By clinging to American primacy through force and intimidation, Donald Trump is, ironically, undermining US global power. A saboteur trying to subvert US interests from the inside could hardly do better than what he’s accomplished through sheer incompetence.
Eh, how much of this is just blatant stupidity? He’s got a lot of dumb-dumbs in his cabinet, and he fires anyone who questions anything. Not sure many of these idiots have any clue about the repurcussions of their decisions long term. Many of his people behind the scenes are pretty wacko. The whole project 2025 thing and the religious zealot craziness. Anti-vax conspiracy weirdos. Others are just sociopaths out to profit.
Intent on sabotage is doubtful, more like chaotic kakistocracy with a whole bunch of different but bad agendas.
I’m done with charity and so I’m into “worst” interpretations with this lot.
I’d say it’s both that they are incredibly stupid AND look to disrupt US hedge money.
If they actually were in it for the profit, why would they want to destroy the base of US political and economic power?
Some could just be blissfully unaware, only thinking about short term profits. Tax breaks and stock market manipulation stuff. I see this as a decent probability for at least some of the trump sycophants.
Could also be denial. They might actually believe, incorrectly, they’re strengthening US power. Who knows what mental gymnastics they’re going through.
American society for the last fifty years has prioritized short term gains over everything.
Personal profit and national profit are different things. Sometimes it’s more profitable to have a larger share of a smaller pie; this is how the Putin model of dictatorship operates. It’s also why, counterintuitively, oligarchs benefit from recessions more than strong economies.