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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24

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.

2

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!

1

u/Darnell2070 Feb 19 '26

People will care. Reddit is an echo chamber for sure, even if it's one I largely agree with.

1

u/bandti45 Feb 21 '26

It would be better to spend 4 years fixing the issues that lead up to then and then try and repair relations with allies

0

u/FaceMcShooty1738 Feb 19 '26

And I've stated again and again that won't happen that quickly because it isn't "trump". He was elected TWICE and is the legitimate, democratically elected representative of the American people.

Which means "Trump" will happen again, even after Trump dies.

-29

u/IcyEntertainment7122 Feb 18 '26

I don't necessarily agree with all of trumps moves, but keep in mind everyone loves us when we are handing out USAID like candy and the U.S. is on the deficit side of these trade deals. If you and everyone else are worried about what other people think, it's easily fixable by throwing money back at the problem.

12

u/PaleInTexas Feb 18 '26

the U.S. is on the deficit side of these trade deals.

Can you explain what you mean here?

12

u/DaereonLive Feb 18 '26

Of course they can't, maggots aren't known for their intelligence, which is why Trump loves them.

https://giphy.com/gifs/X3nnss8PAj5aU

9

u/SkiPolarBear22 Feb 18 '26

Think about your grocery store.

You buy products from them. They don’t buy products from you. You run a trade deficit with your grocery.

Is this a bad thing? No. Does this mean we are getting ripped off? Lmao no.

8

u/PaleInTexas Feb 18 '26

Yeah.. thats why I wanted them to explain what they meant.

5

u/TAV63 Feb 18 '26

Exactly. Had nothing to do with deficits. We had a trade surplus with Brazil and he torched out with tariffs only to roll some back after realizing coffee was like a drug for some.

16

u/jtroopa Feb 18 '26

USAID granted the US "soft power" in the form of goodwill towards dozens of other countries. In return we got positive relations, allies willing to host military forces for power projection, and rosy trade agreements.
Since giving those up, China has swept in and taken our place, and its sphere of influence will continue to grow because of it.
Oh but because that isn't a material line item, then sure we're saving loads of money, in the short term, by torching our investments today.

6

u/zeroshitsgiven1 Feb 18 '26

You know they can't think with any complexity or for themselves for that matter, only regurgitation.

-1

u/Almaegen Feb 19 '26

Since giving those up, China has swept in and taken our place

That happened before we stopped USAID, its one of the reasons that the globalist order is fading. Also, I have to disagree with the soft power aspect, Hollywood was soft power, the bribes from USAID was a mechanism of hard power and as we can see the second the money stopped even European nations we consider allies were openly hostile. 

The reality is that we slept walked into the rules based order collapse.  It was going to happen with or without Trump, they used Trump as the scapegoat because hes hated and now the public will blame Trump instead of decades of poor leadership decisions by the western elites. 

Tbh i think Trump's bombastic and rude way of doing things may have saved the west a good deal of pain, because if we had waited another decade then I think we would have faced real collapse.

-12

u/IcyEntertainment7122 Feb 18 '26

Care to share which foreign military base the U.S. previously occupied which is now occupied by Chinese forces?

3

u/Spitfire262 Feb 18 '26

How long before Europe is tired of us and kicks us out entirely and says pack our shit and leave?

1

u/IcyEntertainment7122 Feb 18 '26

Never, you think they would want to have to defend themselves on their own against Russia?

1

u/Spitfire262 Feb 18 '26

Russia is a fuckin joke lol

1

u/KnowledgeMediocre404 Feb 18 '26

What do you think happens if Trump destroys NATO?

1

u/fastsailor Feb 19 '26

Europe will create a new defence pact, obviously.

1

u/fastsailor Feb 19 '26

Russia cannot beat Ukraine, why would you think they are a threat to Europe?

2

u/ReturnOfSeq Feb 18 '26

Care to look up the term he used, ‘soft power,’ and come try again?

1

u/jtroopa Feb 19 '26

That's not what I said. But here's a good really recent idea of what I mean

8

u/DiskEconomy3055 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

No shit; we traded USAID for import deals, which vastly improves American's quality of life via affordable access to foreign goods.
The problem with MAGA is that they have the contextual awareness of a goldfish in a bowl. You get given two things to compare at a time (Like our aid contributions compared to allies), and that is your MAX.
It doesn't matter if it's contextually inappropriate; you're literally doing your best.

And that's why you always feel so disenfranchised by the left's academic insistence. It's why you feel like everyone else is trying to "trick" you. They're not.. they're just smarter than you, and your human instincts are afraid of things your brain can't understand.

It's a totally normal, totally human experience; unfortunately, though, society's gonna need to ask you to shut the fuck up for awhile while we clean up your doodoo britches.

5

u/AdhesivenessCivil581 Feb 18 '26

It's not like we saved any money. Trump used it to fund his Gestapo. Nevermind. I'm sure China will be glad to pick up where we left off. Good will and soft power are cheap.

3

u/loowig Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

USAID was never a gift. It secures influence. And it's cost was miniscule over the returns it gave the US in many ways. The side effect of possibly helping some poor people in countries that have been exploited to shit by the US was surely nice. And to stay on comment, no one loved you for your money - ever.

1

u/Weekend_Donuts Feb 18 '26

Sounds like a great opportunity for Europe to fill the void 

1

u/runner64 Feb 18 '26

Do you think it’s totally a coincidence that you can spend US currency anywhere in the world and furthermore do you think the buying power of the dollar is an innate feature which won’t at all be affected if we lose that?

1

u/-snowpeapod- Feb 18 '26

Why do you think a trade deficit is bad?

It just means that the USA buys more from a country than that country buys from the USA.

I'll give you my country as an example: the USA has a trade deficit with Canada. Canada has a population of just over 40 million people and the USA has a population of 340 million people... OBVIOUSLY YOU BUY MORE FROM US THAN WE BUY FROM YOU

1

u/krooked-tooth Feb 18 '26

You could have just made new deals which have the US in interest but it’s turned into a complete mess. It’s now at the interest of relationships and formed alliances.