“Following a weeklong European tour during which he disparaged America’s closest allies and flattered its greatest adversary, there no longer can be any doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump wants to dismantle the liberal world order. That order—a system of multilateral arrangements, alliances, and institutions—was built in the ashes of World War II under U.S. tutelage and strength of arms. It extends from the European Union and NATO to the long-standing security guarantees Washington has established with Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea. The resulting Pax Americana laid the groundwork for the greatest period of peace and prosperity in human history.”
This is referring to modern globalization in which the nations gradually get closer and closer together through free trade and then over-arching governments, leading to an eventual single global government. America’s dominant role in NATO has been instrumental in keeping peace while pursuing the gradual release of sovereignty of itself and of other nations. Serious candidates for the U.S. Presidency did not advocate for the abolition of NATO. It was part of the infrastructure to implement the new world order.
“Mr. Trump changed all that. Among the many taboos he broke during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Trump went so far as to call NATO ‘obsolete,’ and since taking office, he has repeatedly questioned America’s security commitment to treaty allies.
“Although U.S. presidents of both parties since Harry Truman have supported the political and economic integration of Europe, Trump supported the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU…
“But the fact that Trump wants to dismantle the liberal world order has obscured the more important question of whether he can. Were Trump to exist in a different political system, one with fewer checks and balances and external limitations on a leader’s power [like Venezuela or Hungary], he would be far more dangerous…” Mr. Trump, however, “is the democratically elected leader of the world’s oldest constitutional republic, and his attempts to undo the seven-decade-old liberal world order that republic built and sustained have thus far largely been frustrated.
“The primary reason for this is that, at least in the realm of foreign and defense policy, Trump has either been unwilling or unable to staff his administration with like-minded ‘America First’ nationalists. The U.S. diplomatic and security apparatus is a behemoth, comprising tens of thousands of people, and it requires a great number of ideologically committed and bureaucratically skilled individuals to transform America’s world role in the way Trump desires. Beginning with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and continuing further down the bureaucratic chain to Wess Mitchell, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and Fiona Hill, the National Security Council senior director for European and Russian affairs, there is no one in the upper echelons of the U.S. diplomatic and military firmament who even remotely shares the president’s antipathy to the EU, NATO, or U.S. global leadership…
“Absent Bannon whispering in his ear, Trump’s ability to wreck the liberal world order hinges upon the degree to which he can translate his nationalistic, zero-sum worldview into actions on the world stage. Thus far, the damage he has done is mostly rhetorical. And nowhere has the gap between wild presidential rhetoric and actual governmental deeds been more apparent than Russia. The media’s obsessive coverage of the Trump-Putin summit as if it were a major title boxing match—with television news outlets dispatching entire teams to Helsinki for nonstop coverage—exemplifies its simplistic reduction of U.S.-Russia relations to mere personalities and is seriously distorting analysis. For all the talk of Trump’s ‘treasonous’ behavior [in Helsinki] there were no actual U.S. policy concessions to Russia as a result… NATO, the posture of the United States toward Russia is tougher than it has ever been since the end of the Cold War.”
A common misperception of presidents (not least Trump’s predecessor) is that they can change the world by their mere presence on the international stage. By treating Trump’s rhetoric as if it constitutes policy, many are essentially endorsing a simplistic “great man theory” of history.
Globalization and the New World Order are not going away just because of Mr. Trump’s conduct. They will remain, and will continue to press their issues. Whether Germany, Japan or the Papacy, the nations will continue to pursue their goal of a globalized world. What Mr. Trump is actually doing for America is to increase its power, which will be used by future presidents to enforce globalization, religious globalization in particular, on the rest of the world. Don’t think that Mr. Trump will unravel globalization in two presidential terms. The global deep state is more entrenched than that.
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8.
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