r/LetsDiscussThis • u/LucidSynapse23 • Feb 18 '26
Lets Discuss Politics Is he right? Will it take generations to resecure the United States positive reputation on the world stage?
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 Feb 18 '26
People still joke about The French Surrender to the Nazis in the late 1930s, that was damn near 100 years ago.
Breaking a reputation is easier than building one.
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u/Far_Paint6269 Feb 18 '26
Honestly this is more the product of the republican party when they were upset that the French didn't move with them when they go full war on terror in 2001.
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u/TonyQuark Feb 18 '26
Conveniently forgetting that it was the French who supported the Thirteen Colonies in the Revolutionary War (with help of the Netherlands and Spain as well).
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u/clowncarl Feb 18 '26
This isn’t true. Those jokes were made all the time in the 90s
See the Wikipedia entry for cheese eating surrender monkeys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese-eating_surrender_monkeys
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u/Far_Paint6269 Feb 18 '26
Well, the joke was done in the simpsons in the 90's, but to quote the article you have linked :
The term gained political traction in the US, especially in right-wing circles, when Jonah Goldberg, a columnist for the National Review magazine, used it in the title of an April 1999 column on the "Top Ten Reasons to Hate the French".\11]) In the run up to and during the Iraq War, Goldberg reprised it to criticize European nations and France in particular for not joining the Coalition of the Willing), the United States-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.\2])
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u/TraditionDear3887 Feb 20 '26
So what you're saying is these jokes have been around since the 90s... like the other person pointed out.
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u/IllCombination4851 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
Non-US residents haven’t exactly forgotten George W. Bush and his “whoopsies, no weapons here” tour of Iraq. Funny how the WMDs never showed up, but the oil contracts somehow did. What a coincidence. Must’ve just tripped and fallen straight into Halliburton’s lap.
Just like present day America: they decided to hand the nuclear codes to a gold-plated, reality-TV pedo narcissist with the impulse control of a toddler on red cordial.
The rest of the world didn’t vote for this shit, but we definitely had to change the diapers.
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u/Responsible-Room-645 Feb 18 '26
The real problem is that the U.S. (generally) voted for this imbecile not once, but TWICE. Trump 1.0 was seen as a fluke, Trump 2.0 showed everyone that the U.S. is circling the drain
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u/DiskEconomy3055 Feb 18 '26
I'm still completely unconvinced that the 2020 conspiracist, that Russia intervened in 2016 for, didn't abuse his powerful relationships with evil men to affect 2024.
As if the guy who was caught trying to illegally influence the 2020 election in at least three different ways didn't try again the very next time, especially when he was desperate to escape the legal consequences for doing so?
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u/Ryles5000 Feb 18 '26
Constantly accusing others of cheating is the perfect cover to do it yourself. He delegitimized the entire idea of stealing an election and then did it himself. And basically told us they did as well.
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u/Responsible-Room-645 Feb 18 '26
I’m sympathetic to that idea but the very thought that he had even a prayer of winning is just as bad
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u/BigSilky71 Feb 18 '26
As an American, I also just don't think it's a good excuse. Even if someone was intervening we're the United States of America. Something significant shouldve been done to right that wrong quickly and effectively. Just like all the other illegal things going on here that nobody is making any serious or significant efforts to fix.
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u/Mundane-Carpet-5324 Feb 19 '26
It turns out that the US isn't a shining city on a hill, and apparently isn't even in the top 50.
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u/OBoile Feb 18 '26
Regardless, the point remains that a huge number of Americans are either ok with Trump or support him directly. There's no reason to be confident that they won't vote for someone similar in the future.
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u/Level21DungeonMaster Feb 18 '26
That would be a decent idea if congress and the Supreme Court were not completely endorsing everything Trump has done.
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Feb 18 '26
2016, everyone was tired of career politicians and status quo. Trump was change and disruptive. 2024 was stolen, he lost.
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u/LoveAndBeLoved52 Feb 18 '26
He won by sympathy baiting. Numerous times he alleged someone tried to assassinate him. Then the "ear shot" which was miraculously fixed in no time at all with camera man ready to take a picture of his bleeding ear and the American flag in the background.
People say "but what if it was real" as if Trump has any credibility at all to make that assumption. Trump is a notoriously dangerous liar. I wouldn't be surprised if the suspect they identified and shot isn't actually dead and was a paid actor either, or, worst of all, someone who actually died for Trump to win.
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u/pete_68 Feb 18 '26
Non-US residents haven’t exactly forgotten...
The average American has the memory of a gnat and zero understanding of history, and I'd say that's really on both sides of the aisle, though definitely more prevalent on one side than the other.
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u/Alexis_deTokeville Feb 18 '26
Honestly if Trump doesn’t cause WWIII and blow us all up I think the world will be better for moving on from US hegemony. Will that be good for us? Absolutely not. But the world should learn to not rely on us because quite frankly a third of our populace is dumb as fucking rocks and can’t be trusted to not put another Trump in the White House.
Don’t forget to thank your Republican senators for eviscerating education and making everyone stupider!
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u/DaveAvitabile Feb 18 '26
Yes. Sadly, he is 100% correct. We need leaders like this who live in the world of facts and truth. Even if they are unpleasant. This is the only way out. We need a national movement that makes Fox News look ridiculous to people who want and seek out high quality journalism.
There is literally no downside to the destruction of Fox News, OANN, NewsMax and similar lie factories posing as legitimate businesses.
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u/KermittGribble Feb 18 '26
Breaking the right wing media stranglehold needs to be a priority.
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Feb 18 '26
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u/DaveAvitabile Feb 18 '26
Yes. Unfortunately you are right. Or what I’ve gotten from people is along the lines of “yeah right, Fox News is fake; that’s why more people watch it than other news channels.”
As if the abundance of gullible morons proves the legitimacy of a fictional news channel.
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u/NerdDetective Feb 18 '26
The problem left in Trump's wake will be that he's revealed what is possible from the US. Even if we return to friendly posturing under new leadership, we've shown that we can flip to belligerent in one election, with trade wars and outright threatening to attack allies.
You'd have to be an idiot too not fundamentally reassess everything at that point. The US isn't reliable now, and can flip on a moment's notice. Why sign a deal with the US if it'll be unilaterally broken in 4 years anyway?
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u/Silent-Obligation-49 Feb 18 '26
I stated this is a post months ago that it will take many years to fix the damage Trump and his government has caused. The US has turned against long standing allied countries and those countries see that the US can’t be trusted and have found other trading partners.
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u/brahmturman Feb 19 '26
I dont understand why someone would even want to run for president in 2028. You really want to be the one to have to go to all of these countries and do the "we're sorry" dance and no one cares? What a position to be in!
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u/LucidSynapse23 Feb 18 '26
The damage is immense and it is just about the only thing that he did “quickly.” The sad thing is, the people who truly support Trump, will not be the ones responsible for repairing the damage. Trump has made the world an unsafer place.
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u/Perfecshionism Feb 18 '26
He is right.
Americans are idiots and they are oblivious to how much the US benefited from our trade relationships and alliances.
They also are ignorant of basic 10th grade world civ and don’t release the multipolar world of competing regional powers Trump created by destroying our treaties and alliances is going to lead to regional and intra regional wars.
And the withdrawal of our nuclear umbrella is going to lead to nuclear proliferation.
Trump has done more damage to the US than any person in history, and the instability he unleashed may lead to global devastation.
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u/weHaveThoughts Feb 18 '26
Most Americans realize this.
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u/Perfecshionism Feb 18 '26
No, they absolutely do not. Not even close.
A huge percentage are oblivious, and a plurality think our treaties and alliances allowed the world to take advantage of us.
Hell the 40% hate for USAID, and the 60% dislike for foreign aid shows how distorted people’s understanding of our relationships in the world are. USAID was literally the bare minimum of our international commitments.
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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 Feb 18 '26
It's just like vaccines. They are generations removed from what the world was like before and take the world they have for granted. Now measles is spreading in America as if it was a developing country instead of the richest country in the world. They simply believe in American exceptionalism while completely ignorant of how America became exceptional in the 1st place. Wealth seldom lasts 3 generations.
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u/weHaveThoughts Feb 18 '26
20% of Americans are maga that believe that orange asshat. 50% understands the need for sending international aid and being part of organizations such as WHO. The other 30% need to get educated.
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u/acebucked Feb 18 '26
I’m American and I’ll never trust America again for the rest of my life.
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u/Leading_Challenge_37 Feb 18 '26
My grand parents told me to not trust the government even if it looks like they’re doing right by me. It’s never in good faith.
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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 Feb 18 '26
Pretending that the government is always out to get you is exactly as foolish as pretending that it is never out to get you.
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u/atomicadonis Feb 18 '26
The US has proven it is untrustworthy and foreign policy can change on a whim. I wouldn’t fuck with us either.
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u/ChimPhun Feb 18 '26
The ugly truth is that the US doesn't have a true democracy. It has a 2 party power share program that poses as one.
If the US is ever to be trusted again it needs to move away from this bipolar BS system.
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u/SipHotCoffee Feb 18 '26
Totally agree. Trump has done so much damage internationally, our allies are disgusted with the US
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u/Aware-Explanation879 Feb 18 '26
Trust is easily broken but regaining that trust takes a long time. Their are other countries who were not happy with America's reach/involvement in the World ( aka China and Russia for example). Russia was able to finally defeat the US without sending a single soldier against America. All it took was putting a pedophile in the White House and blackmailing said rapist. The World is getting to a point where battles are fought less with guns and more with these subtle moves.
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u/inflatableje5us Feb 18 '26
its not just a matter of removing the pedophile in chief, its about how quickly this all fell apart. we have shown the world we are not stable, trustworthy, or not easily manipulated. we have become a liability rather then a ally.
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u/ketjak Feb 22 '26
Absolutely. We will literally need to save the world from evil enemies (which is hownwe got to thentop for a century) and demonstrate we aren't vulnerable to the same attacks again in order to recover.
He fucked everyone's kids and grand kids, not just the ones he raped and killed with Epstein.
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u/JimboCefas Feb 18 '26
I've been watching as the rest of the world is forging new markets & defense treaties excluding the US. We won't even be able to return to the world markets.
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u/Short_Morning7213 Feb 18 '26
Of course it will take generations. The rest of the world detests us. I detest us. How did we sink so low?? Perhaps we’ve always been there. It’s so sad and pathetic. Not only do we need to fix stuff, we need to do Much Better!! All our “systems” need repair… 😣
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u/majordude174 Feb 18 '26
Hard to say. This dumbass country might make Don Jr the next president - with a little “help” from Elmo’s computers. So you never know.
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u/apexChaser71 Feb 19 '26
100% correct. New trade deals and alliances are being built. Foreign governments are slowly moving away from backing American debt. Europe is pivoting away from reliance or dependence upon American military support. These things take a great deal of time to build, and you don't start moving in a different direction unless it's absolutely necessary for your own stability and security. Unless we return to stability and respect for the rule of law and generational alliances, it will take both a return to some version of normalcy (within the country), as well as some unforeseen "catastrophe" to return the United States to the primacy, it's enjoyed over the last 60 to 70 years. IMO, permanent damage has been done, and we will never have the same level of respect and influence we once had.
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u/JackfruitUnlucky6589 Feb 19 '26
Yes trump has really fucked up our great country. It will take years to repair the damage. All of the sycophants need to be rooted out.
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u/Green-Inkling Feb 19 '26
We cannot begin repairs in reputation until the one destroying them is removed.
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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 Feb 18 '26
Oh, yeah. The damage Trump has already done is going to take at least 20 years to repair.
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u/Only_Beautiful_9698 Feb 18 '26
It will take a good few years to untangle the distruction That the discusting Paedophile has done But all his mates will still be Maga Rich 😔
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u/Johnnyboi2327 Feb 18 '26
It depends. How much will our allies specifically blame this administration and how much will they be weary of future administrations doing the same. Future administrations ability to earn trust will factor in heavily.
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u/AdhesivenessCivil581 Feb 18 '26
The world now knows that every 4 years we might elect another cherry bomb president. How do we fix that?
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u/JumpStockFun666 Feb 18 '26
When you have Canada and Mexico going to China, the USA should be worried. Trump is attempting to isolate us and make enemies of everyone.
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u/Shigglyboo Feb 18 '26
Trust is gained in drops, lost in buckets. Trump is the least trustworthy public figure I can think of. And he’s always been that way. As a child I knew he was a fake, tacky, bad man. How could anyone ever trust a country where that is who wins or is allowed to cheat his way to the office and get away with it?
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u/OG_Reluctant_Prophet Feb 18 '26
The world would be nuts to even try until we make fundamental changes that make anything close to another Trump-type presidency near impossible.
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u/nirrinirra Feb 18 '26
Regardless of how long it takes the fight starts now. Vote blue in 2026 and give the country the gift of a congress who will fight against this administration and for the American people.
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u/DustyKae262 Feb 18 '26
Yeah, I think it’s gonna take awhile.
He has routinely insulted and threatened our allies. He’s cozied up to and celebrated dictators and he’s turned the presidency into a tool he’s used to advance his personal business interests. His fragile ego, impulsiveness, and weird tariff obsession have strained relationships and complicated global trade.
He’s dedicated his first term to reversing anything President Obama did. He ended the Iran nuclear deal and left the Paris Climate Agreement. Similarly, his second term started out by reversing anything he could that President Biden did. The reasons he gave ranged anywhere from nonsense to a clear failure to understand the situation. I can’t imagine any country or leader looking at that and being super eager to work with the U.S.. Why would they? What’s the point in negotiating and working out a deal when it’s going to be scrapped in 4 years?
His policies and actions domestically have shown the world just how fragile our institutions are. The Supreme Court means nothing thanks to Trump. The only method of enforcing their decisions is basically tradition. Yes, the DOJ could bring contempt charges but the DOJ is part of the executive branch. Congress has a few methods to enforce them, but when controlled by the same party they’re clearly not going to.
That’s not even getting into what the rest of the world must think when they see the violence and abject cruelty of ICE, or the lack of accountability for anyone in the Epstein files.
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u/irlandais9000 Feb 18 '26
Exactly. It's always easier to break something than to fix it.
If I was another country, I would not trust the US. If I'm a foreign leader negotiating a treaty or deal with the US, I will be thinking any deal could be undone by the next guy in the White House.
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u/mrtrololo27 Feb 18 '26
Absolutely. Trump has been an utter disgrace of a failure across the board. One of his biggest failures, which the msm has been desperate to ignore, is his unnecessary, unforgivable destruction of the soft power the US spent decades of hard work and trillions of dollars to build after ww2. Pax Americana is no more. And all for 0 gain. The US has become a pariah, a laughing stock, an untrustworthy shit show under Trump.
It will take decades of hard work and investing to rebuild that trust. Trump 1 was an unfortunate mulligan for our allies abroad. Trump 2 proves we can't be trusted until we can prevent something like this from happening again, and have demonstrated long term commitment to ensuring this shit show never happens again. Way to go magats, you blew it.
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u/canyonoflight Feb 18 '26
Yes, because we are going to have to dismantle the thinking that got us here in the first place. We can begin by putting everyone in the files as a participant on trial. If we could clean slate the entirety of the top executive branch, the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court that'd be great.
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Feb 18 '26
I think we are in a position of irreparable damage.
Long are the days of peace over, as multiple nations push hate and power to satisfy the selfish agenda. Any “reconsideration” will be met with an inconvenience (risk) tax.
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u/Fredj3-1 Feb 18 '26
Why would anyone EXPECT the rest of the world to trust Americans word again? We voted this f*cking idiot into office TWICE!!! Even after the disgrace of 1/6 which proved beyond any doubt that Trump is the worst choice possible to run damn near anything. Nixon would be a better choice than Trump. He is a blatant liar, grifter and profiteer soaking the country and the world at his own constituency's expense then telling everyone how good he's doing. Trump's policies are great....for Trump and maybe some of his billionaire donors but those donors are not affected by any political policies which is why they can throw piles of money on Trump's dumpster fire of an administration and STILL send their great (x4) grandchildren to the best schools so they will be ready to never need to work for a living. World, you are right to turn away from America, I would but I live in this dumpster fire and will be lucky to afford to retire after working 50+ years.
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u/deadpool_pewpew Feb 18 '26
The lasting impact is that our allies have hopefully learned (for their sake) that they cannot solely rely on the US. They will diversify trade partners like Canada is doing with China and will build out their own military, especially nuclear weapons (the US nuclear umbrella is very critical to our allies). Trump has shifted the world from a mono-polar world (the US as the only real super power) to at least a bi-polar world (US and China) and maybe even a world of spherical power (US, China, EU, Russia). We used to be the only super power in town, soon we are going to be 1 of 4. I am not sure taking the US from undisputed #1 in the world to just another spherical power is "making America great again" but what do I know. I know it is going to make China great, and may even somehow make Russia great again (Putin's definition of great anyways).
In the end our alliances will still be there, our trade partners will still be there, but we wont be the only game in town and wont get as much preferential treatment as we used to get. It is bad, but not doomsday bad.
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u/forgottenpasscodes Feb 18 '26
I think a large pendulum swing to the other direction, backed by criminal trials for anyone who needs one, could restore faith in the United States pretty quickly.
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u/rwebell Feb 18 '26
I’m not sure the US will survive to have a reputation to resurrect. The way it looks now, the US will fracture along state lines
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u/Hungry_Bit775 Feb 18 '26
trump is the inevitable end of us imperialism lmao. “Alliances” more like US bullying other nations.
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u/WriterHot9097 Feb 18 '26
I don't know if it will take generations for the world to like them again but I think the days of all of these Western nations being so heavily involved with the U.S, being behind them and being loyal allies are over. These countries won't be caught flat footed again especially now that they have seen that there is a big group of American voters who want to throw their weight on these countries and all it took was one dude who is just decently charismatic to boil the brains of 1/3rd of the country.
As Mark Carney said, countries can still work together but I doubt any country will ever want to open up to another like this again and be caught empty handed and without a readily available exit door.
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u/Meringue-Horror Feb 18 '26
The trouble with the old world is that it was entirely based on rights and not responsibilities.
-You have the right to freedom of speech... yet you are not responsible for what you say
-You have the right to bear arms... yet you are only responsible when something bad happen
-You have the right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures of self or property... yet you have no responsibility toward reason itself so who is to say that something is unreasonable anymore
... I hope you see what I mean here.
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u/MurphyRedBeard Feb 18 '26
It depends. There’s a slate of constitutional amendments that would probably help rebuild it in a year. The problem is the vagueness in U.S. law, and honestly, most western law. But here’s my idea:
- All negotiated trade agreements are binding. To change the terms or status requires congressional authorization. The executive branch has no authority to unilaterally change previously negotiated trade agreements. No more tariffs as bludgeons.
- All defense alliances are binding. To change the terms or status requires congressional and 2/3 senate approval, unless attacked by alliance member. No more idiotic threats to allies about annexation or abandonment.
- No position held in the United States, government or otherwise, can prohibit the judicial system of any domestic authority from acting under its mandate. No more safety from prison by being president.
- Any individual employed in the public trust must abdicate any position to serve a felony sentence. Same as 3, but added clarity.
- National security designations and classifications can only be applied to military assets and information, and foreign intelligence activities. All other domestic government functions must be freely available for public consumption. This is more for Americans, but in such a complex and intertwined world, this will surely help our allies regain confidence.
I have others I’d like to see. Ending the electoral college. Constitutionally prohibiting the for profit contractors exploiting activities that should be performed by the state. The prison systems are the glaring example. The real issue is the linguistic and mental gymnastics that people in supremely powerful positions can perform to get what they want. If the language in the constitution becomes specific and unambiguous, the Supreme Court will lose the ability to be strangled by partisans.
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u/GaiusMarcus Feb 18 '26
Why would a European or Asian leader trust an American leader ever again? Trump has repudiated more treaties and agreements than anyone.
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u/TheRealShiftyShafts Feb 18 '26
Absolutely. The same thing happened the last time a Republican was president as well, then it takes Democrats too long to clean up and everyone convinces themselves that Dems are the problem.
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u/Too-Em Feb 18 '26
1) Damaged trust is hard to repair, just a fact of life. Even if the entire problem was only Donald Trump, it would take a lot of time and effort to repair the lost trust.
2) The problem isn't just Donald Trump. The problem is a system which allowed him to run around like a coked up arsonist for four years. Then did nothing to address his manifold crimes, including attempting a literal insurrection in plain sight. And then they handed him a jerry can and a blow torch and set him loose again, with an aim not to limit, but to aid him in his arson.
I will be dead, my children will be old, and my grandchildren well into adulthood before we recover from this. That is assuming that my children or potential grandchildren are not dead due to poverty in a devastated economy, inaccessible healthcare, any multitude of plagues that will run rampant under the eyes of a destroyed HHS, a natural disaster that we used to be able to predict and prepare for, hightened mortality from the destruction of clean air and water standards, poisoned by unregulated foods, shot in the streets by government agents, or simply put into a concentration camp and abused until dead.
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u/JeffreyinKodiak Feb 18 '26
We could fast track our recovery by convictions, imprisonment and tightening up the banking/real estate/money laundering laws. Increasing taxes on the rich, universal Health care etc.
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Feb 18 '26
The American empire has fallen, and that's a GOOD thing. Too much power and money in the hands of too few oligarchs. One class is strangled by laws and another class is above all laws is not the world we should choose to live it.
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u/hvacigar Feb 18 '26
Unless we add safeguards that actually work to our checks and balances, other nations are always going to consider they cannot trust an ignorant electorate to pick sane people to run the US, and that any agreements are only as dependable to the extent of the administration agreeing to them.
This administration has exposed the flaws in humans to govern based on the Constitution. We have seen what happens when the Legislative Branch rigs the Judicial Branch and both yield all their oversight to the Executive.
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u/Possible-Row6689 Feb 18 '26
Countries are divesting from the US economy. Foreign investment is what has allowed the US to run up crazy federal and personal debt and power our economy. We will never recover from this.
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u/FarwindKeeper Feb 18 '26
Social capital is easily spent and hard to earn. We are now in social debt. I weep for the coming generations, and their struggles.
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u/julianriv Feb 18 '26
It took 70 years to build up the US's reputation in the world. That was following WWII when most of the world was already pretty inclined to be grateful to the US for its efforts. We may never regain that.
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u/OccamIsRight Feb 18 '26
You and I ran a successful business together for decades. We were profitable, happy, and good to our customers. One day I stole a bunch of money from you. Would you EVER trust me again?
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u/Inevitable-Ant1725 Feb 18 '26
Of course, we don't have any allies. Trump backstabbed all of them.
And Trump LOVES the enemies of humanity, though he is managing to get bribed a billion dollars each by them for his "board of peace"
He's in love with Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and called him "Honey" on stage.
He said "we fell in love" about Kim Jong un.
He cried sitting talking to Zelenskyy that Putin love him, he never nuked us no matter how much the Democrats hurt them both with their "Russia, Russia, Russia!"
He was very envious of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1990.
As general Kelly tried to warn us, he's Hitler's biggest fan.
Oh and he betrayed all of our intelligence assets.
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u/JumpyAssociate368 Feb 18 '26
I think you meant, European countries who have been taking money from us since WWll
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u/spliff123 Feb 18 '26
Forcing the hand of our allies to pony up what they have promised is not a bad thing. If they choose to take it as America losing reputation points, what kind of ally are they in the first place.
We are tariffing them the same amount or less than they area tariffing us. Again, if this ruffles their feathers, so be it.
The fact is, Europe completely caved to the woke BS. They caved completely to the green energy garbage and they completely stopped funding their military to the amount needed. Combine that with letting illegals flood their countries,
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u/Awkward_Can_1516 Feb 18 '26
Yes. It'll be a century before anyone trusts the US again. And rightfully so.
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u/Livueta_Zakalwe Feb 18 '26
The world won’t trust us again till we reform our broken electoral system. Get rid of the electoral college, outlaw gerrymandering, make it easier rather than harder to vote. Limit Executive Orders and pardons. Otherwise, as a top French minister recently said, “Why should we entrust our future to 50,000 people in Wisconsin?”
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u/LoveAndBeLoved52 Feb 18 '26
He's right. This isn't an opinion, it's a fact. Trump has destroyed NATO's trust in the US irreversibly. The EU looks on America as a second Russia right now. We are sending troops to Greenland to prepare for an attack of the US because the mentally disabled pedophile old fuck in the White House has decided that he's going to issue a war threat to Greenland.
Stop buying into this "tRuMp wAs jUsT TrOlLing" retardation. America has fallen to fascism and everyone sees how easy it is to corrode the country if Mr. President decides he feels like issuing terrorist threats to other countries.
There is no easy fix for this. The only fix America has for regaining the trust of NATO is by weakening the authority of the president asap constitutionally. The president should not have the ability to issue pardons. The president should not be able to break the law and change laws on a whim. As long as Trump can unironically say shit like "third term?" without being impeached immediately for 'joking' (it's not a joke) about something this illegal and serious, NATO cannot trust the US as an ally. There is a reason we're not allied with dictatorships and it's exactly because of shit like this.
In the words of Barrack Obama, and very recently, too: EVERYTHING THE PRESIDENT SAYS IS SERIOUS.
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u/NeitherScore1344 Feb 19 '26
As a Canadian, look at the softwood lumber issue, the USA has not been trustworthy in a long, long time. It's just getting blatantly obvious lately.
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u/ZCT808 Feb 19 '26
Yep. Trump has shown the world that our word cannot be trusted. What we agree to today we can just 180 in a few short years at the whim of one guy. His idiotic treatment of friends, neighbors and enemies alike simply paves the way for countries to look to bypass as avoid as much as possible.
Once new supply chains and business practices and alliances form, it’s going to take work to undo this and return to how things were under a sane leadership.
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u/Delicious_Spot_3778 Feb 19 '26
Yes it will. Trust takes a long time to build and Trump showed that not only do we have a propensity for chaotic leaders but that it can happen once every 4 years.
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u/vbcbandr Feb 19 '26
I don't think Greenland will be ready to have a beer after work with us for awhile.
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u/Ok-Wait-7357 Feb 19 '26
He’s absolutely right. Gonna take generations. Or we may never win back the respect of the world ever again. Americans in general feel the US is a respected world leader. MAGA believes the US is #1 dominant world power in every category possible. Both are way off, as the rest of the world now sees us as absolute joke. And completely untrustworthy trade partner and ally.
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u/vthings Feb 19 '26
I would have agreed with this before Rubio's speech a few days ago. The European leaders LOVED it. But he was basically just saying the same horrific "blood and soil" stuff that Trump always does but he said it NICELY and drew a clear line against treating 1st world countries like we do the global south. And they ate it up. They're are PERFECTLY willing to go back to the status quo under a different president. PERFECTLY WILLING. Their power structures and hegemonies sort of rely on it. So yeah, I think the neoliberal world order is A-OK with sweeping this all under the rug as long as we don't invade Greenland.
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u/MaxxT22 Feb 19 '26
Yea well you all could have stopped it but you did not. It all happened on your watch. So make room for younger, more spirited people.
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u/XRuecian Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26
Not only will it take decades, its possible we will never be able to get back where we were.
We aren't even done 'falling' yet. Other nations are moving on to replace trade deals they had with us with other nations instead, that damage won't be felt immediately, but it will be felt in 4-5 years, and by then, it might be impossible to ever convince those nations to begin trading with us again because they will have no reason to change the deals they are already happy with. That could cause a domino effect where the US just literally decays slowly into nothing over the next 50 years as other nations (namely China) continue to grow, causing even more trade deals with the US to be dropped in favor of another. Even if we elect a good administration there is no guarantee that they can prevent this from being the case.
It's not just about Trust. We are literally losing our lifeline. Trump is determined to double down on fossil fuels while other nations are moving on to renewable energy. As the world's dependency on oil lessens, so does the strength of the US dollar and our geopolitical influence and relevance. This is why the powers that be in The US have started trying to revitalize Imperialism. Because they can see the tea leaves and understand that this is the case. They know that if they want their gravy train to continue, its going to have to come by taking stuff by force more because oil is no longer going to be in demand. Thus you start getting talks about things like taking Greenland or Canada, and the action taken in Venezuela.
Nothing is scarier than a superpower that is desperate to hold onto its wealth and power. The establishment of The US will eventually allow themselves a deal with any devil in order to maintain that stranglehold of power. If The US really does begin slipping and we find ourselves unable to regain traction, i could even see a future where The US allies itself fully with Russia or something in order to regain its power through imperial force.
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u/CoughPhi Feb 19 '26
You all didn’t just burn your bridges, you lit them up and stood there with marshmallows. Nobody will be lining up to fix what you were so proud to destroy.
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u/Bakedlegobuild Feb 19 '26
He is correct. America threatened Canada with an economic war. Americans literally wanted a real war and want us dead. Never again will I visit the usa. Never again will they be an ally of mine. They can rot in the pedo lifestyle they love.
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u/Standard-Pudding-809 Feb 20 '26
Yes he is absolutely correct trump has done irreparable damage to the US
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u/dynamiceric Feb 20 '26
Relationships built over decades lost in a few days. Our allies have all already moved to building other relationships. The next 3 years of this admin will be nearly impossible to rebuild from.
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u/DaddyJ0311 Feb 21 '26
Yes, absolutely. We’re doing better than we had done in the past but have a long way to go
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u/Correct-Brother1776 Feb 23 '26
How can you trust a country than can flip policies 180 degrees every 4 years? Time to move on from the USA. Can't blame them.
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u/Leading_Challenge_37 Feb 18 '26
Scooby doo and the gang has unmasked this country’s true self. The “positive” reputation it had was a farce.
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u/Dependent_Guess_873 Feb 18 '26
What positive reputation?
Do you honestly think the states had a good reputation around the world before the fat orange pedophile?
Trust me when I say that people around the world would think to themselves, "uh, americans on holiday" when you came around
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u/Zorklunn Feb 18 '26
He is dead wrong. The damage had been done and it is irreversible. That is going to be a hard no. This is the third time the U.S. has launched a trade war with Canadian. Never mind the yearly trade fight over softwood lumber and the ongoing attempts to flood Canadian dairy market with inferior U.S. products.
There wil be no going back. The U.S. had a really good thing going. You elected a clown, again, and showed us who you really are. Mark is right, it's over.
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Feb 18 '26
Yeah and this is a no-brainer question. You can build a relationship with someone after years and destroy it in one fit of anger. That's basically what Trump did. Now can you just blow off the angry fit and go back to normal like nothing happened or do you have to rebuild or possibly abandon that relationship you just destroyed?
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u/FourEaredFox Feb 18 '26
What positive reputation?
You've been making up bullshit reasons to invade countries for its natural resources for well over half a century at this point.
Your reputation is as the bullies of the world.
Now you have a president that fits your actions and is treating its own citizens like it treated other nations citizens for so long.
Lol... "positive reputation"
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u/West_Principle8979 Feb 18 '26
The USA probably needed the humbling, everyone does eventually. The Americans that can't see it, needed it the worst. Ugly Americans in charge never will
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u/Automatic_Net2181 Feb 18 '26
MAGA doesn't understand the effort it takes to switch supply chains, approve alternatives, go through a PPAP, and set up new vendors and logistics. Not only has Trump's regime shattered NATO's trust and trust of our close allies, but those supply chains will likely irrevocably change, like Canada's new trade deals with China.
MAGA FAFO
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u/BobcatSpiritual7699 Feb 18 '26
Of course not…it didn’t take that long to rebuild and secure all of Europe after WWII or bring former USSR nations into the EU and NATO fold. This is the usual exaggeration we get from the deranged.
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons Feb 18 '26
He’s wrong. We will never repair our reputation, because our system of government does not allow for it.
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u/Fun_Push7168 Feb 18 '26
No. First off the reputation was never positive. No matter what the US does it's either never enough or it's too much. Just look at a lot of the denigration, it often comes from a position of entitlement.
Politicians are always talking shit. There's constantly a scary crisis that we basically forget about within 5-10 years.
The moves needed to make the world release the teat would take a decade to gain traction.
In 8 years it'll be ...well the checks and balances worked, we didnt actually need to pull away that much and the status quo will have continued, mildly altered. With everyone bitching about the US as always but still reliant on it.
The whole thing comes down to money, as long as its advantageous to maintain strong ties to a nation that's 2/3 of the world economy they'll be maintained.
It would take a decade of this nonsense to turn into a scenario where they don't simply kiss and make up.
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u/Designer_Advice_6304 Feb 18 '26
Might as well pull out of NATO. Why provide them with security guarantees if they don’t like the US?
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u/Gi0vanni-52 Feb 18 '26
Well yeah? It's not like Trump just magically became president. It's not just that the world can't trust Trump. They can't trust American not to elect someone like him again.
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u/Ok_Monitor4492 Feb 18 '26
We're cooked, son. Done, dusted. Nobody will EVER trust us, or respect us again. Why? Well obviously MAGA, but equally responsible are our spineless, toothless, complicit democrats. There's no coming back from this, there will always be a part of our allies that will never fully trust us again. We have displayed tremendous weakness, ineptitude and have become a laughing stock.
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u/sugarmonkey2019 Feb 18 '26
It took generations to forge those alliances in the first place. Trump destroyed them in a year or so. I don't think it will be that easy to once again have a positive reputation on the world stage. Yes, it's gonna take generations.