President Donald Trump, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and too many other people in this country have a grave misconception about what makes America great.

The nation’s greatness is not simply a matter of having the biggest economy and the most powerful military. It derives from the lofty principles that generations of Americans have tried to project into the world. A good example is the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after the Second World War, which included the revitalization of democracy in Germany, America’s defeated enemy.

In a Trumpian view, the USA got cheated and used in that generous rebuilding project. In reality, we benefited greatly. We gained strong allies and trading partners and became the unquestioned leader of the free world. Not a bad deal at all.

But, in little more than a year, Trump has blown up America’s advantage as effectively as he has blasted targets in Iran. The NATO alliance has been disparaged. Foreign aid programs that not only help suffering people, but project American idealism and influence have been decimated. And the image of the United States as a reliable nation that sets and lives by international treaties and laws has been destroyed.

Perhaps the moment when America was exposed as just another corrupt, ruthless empire like Russia came when the American president declared, “a whole civilization will die tonight.” With that statement, Trump revealed his willingness to commit genocide and make an entire people pay for the impudence of a regime that only a minority of them support.

Democrats are ready to impeach Trump for words no American president has ever uttered. Republicans have either stayed silent, given him obsequious support or merely tut-tutted about Trump being Trump, a guy who says stuff he does not really mean.

Of course, it is true Trump says things he does not really mean every day. Twenty-four hours after he threatened to end Iranian civilization, he was jabbering about partnering with the cruel regime to split the profits from a toll on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Words mean nothing to Trump, nor do promises or treaties or trade deals. He is like a Roman emperor fiddling while the world burns in fires he has set himself. Trump has not made America great again, he has made America feared, mistrusted and despised.

If there is a civilization he has ruined, it is our own.

See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey

View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons

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