, EU Observer, The Guardian