U.S. President Trump might be a dealmaker, but he seems most eager to spend. Specifically, he seems determined to spend all the global goodwill earned by the United States over the past 80 years. Whether it is eliminating foreign policy programs no matter how effectively they further U.S. national interests, issuing a relentless series of chaotic and contradictory foreign policy pronouncements or simply being rude to longstanding U.S. allies and those reliant on U.S. support, the actions of Trump and his administration seem deliberately aimed at undermining both the U.S. bureaucratic state and the foundations of the international order it created.
Some will contend that this is part of a grand design to reshape the basis for U.S. power. According to this argument, the world has changed over the past 80 years and so must Washington’s role in that world. Others contend that these actions reveal the darker motivations of the Trump administration, claiming it is intentionally dissipating U.S. power to nefarious ends.
But the true cause could well boil down to one simple and powerful force: stupidity. Or as the folk wisdom puts it, never attribute to genius or malice what can be explained by incompetence.
