Beth Scupham

Here is a thought experiment that several analysts keep returning to: if a president actually wanted to dismantle American superpower status, what would he be doing differently from what Trump is doing right now? Consider the record. He has feuded with NATO and cast doubt on the alliance guarantee that anchored Western security for 70 years. He has slapped tariffs on the EU and individual European allies, and this week launched a 50 percent trade war against Canada, America's closest partner. He has pressured South Korea and Japan over troop costs while courting their adversaries. Gulf states, battered by the Iran war, now question the American security umbrella so openly that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan just signed their own mutual defence pact. Sanctions and Hormuz chaos are pushing oil trade toward the yuan, eroding the dollar's reserve role while national debt passes 40 trillion. And through it all, he speaks warmly of Putin and Kim Jong Un while insulting the billion people living under allied flags. Superpower status rests on three pillars: alliances, the dollar, and credibility. All three are being sawed at simultaneously. So what explains it? Option A: sheer ignorance, a government that simply does not understand how the world works. Option B: revenge, a man settling scores with an establishment he believes wronged him. Option C: outside pressure, someone else's interests being served. None of these options is comforting. And the pattern remains the same whichever one you pick.