A regular boast that Donald Trump makes at his rallies is that he has made America great again after Joe Biden’s presidency devastated the country. In fact, on most important issues, the U.S. is far from great compared to other nations — and Trump, not Biden, bears responsibility for its decline.
On its strength of democracy, America has its lowest score ever on the Economist Democracy Index. While more than 20 countries are rated as “full democracies,” the US is rated a “flawed democracy” with significant weaknesses. On the Freedom House Index, which evaluates countries on their access to political rights and civil liberties, the U.S. ranks 59th among 208 countries.
Trump’s contributions to America’s weakened democracy are stunning. He refused to accept the 2020 presidential election results and attempted to overturn the results which, if successful, would have put the losing candidate in the White House. He has consolidated power in the executive branch, dismantled internal executive oversight, regularly usurped the authority of Congress, and castigated the judicial system when judges ruled against him.
Trump has undermined the free press, caused millions of Americans to distrust the U.S. election system, and used the Department of Justice to carry out his personal vendettas, all the while moving America’s democracy increasingly towards authoritarianism.
It is little wonder that respected international democracy indices view America as a flawed and troubled democracy. It is also little wonder that the U.S. is no longer viewed as a defender of democracy abroad, with Trump leaving a besieged democratic Ukraine twisting in the wind. Trump is too busy dismantling democracy at home.
While the U.S. is considered the wealthiest country in the world, it has among the greatest economic inequality among advanced democracies. Of the OCED organization of 38 high-income democracies that include the EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea, the U.S. has the second greatest income inequality behind Chile. The U.S. and Costa Rica have the highest relative poverty rates among the 38 nations. The average size of the middle class among OCED nations is around 61-62% of the population. The U.S. sits at 51%.
Trump has contributed to the U.S.’s growing income inequality by lowering tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, with the wealth of the top 1% reaching record highs. The richest fifth of Americans enjoyed 73% of the total tax benefits in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with the middle and lower financial classes tossed the remaining crumbs.
Trump’s tariffs and illegal war with Iran have increased gasoline and consumer goods’ prices dramatically, felt most sharply by middle- and lower-income families. With disposable income squeezed by higher prices, middle-class incomes have been slashed and the poor are suffering more than ever. While Trump and his billionaire cronies certainly enjoy America’s abundant wealth, it means little to the majority of Americans who are struggling day to day to make ends meet.
The U.S. also doesn’t come close to providing the social safety net programs enjoyed by citizens of many OCED countries, ranking 23rd in public social spending and poverty reduction. Most OCED nations provide regular cash transfer to all families with children, statutory paid parental and family leave, universal child care and early education, universal health care, and mandatory paid annual leave.
The U.S. provides none of those benefits.
The Trump administration has made a weak federal investment in social programs even worse. Work requirements for recipients to receive food assistance from the SNAP program have been increased and funding for SNAP will be cut by $187 billion over a decade. Medicaid funding will be cut by over $1 trillion over 10 years, with between 4.9 million and 10.1 million Americans projected to lose their coverage.
The Trump administration has reduced food bank funding by $1 billion and proposed a $3.8 billion reduction for 2027 in the HUD budget for affordable housing and homeless programs. It has proposed eliminating or phasing out Head Start and its $12.2 billion federal funding, and sought to eliminate Community Service Block Grants (CSBG), which provide poverty-reduction services.
In short, Trump is doing what he can to bring greater misery to the more than 40 million Americans living below the poverty line, including children and seniors, severely cutting funding for essential programs to help provide huge tax cuts for the wealthy.
This is how Trump makes America great.
Addressing global warming is another failure of the U.S. under Trump, who denies that climate change that is fueling climate disasters worldwide even exists. Under Trump, the U.S. is among the lowest-performing countries globally in efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Trump encourages the use of fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases and discourages the development of green, renewable energy sources that are being used extensively around the world.
The U.S. is by far the most violent country among advanced democracies, with its gun-murder rate an astonishing 25 times higher than the average of other nations. Not by coincidence, the U.S. has the weakest federal gun-control laws, enabling practically anyone to buy the most lethal weapons at gun shows or online without even a background check.
It stands to reason that the U.S. should enact the same gun-control laws that nations with extremely low rates of gun violence have. Instead, Trump, who believes guns aren’t the problem, is weakening the existing federal laws by rolling back several major gun restrictions enacted during Biden’s presidency, making it even easier to buy guns. Needless to say, America’s unspeakable amount of gun violence will only grow worse — and Americans will be even more endangered.
Trump’s contributions to America’s decline don’t stop there. Thanks to Trump, American women have lost their fundamental right to an abortion that they had for over half a century. College students will be hit with higher monthly loan payments, hurting the neediest students the most. Graduate students will be allowed significantly lower loan limits, making it more difficult to pay for their substantial educational expenses.
Children will suffer as the Trump administration cuts funds and manpower for investigating child abuse and enforcing child support payments. Medicaid cuts will mean higher out-of-pocket costs and more red tape for older adults to endure. When it comes to making life more difficult for Americans, Trump leaves out no one except the wealthy.
The decline of America under Trump across many important measures is profound. During his term, President Biden worked to bolster democracy at home and abroad, reduce the U.S.’s carbon emissions, enact stronger gun-control laws, urge Congress to codify Roe vs Wade protections, make college more affordable, raise taxes on the wealthy, and strengthen social safety net programs for lower-income Americans.
Trump essentially unraveled everything that Biden had worked to accomplish, setting the country back to languish in mediocrity. The charge of American voters in the mid-term election is to mitigate the damage Trump can do the next two years and then begin rebuilding everything that Trump is tearing apart with his cruel, deformed vision of what makes a country great.