Donald Trump likes to play the heavy. Whenever he sees someone as weak, he bullies mercilessly. But he is manifestly making America weak again, as he did in his first term. That featured remarkable assaults on American democracy and the rule of law.
In his second term, he established his top domestic priority in his first budget. He is trying to rid America of immigrants. That includes those legally seeking asylum and those in the US with temporary protected status. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol got everything they ever dreamed of, and then some. His second budget will feature a bloated Defense (War) Department Budget.
Trump thinks that signals strength. It doesn’t. It signals a misunderstanding of what strength means in today’s world. I’m not against a strong defense. But that is not alone going to make America great in the 21st century.
Trump’s weakness on Ukraine is obvious to all. He has cut off military assistance to Ukraine. He toadies to Russian President Putin at every opportunity. Instead of expanding aid to Ukraine over and above what Biden did, he is even hindering the Europeans from buying American munitions for shipment to Ukraine.
Trump has also damaged the NATO Alliance, perhaps irreversibly. His nonsense about wanting to take Greenland from Denmark, making Canada the 51st state, and withdrawing troops from Germany has cast serious doubts on whether the US would help to defend Europe if Russia attacks. He has even cancelled a rotation of troops to Poland, a country he used to like when it had would-be autocrats as prime ministers.
His peevish pleas for Europe to help open the strait of Hormuz have made things worse. He didn’t consult the Europeans before attacking Iran and now insists they have an obligation to help in ways that would almost certainly make them belligerents in a war they disapprove. No wonder they are not interested.
Russia has been rehearsing for hostilities against the Baltic states. The American response has been mostly State Department objections. They are far less important than the President’s silence on the matter, his weakness on Ukraine, and his intention to withdraw troops from Europe.
Last week’s Trump performance in Beijing compounds the impression that America has chosen weakness. Trump said publicly that America isn’t going to travel 9500 miles to fight a war over Taiwan. He also warned Taiwan against pursuing independence. Those statements shredded decades of strategic ambiguity that has kept the peace.
Never mind that Taipei is less than 7900 miles from Washington. Why would a Chinese leader take seriously an American president who can’t get the basic facts straight?
Just as important: Trump projected weakness in many details of his days in Beijing. I won’t try to recite them. Read about them here.
The Chinese had something to offer Trump on the Middle East. They want the strait of Hormuz open and they want stability. But he of course misunderstood the undertone. They have no objection to Iran charging tolls in the strait of Hormuz. Chinese ships have started to move through the strait and may even have paid. Some have managed to get past the US blockade. Chinese ships were even among those that passed through the strait while Trump was in Beijing.
And the Chinese definitely object to the US and Israel attacking Iran. Beijing denies supplying Iran with weapons, but it supplies Tehran with lots of components needed for weapons. “Dual use” is a big loophole.
Trump’s entourage of chief executives announced no new deals during or immediately after the visit. Trump claimed the Chinese would buy 200 Boeing aircraft and more soybeans, but specifics were sparse. Xi and Trump made no apparent progress on rare earth minerals, high-tech chips, and other trade issues, including Trump’s tariffs. They did establish boards of trade and investment, for what that is worth.
The fact is China is doing well in redirecting its exports away from the US. Its trade surplus in 2025 reach a record $1.2 trillion. The US trade (in goods) deficit, was about that amount as well, up $25 billion or so from 2024. Trump’s tariffs, which are taxes paid mainly by US consumers, appear not to have helped reduce the trade (in goods) deficit at all.
Trump touted the Beijing meetings as maybe “the biggest summit ever.” That’s his usual hyperbole. It was a bust, and he knows it. And it demonstrated unequivocally that he can’t handle the job he was elected to perform.
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