The American Prospect's Ryan Cooper has found himself utterly flabbergasted by the way that President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk are leading what he describes as "the dumbest imperial collapse in history."
In his latest piece, Cooper makes the case that the post-World War II American empire is "collapsing" as Trump has done "irreparable damage" to longtime alliances with nations ranging from Canada to South Korea to Denmark.
And while Cooper acknowledges that the whole history of empires has been one of rise and fall, he contends that "nobody has matched this current downfall for sheer egregious stupidity" than what Trump and his MAGA minions are accomplishing.
Many empires, writes Cooper, are simply defeated by stronger military forces that chip away at empires' military dominance before eventually moving into ransack the imperial capital.
What's happening in the United States, however, is way outside the norm of imperial collapse.
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"Trump and Musk are blowing America’s imperial foundations to kingdom come," he explains. "Take USAID, which as the largest distributor of humanitarian aid in the world, has both done a tremendous amount of good work and also served as a carrot for America’s global predominance—until now. The agency has been all but dismantled, unleashing havoc all over the globe. HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis are now spreading unchecked in many countries reliant on USAID medication, both proving America cannot be trusted and threatening outbreaks of those diseases in the U.S. itself."
It's this lack of trust, Cooper adds, that will completely destroy the imperial architecture the United States spent decades building so it could become the most powerful nation on the planet.
"The lesson is clear: America cannot be trusted, and all its former allies should start preparing for the worst, including developing their own nuclear deterrents in case of war with the U.S. itself," he writes. "Some reserve currency replacement must be found, and new supply chains not reliant on the U.S. set up. Crash military buildups must be carried out to replace American security guarantees. You’d be a fool to rely on any American promises whatsoever, including ones made by Trump or Musk. These men lie as easily as they breathe."
