Team Trump is losing two world wars.
The first is the one Russian President Vladimir Putin declared against the West when he invaded Ukraine. The second one is metaphorical — the one President Trump himself is now waging against U.S. allies.
This self-defeating approach certainly will not make America great again. To the contrary, if left unchecked, it could result in the partial or complete destruction of U.S. global economic and military power.
No country can survive being at war with everyone. The U.S. is confronted by a resurgent Russia in Europe, an emerging co-equal in China, by rogue regimes in Iran and North Korean intent on wielding nuclear weapons, and now by Houthi rebels intent on shutting down commercial and military shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Yet instead of rallying U.S. allies to this cause of defending democracy, Team Trump is starting trade wars, hinting that Washington may no longer fully back NATO. Some – including Vice President JD Vance – are arguing that the European Union should be left to its own defense on the continent and in the Red Sea.
What we are seeing here is an inversion of the normal use of the instruments of national power — diplomacy, information, military and economy or "DIME" — whereby the White House, wittingly or not, is weakening the U.S. on a global scale.
Consider Trump’s ill-advised approach to Putin in Ukraine. He made concession after concession to Russia, including partial ceasefires against energy targets in Russia and naval targets in the Black Sea — to get Putin to the negotiating table in Jeddah. Yet Moscow declared Tuesday that it rejects Trump’s ceasefire deal “in its current form.”
As we warned last week, Putin is just playing Trump for time. Why? Because Putin is preparing a new multi-front offensive in the Donbas. Indeed, on Monday the Kremlin announced that “one of the largest rounds of conscription to Russia’s military for several years is underway,”
Moscow is calling up 160,000 raw recruits — 10,000 more than in all of last year. Conscription in Russia is always prickly, so it is noteworthy that Putin is increasing numbers year-over-year. He would not do so without a purpose.
Putin is also playing proxy wars in the Middle East against Team Trump. As we warned, the Houthis in Yemen and
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