Veterans Day lessons of remembrance for Donald Trump

Today is Veteran’s Day in America. The original reason for this holiday was to commemorate the end of World War I on the eleventh hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

In the United Kingdom, where it is celebrated as Remembrance Day marking the end of the Great War, many of its citizens wear paper poppies in jacket and coat button holes in memoriam.

The inspiration for these decorations came from Canadian John McCrae’s World War I poem “In Flanders Field” and its famous first line: “In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, between the crosses row on row.”

McCrae, a medical officer, died in France of pneumonia in January 1918, 11 months before the war ended.

Poppies of course are known in Afghanistan and other countries where they are the staple for opium production. The comparisons reflect some of the crucial differences between the World War I era and today.

Then, world war was the overriding issue. Today, major conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and the Persian Gulf now rage. Then, the great imperial powers of Germany and Russia lay in ruins as did an exhausted Great Britain. The U.S., physically untouched, was becoming the globe’s economic powerhouse. And Imperial Japan’s rising sun was beginning to cast a long shadow on the Pacific.

Today, the U.S. and China are global economic superpowers. America remains a military superpower as China moves to close that gap in capabilities. Russia, meanwhile, attempts to fight above its weight class in influence and emergence as a significant power. And two non-state organizations — NATO and the European Union — have become important militarily and economically.

Today, a crucial issue is the drug epidemic that has shifted from poppies, opium and cocaine to manufactured items such as fentanyl and ketamine. And while the League of Nations has not been established, many international organizations headed by the United Nations are trying to improve international relations, adjudicate political, economic, social and legal differences and cope with the ravages of climate change and climate catastrophes.

In 1918, Woodrow Wilson was president. Today it is Joe Biden, to be replaced in 10 weeks with Donald Trump.

Wilson was an idealist and a globalist who, unknown to the public, was incapacitated by a stroke and ill health. His wife Edith served as the de facto president. And Woodrow’s dream of a League of Nations turned to dust when the Senate refused to ratify the Versailles Treaty that ended the Great War.

Some would argue that, like Wilson, Biden was unfit for office. While critics assert Trump is similarly handicapped, there is no clear evidence of that — Trump is not lacking in energy. Nor is Trump, like Wilson, an internationalist or globalist.

Perhaps the greatest difference between our eras is Trump and his "Make America Great Again" agenda. As the first war ended and soldiers returned from France, the Spanish Flu infected much of the globe including America. A post-war recession set in. And as Warren Harding assumed office on March 4, 1921, life in America was grim.

Harding would die in 1922, but under him, America underwent one of the most dramatic, explosive economic booms in its history. That would end in 1929 with the great stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression.

Trump would benefit from this history lesson. As he enters office, he has promised to end the war in Ukraine, deport large numbers of illegal aliens and impose tariffs. Many experts fear that tariffs will provoke a global recession or worse, along with a trade war, and add significantly to the $35 trillion debt.

There is another option. During the nearly 10 weeks until inauguration, Trump could commission studies to evaluate how these promises can be implemented and the costs and benefits. These evaluations should extend to foreign, national security and defense issues. These assessments could then be turned into policy decisions.

One area that must be included in these assessments is a focus on debt reduction. Unfortunately, the Biden Inflation Reduction Act was unsuccessful. While Trump has promised to ”drill baby, drill,” the energy power regeneration sector can be a major economic engine of growth as AI and other technologies will require huge demands for electricity. And much funding is available with the correct incentives for the private sector.

Whether the new Trump administration will emulate Harding’s economic success is unknowable. But if the power generation and other infrastructure sectors can be exploited to drive economic growth, perhaps the iconic red poppy of 1918 could be replaced with a red MAGA hat.

Harlan Ullman, Ph.D., is a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council. His 12th book, “The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How Massive Attacks of Disruption Became the Looming Existential Danger to a Divided Nation and the World at Large,” is available on Amazon.