There was a time, not so way back, when America was the best nation on the planet.
Not simply because it stated so on the telly, not as a result of it may nuke you from house, or as a result of each highschool movie ended with a sluggish clap and a nationwide anthem. No — as a result of it led. With concepts, with invention, with democratic beliefs (nevertheless hypocritically utilized), with a swagger that got here from actual cultural capital, actual world respect. America didn’t simply present as much as the social gathering — it constructed the rattling home.
However not anymore
And I don’t say this with glee. I’m not some sanctimonious Brit revelling in Uncle Sam’s decline whereas sipping tepid tea in a London kitchen. I say this as a result of information matter. As a result of rhetoric isn’t actuality. And since below President Donald J. Trump — not as soon as, however now twice elected as Commander-in-Chief — the USA has taken a chainsaw to its world repute, its home integrity, and its long-term prospects.
Let’s be clear: America hasn’t been ‘great’ within the aspirational, post-war, Statue-of-Liberty sense for some time. However this time, it feels terminal. It’s not simply decline. It’s wilful decay.
The setting? A joke. Trump’s ghoulish love affair with coal has been re-consummated. In a flurry of pen-strokes that may’ve made a Nineteenth-century industrialist swoon, he reopened the gates to coal-fired energy crops. Precise coal, prefer it’s 1902 and we’re all nonetheless clapping on the lightbulb. His govt order gutted environmental protections that have been already on life help, primarily telling the EPA to take a seat down and shut up whereas we choke on soot.
In the meantime, whereas the remainder of the developed world sprints in the direction of renewables, the U.S. is making an attempt to mainline fossil fuels by a rusty IV drip. All whereas the Colorado River dries up, wildfires flip into seasonal occasions, and Miami begins to appear to be Atlantis.
However possibly that’s simply optics, proper? So let’s comply with the cash
Trump’s tariff tantrum — sorry, technique — has laid waste to worldwide commerce. The person has slapped 10%, 20%, typically 50% tariffs on every thing from Chinese language electronics to EU metal, Japanese automobiles to Korean microchips. The objective? “Bring manufacturing home.” The end result? A worldwide commerce warfare that’s obtained American companies stockpiling overseas items like doomsday preppers whereas costs spiral and client selection shrivels.
Even AI — the very sector that might give America a Twenty first-century edge — is being throttled. Tariffs on the microprocessors, uncommon earth metals, and servers required for cutting-edge AI have pressured U.S. companies to ponder relocating R&D abroad. Think about voluntarily handing the AI crown to Beijing since you needed to punish Huawei. That’s what’s occurring.
And what does Trump do? He brags. Concerning the “billions” pouring into the Treasury from tariffs. As if we’ve forgotten that tariffs are simply taxes with a passport. The American client pays for these billions, Donny — not Xi Jinping. Goal consumers are paying to your commerce warfare.
Then there’s the ethical rot
Trump’s govt orders have surgically dismantled range, fairness and inclusion insurance policies throughout federal companies. Not trimmed. Not restructured. Erased. Gone are initiatives designed to degree enjoying fields, enhance illustration, and — dare we are saying it — carry America into the trendy age.
He’s gone additional nonetheless, launching a frontal assault on transgender rights. Underneath the guise of “restoring biological truth” — a phrase that might’ve been nicked from an Orwell novel — he’s reversed federal protections for trans people in employment, healthcare, and schooling. In 2025. In America. The supposed land of the free. Except, after all, you don’t match a slim, white, hetero-normative mould.
However essentially the most stomach-turning improvement? The sudden halt of overseas support below a 90-day “review.” Support to Africa. To Latin America. To components of Europe nonetheless clawing again from battle and disaster. Trump calls it a realignment. The State Division calls it a pause. However make no mistake: it’s abandonment. From the nation that when airlifted hope. That when promised to be the world’s emergency exit in occasions of disaster. Now, it’s simply one other door slammed shut.
And but — the person stays in style. His rallies are Woodstock for the wilfully ignorant. He’s turned politics into vaudeville, diplomacy into dogfighting, and the Oval Workplace right into a inexperienced room for Fox & Mates. And America, bizarrely, retains clapping.
So no, America just isn’t the best nation on the planet. Not anymore
Not when it criminalises compassion. Not when it treats data like a risk and science like an opinion. Not when it confuses bullying with energy, isolationism with sovereignty, and nostalgia with coverage.
Greatness is about greater than flags on lawns and missiles on standby. It’s about imaginative and prescient. Inclusion. Progress. It’s about main not as a result of you’ll be able to, however as a result of others wish to comply with you.
And proper now? No person’s following.
America should still be highly effective. It could nonetheless be wealthy. However greatness — true greatness — requires ethical authority, cultural curiosity, and the humility to evolve.
That America? The one which constructed the Marshall Plan, funded the Moon touchdown, and gave us Maya Angelou and Miles Davis?
It’s a reminiscence.
And if Trump will get his manner — it’ll keep that manner.
