Dr. Stephen Kotkin on Trump
I invite you to read this excerpt from a lecture by Dr. Stephen Kotkin, a professor in history and international affairs at Princeton University, called Sphere of Influence I: The Gift of Geopolitics. He describes Donald Trump’s destructive influence on the United States. He says:
In the fantasy of The United States’ opponents, about the fate of the United States, you would need someone to come along and discredit and maybe even destroy the American system. What would that someone need to do?
You would need that someone to say:
- that the whole system is completely corrupt
- that there are millions and millions of illegal voters
- that the elections are rigged
- that the courts are packed with completely biased judges
- that the civil servants are saboteurs in a deep state
- that the US media are, quote: “enemies of the people ”
- that the US’s government kills plenty of people, just like Russia’s government
This person would sabotage the State Department, eliminate its budget, block all its appointments.
He would have his son-in-law run foreign policy.
He would attack American intelligence as “Nazism”
He would say that states that sign mutually consensual alliances with us: “are cheaters”, that the alliances are unnecessary burdens, even swindle that the allies are not part of a larger community of values and interests but freeloaders.
He would say that the free trade pacts are self-sabotage.
He would give all top government positions to his family members.
He would promote generals to run all the key civilian posts so that an Egyptian diplomat would say: “You’re just like us now, reporting to generals.”
And of course he would use his political power to enrich himself, his properties and his products.
That was the US’s opponents’ fantasy. And lo and behold, here we are.
Donald Trump did it.
This is the world we live in now. The US can only be undermined from within. The threat to the United States is a loss of faith and a loss of will in itself. And unfortunately, that’s where we are now.”
You can hear professor Kotkin on Youtube: Sphere of Influence I: The Gift of Geopolitics. or below