Spoiled Rotten
I try to make it a practice never to give investment advice in this newsletter, but just this once I’m going to make an exception. I’m putting all my money into chisels. The final inspiration came to me when I learned that Trump has considered trying to affix his name to another structure; this time it’s Ford’s Theatre, the playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. Yeah, when this is over, we’re gonna need a lot of chisels. But while we can cheer ourselves with visions of happily scraping off Ts, Rs, and Ps, chipping away gold-plated adornments, and de-Corinthianing some columns, I’m less confident that we can quickly piece back together the alliances that Trump has taken a wrecking ball to, in a demolition that makes the East Wing job look like it was a small, weekend DIY project.
+ As the NYT (Gift Article) reports, “The podium of the United Nations was an unusual setting for the leader of a global superpower to threaten to ‘annihilate the Islamic republic’ of Iran or to declare that, in another conflict, ‘to the victor belong the spoils.'” These words, which fly in the face of why the UN was set up in the first place, jack-hammered home the new, destructive leadership America represents among its allies. We’re looking a lot less like victors, and what has been spoiled is America’s role in a world order it has led since WWII. And while America may one day (with enough time and chisels) forgive itself for Trump, it’s less certain that our allies will forgive us. The Atlantic (Gift Article): America’s Allies Are No Longer Waiting for Trump to Leave. “Nations that were once firmly in the American orbit are concluding that they cannot rely on the U.S. to provide the same leadership, markets, technology, and military protection that it has for decades. And that, foreign officials told me, is true no matter who wins the presidency in 2028. The shift may be the most consequential legacy of Trump’s foreign policy.” After years of threatening countries like Canada and Greenland, while cozying up to dictators and tyrants, it’s not going to be easy to convince our allies that we’ve gone back to being the country they believed would stick with them through thick and thin. Maybe I should have invested in Super Glue.
+ During his own UN speech, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada didn’t threaten to annihilate anyone. But he sure seemed to take note of what was already dead. “Put simply: we’re in a position where we need to pursue calibrated alliances, integrating deeply with those countries who share our values, remaining open-eyed with those who do not.” At U.N., Carney Lays Out a Broad Plan for a Divided World.
