I was curious to hear what people from countries outside of the US are thinking about Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine while siding with Russia, withdrawal of NATO support, increased tariffs and starting trade wars with former allies so for the past week I’ve been listening to the daily BBC World news podcast. I also listed to the Amanpour podcast which covers international news for CNN.
Below are some of my takeaways from these podcasts.
What Trump is doing is affecting every country in the world.
Tariff increases have resulted in emergency meetings and response plans by every country that is affected. Smaller countries have begged for exemptions and meetings with the President. Larger countries are negotiating for meetings and making attempts at appeasement to reduce the tariff increases. Some countries are threatening retaliation, but other than China, these threats are soft and couched in conciliatory, deferential language so as not to “poke the bear”.
USAID cuts have decimated NGOs and International support efforts everywhere. Most recently was the absence of US support after the Myanmar earthquakes earlier this month. Previously, the US would have deployed 200 search & rescue workers within days. Instead we sent a team of 3 administrative people a week later.
War and defense concerns have hit Europe and Asia hard. I hadn’t understood how much the US has not only backstopped but apparently has shouldered a significant burden of defense for Western Europe. We’ve supplied arms, military bases, intelligence, strategic and nuclear defense and much more. US money has paid for all of this since the end of WWII. Now Trump is forcing European countries to pay more for their own military and security. They are freaking out. Which is understandable given their proximity and borders with Russia as well as the threats from China. Japan, South Korea and Australia are also being forced to consider alternative alliances to protect from Chinese threats. Some countries (including Norway, France and Germany) are advising their citizens to make plans and stockpile emergency supplies in the case of war. They are warning their citizens about potential conventional military attacks, cyberattacks and infrastructure threats that are now more likely without the backstopping of the US.
I didn’t realize how much the US was actually providing support, defense, protection, and aid to countries all over the world. No wonder some of the other Western democratic countries were able to build such strong social support systems and provide benefits to their citizens. They were able to dedicate government money and resources for programs like this vs for military expenditures.
Interestingly on these podcasts, there’s much less discussion or even mention of US political bullshit. They are not discussing DEI, “woke-ism”, etc. They present the news in a straightforward factual manner, with little commentary or punditry.
I find this style quite refreshing compared to what I get in the US.
It’s also all kind of sad to see how one man can bring chaos and disruption to the entire world. Or more accurately, what one man who leads the world’s current military and economic superpower who is willing to do whatever the f*ck he want to do regardless of the international implications, laws or customs can do to the world.
It seems to me that we (the Western democratic countries) have had things pretty good for most of my life. We’ve had few major wars. We’ve eliminated many diseases, significant famine and poverty. We’ve helped raise the standards of living worldwide.
Some of the issues that Trump and other populist leaders use as red herrings are problems that have been building up over time – mass migration/immigration, financial inequality, national debt, etc. There are groups and classes of people in every country who are struggling with these and other real problems.
I’m not convinced what Trump is doing will remedy rather than exacerbate any of these problems. In fact, I highly doubt it.
Right now, it feels like the era that I have lived for most of my life is coming to an end. Only time will tell.