Trump Leader of the Free World? Don't Make Me Cry!

Astonishingly, in the last week or so I have heard several commentators refer to Trump as "Leader of the Free World". This would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. But there is no leader of the free world anymore and there hasn't been one since Obama walked out of the White House and the America First Trumpladyte slithered in.

To be sure, George W. Bush did great harm to our standing in the eyes of our fellow democratic allies, but it was still redeemable and that's what they saw hopefully in president Obama's steady hand on the tiller. But now that the American People have shown that they're ignorant enough to elect an ignoramus like Trump once, they know that we're just foolish enough to do it again and even if Biden wins this election, the specter of another selfish Republicon winning will be in the forefront of their thoughts for a generation when it comes to establishing any long-term commitments to the international order in cooperation with the U.S.

And who has stepped into the breach and is playing Trump, Pompeo and the rest of the betrayers of our hard won leadership in the post WWII world? China. It's China that is shaping the international order of the 21st century, not the United States of America. And what is China's primary goal in these efforts? To make the world not only safe for dictators like Xi Jinping, but to make the case that one party dictatorship's like China's are better models of government than democracies like ours and those of our allies.

So don't be foolish enough to think of Trump as the leader of the free world. In fact, if we're collectively naive enough to let him foul the White House for another four years, not only will we never lead the free world again, we won't even be in it!

Please read this very informative article by the great foreign affairs writer Anne Applebaum:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/trump-who-withdrawal-china/616475/