Trump’s Disastrous Assault on U.S Soft Power

Harry talks with Max Boot about his latest article, “US soft power took decades to build. Trump is dismantling it in weeks.” Boot explains the critical source of U.S. influence in the world, more than military might, is “soft power,” foreign aid and other far-seeing acts of altruism for people around the world. Soft power is the key to the country’s diplomatic, commercial, and cultural success. It was built up painstakingly over decades with programs like the Marshall Plan and in 3 short weeks Trump has taken a battering ram to it, acutely harming our international standing. Allies such as Canada are perplexed at the U.S.’s bullying tactics, and people around the world dependent on U.S. aid have been gravely harmed. The chief beneficiary of this short-sighted abandonment of longstanding U.S. policy is China, which will aim to fill the void left by the end of U.S. aid programs. Boot concludes, “[i]t is staggering to see how much damage Trump has done to U.S. soft power in just two weeks and painful to imagine how much ore he could do in the next 206 weeks.”

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