Will America Follow Britain as a Once Proud Democracy That's Now Floundering?

           By Rudy Barnes, Jr., October 4, 2025

      Trump made an official visit to Britain recently and seemed right at home with the grandiose privileges of monarchy--even though Britain is a democracy.  We need to remember that the American colonies fought a revolutionary war to be free of British power.  If Trump’s vision of America represents following the example of Britain it may portend another civil war.

Freedom is in decline with radical right demagogues in America, Israel and Russia.  In seeking to expand their power, they seem to have forgotten the lessons of history and are likely doomed to repeat those painful lessons in legitimacy.  Democracies are not a panacea.  Trump, Netanyahu and Putin became demagogues in putative democracies.  Will people ever learn?

After an initial period of power and prosperity, despotic democracies in America, Israel, and Russia are becoming the rule rather than the exception.  No powerful and affluent democracies have survived the initial lure of materialism, hedonism and greed of human depravity that have “trumped” altruism in their politics.  

With the demise of America, China is the likely hegemon.  Putin is seeking to restore the Russian empire while Ukraine is fighting for its independence, and a Zionist Israel has resorted to the genocide of Palestinians to expand its borders.  Demagogues now control politics in America, Russia and Israel, and they have used religion to promote their corrupt regimes.

“Ben Rhodes has used Britain as a warning of what America could become.  Trump’s second term has embodied the cruder approach of taking control.  Grabbing what can be got for the sake of what is to be got. There is no pretense of democratic values. The considerable powers of the state have been leveraged to reward Trump and his associates, punish his foes and elevate a largely white, Christian, conservative American identity: to “take back control.”  

“We cannot turn back the clock. Democracies will be increasingly diverse, no matter what politicians say. The American and British people will continue to suffer, enthralled by the siren song of blood-and-soil nationalism and imperial nostalgia. The challenge for those who rightly fear this approach is to reclaim the better aspects of our stories as a source of identity and accountability, not supremacy.” 

“Both of our countries have benefited when we strove to represent something bigger than a narrow conception of nationalism. And both countries can retain a sense of pride and patriotism about the better aspects of our past without whitewashing or clinging to it. That requires leaders who embrace societal change instead of fearing it.

Winston Churchill once described democracy as the worst form of government, except for all the others.  But no pluralistic democracy can be sustained without a moral culture based on providing for the common good.  That’s a big order for cultures corrupted by materialism, hedonism and greed.  America will have to go back to the future more than 250 years ago to find it.

Notes:

“Ben Rhodes has used Britain as a warning of what America could become. President Trump’s visit to Britain was designed to flatter with imperial imagery: Windsor Castle, a carriage ride, flyovers, a glimpse at the Churchill archives at Chequers, the prime minister’s country estate. This pageantry veiled the reality that Britain is no longer the superpower of these symbols.  Of course, the nostalgic diplomacy serves a purpose. For Trump, it sates his thirst for validation as the predominant Western leader, with the British establishment genuflecting before him as so many powerful American institutions have done since his re-election. For Prime Minister Keir Starmer, it continues a careful strategy of avoiding worse outcomes on tariffs and the war in Ukraine while showing that Britain has a foot in the door on technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Yet underneath the surface, both the United States and Britain are suffering through crises of identity. For two centuries, London and Washington were the seats of empire, the vanguard of the West, the proselytizers of liberal democracy. Our leaders used to meet to shape the direction of world events; now the balance of global power is shifting to the East. Our leaders used to reaffirm a story of shared democratic values; now the United States has taken an authoritarian turn, and Mr. Starmer is struggling to prevent Britain from doing the same.As our nations go through a crucible of change, it is no wonder that our people are anxious and unmoored, our politics destabilized. 

In the summer of 2016, British voters severed their relationship with the European Union, motivated by a nationalist backlash to globalization. A few months later, American voters stepped into the same undertow, electing a president who railed against immigration and international norms, institutions and obligations. Within a matter of months, both nations turned against their own stories. 

Are the American and the British people better off than they were before 2016? They are still polarized and pessimistic. Rampant inequality and overburdened safety nets feel beyond the control of governments. Global conflicts have escalated, from wars in Europe and the Middle East to trade wars and tensions with China. Post-Brexit Britain should offer a cautionary tale to America about the dangers of isolationism dressed up as exceptionalism. 

“Separated from Europe, the value of British citizenship has shrunk. Growth has stagnated. And the social welfare state has continued to depend upon migrant labor. Trump and Mr. Starmer will be judged on whether they can fend off this resilient far right with a return to normalcy: sober leadership, stricter border enforcement and the pursuit of better economic indicators. Given our long and intertwined history, there is much that can and should bring the United States and Britain together. But the special relationship should be rooted in learning from our shared past,” not by going back to the future more than 250 years ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/trump-britain-state-visit.html.     

 

The Greatest Commandment as a Moral Imperative for Pluralistic Democracies

The Greatest Commandment as a Moral Imperative for Pluralistic Democracies

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 27, 2025

Charlie Kirk claimed to be a Christian conservative who supported Donald Trump.  But no one who claims to follow the universal and altruistic teachings of Jesus as the Word of God can support Donald Trump. The greatest commandment is a summary of the teachings of Jesus that calls believers to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves.

At the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, his widow tearfully said she forgave the man who killed her husband.  At the same service, Trump stated “I hate my opponent.”  It was a nasty sentiment that Trump has publicly proclaimed throughout his Presidency, but it was clearly out of order at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

Repercussions from the Kirk assassination have impacted Christianity from colleges to neighborhood churches.  Kirk’s Turning Point is a mixture of religion and politics that has transformed evangelicalism, especially among the young, while traditional congregations are aging and becoming smaller.  The American church is destined to have its own Turning Point.

On Christianity after Charlie Kirk Ross Duthat has observed that “eight years ago, religious conservatives accepted the leadership of a flagrant immoralist as the price of protection against a then-ascendant-seeming secular progressivism.  This political compromise fractured churches, divided pundits and introduced a further crisis into an American Christianity already dealing with scandal, disaffection and decline.”

“But today conservative Christians are eager to tell a different story, and Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was subordinated to preaching, with Erika Kirk’s  extraordinarily moving message of forgiveness for her husband’s killer.  It was a stage for a narrative of revival, recovery, conversion, Christian strength.”

David Brooks has noted,”There’s been a lot of mingling of Christianity and politics since Charlie Kirk was murdered. Tucker Carlson opened one of his shows with a straight-up sermon: “This is a religion committed to love above all and to living in peace and harmony, truly. It’s a universalist religion that believes that every person has a shot at heaven. It’s not exclusionary at all.”

Given the rise of popular new variations of Christianity in politics and the decline of the church, it’s questionable whether the church will survive as the major social institution that it has been in the past.  Familiar but smaller versions of the church will no doubt continue to survive to satisfy traditional desires, but American churches are likely to continue to decline.

With the contentious relationships between competing Christian organizations like Turning Point, change is certain, but what kind of change it will produce--other than declining churches that is already evident--is yet to be seen.  David Brooks has indicated that one thing is certain:  There is no confusion between the teachings of Jesus as a moral imperative in pluralistic democracies and the evil narcissism of Trump.

Notes:

On Ross Douthat’s Christianity After Charlie Kirk, see   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/opinion/charlie-kirk-memorial-christianity.html

On David Brooks, Why we Need to Think Straight About God and Politics, see 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/opinion/kirk-trump-christianity.html

Behind Charlie Kirk’s Spiritual Journey that Fused Chrstianity and Politics, see  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/charlie-kirk-christian-faith-politics.html.

Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Conflicting Concepts of Jesus, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

Musings on the the Dismal Failure of the Church and Democracy in America, see

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xWM4o586mCu6QoL69XAhkxfjjh6daTnNdnGnkJ05cZ8/edit.

On Jefferson's Jesus and Moral Standards of Legitimacy in Religion and Politics.docx

#564: Are You a Conservative or a Liberal?

  

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 20, 2025

I always considered myself a non-partisan moderate conservative, but after Charlie Kirk was described as a conservative who supported Donald Trump, I’m clearly not that kind of conservative.  Those who support Trump are committed to support his corrupt political agenda rather than providing for the common good, and are not true conservatives.

Until Trump’s domination of the Republican Party, there were conservatives and liberals in both parties who supported both liberal and conservative issues that provided for the common good.  But with partisan polarization voters are limited to choosing between Republicans or Democrats, and have no real choice for voters beyond party lines.  

David Brooks recently wrote, Why I Am not a Liberal, and I share his support of the maxim of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, that “the central conservative truth in politics is that culture, not politics determines the success of a society.”  Brooks also said that the central liberal truth is similar, but different: Democratic politics can change culture and save democracy from itself.”

The truth is that the politics of a majority in a democracy reflects their cultural values and preferences.  The Democratic preference for cash benefits to the poor will always be needed, but should be limited since they don’t always improve a nation’s culture.  The Bidenomics of throwing money at problems before the 2024 elections were politically ineffectual.

In American democracy today the majority of people define their cultural and moral standards through partisan politics.  In a pluralistic democracy political standards should provide for the common good.  Even then there are major differences, but today America’s polarized politics are dominated by partisan hatred rather than seeking to promote the common good.

Voters must end America’s polarized partisan politics to avoid the partisan trap that defines all national candidates along partisan lines.  That’s the only way to restore politics that can provide the common good.  Before the era of Trump we had leaders in both parties who had conservative and liberal perspectives of what constituted the common good.

   

Conservative and liberal labels don’t work in today’s polarized partisan politics since voters have to choose between Democratic and Republican candidates who put loyalty to their party ahead of other political issues.  You can be either conservative or liberal, but you won’t find any candidates who feel free to support true conservative or liberal political views.

Brooks ends up saying that “If you find some lefties who are willing to spend money fighting poverty but also willing to promote the traditional values and practices that enable people to rise, you can sign me up for the revolution.”

Notes:

David Brooks has cited a study “suggesting that merely giving people money doesn’t do much to lift them out of poverty. Families with at least one child received $333 a month. They had more money to spend, which is a good thing, but the children fared no better than similar children who didn’t get the cash. They were no more likely to develop language skills or demonstrate cognitive development. They were no more likely to avoid behavioral problems or developmental delays.  Kelsey Piper noted in another study published last year that families given $500 a month for two years had no big effects on the adult recipients’ psychological well-being and financial security. A study that gave $1,000 a month did not produce better health, career, education or sleep outcomes or even more time with their children.”  Piper noted that once children’s basic material needs are met, characteristics of their parents become more important to how they turn out than anything additional money can buy.”

Conservatism, as you know, is a complete mess in America right now. But reading conservative authors like Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gertrude Himmelfarb and James Q. Wilson does give you an adequate appreciation for the power of nonmaterial forces — culture, moral norms, traditions, religious ideals, personal responsibility and community cohesion. That body of work teaches you, as Burke wrote, that manners and morals are more important than laws. You should have limited expectations about politics because not everything can be solved with a policy.”

Matt Bruenig’s contention was typical of liberals.  He scorned the very idea that focusing on human capital is a good way to improve social mobility. He wrote, “Cash is the key part of every welfare state in the developed world and absolutely critical for keeping poverty down.” We shouldn’t make fighting poverty overly complicated, he argued. “As a policy matter, these are mostly solved problems.” Just write people checks.

Progressives, by contrast, are quick to talk about money but slow to talk about the values side of the equation. “This materialistic bent leads to all sorts of bad judgments. For example, Joe Biden and his team had one job: to make sure Donald Trump never set foot in the White House again. They tried to accomplish that the only way they knew how: throw money at the problem. The vast bulk of the new Biden spending went to red states to employ workers without college degrees. Politically, the project was a complete failure. Populism is not primarily economic; it’s about respect, values, national identity and many other things. All that spending did not win anybody over.  Today most of our problems are moral, relational and spiritual more than they are economic. There is the crisis of disconnection, the collapse of social trust, the loss of faith in institutions, the destruction of moral norms in the White House, the rise of amoral gangsterism around the world. I wish both right and left could embrace the more complex truth that the neocon Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan expressed in his famous maxim: “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change culture and save it from itself.” If you can find some lefties who are willing to spend money fighting poverty but also willing to promote the traditional values and practices that enable people to rise, you can sign me up for the revolution.”  See Why I Am Not a Liberal, By David Brooks, at  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/opinion/liberal-conservative-left-right-politics.html.       

The Cultural Seams that Threaten America's Pluralistic Democracy

The Cultural Seams that Threaten America’s Pluralistic Democracy

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 13, 2025     

In 1860, slavery broke the cultural seams of race in American democracy with a civil war.  It was followed by cultural seams shaped by greed, materialism and hedonism.  In 1929 the Depression forced Americans to address endemic poverty, and that was followed by World War II, in which America’s revived economy saved America and the world from Hitler’s tyranny.

In 2016, Trump was elected as President and reelected in 2024.  Since then America’s democracy seems doomed by a President with 34 felony convictions who is determined to undermine America’s Constitution.  Voters and our churches have ignored the altruistic and universal moral teaching of Jesus in America’s polarized partisan politics.

Trump’s Republican regime has been reshaped into forms unfamiliar to those who aren’t Trump insiders and privy to his corrupt and narcissistic views.  Chaos has become the political and economic norm, represented by a wildly fluctuating stock market and the likelihood of increasing inflation caused by Trump’s tariffs. 

Today cultural redemption in the darkness of Trump’s oppressive politics make a return to normalcy unlikely without a major moral, cultural and political reawakening before America’s 2026 midterm elections.  America is a divided nation ruled by Trumpists with little hope of it returning to political normalcy anytime soon

Since the Moral Majority of the 1980s American politics have been controlled by a two-party duopoly that set the stage for the primacy of a radical right Republican majority that was exploited by Trump’s assumption of power in 2016 and reaffirmed in 2024.  During that time Trump made no secret of his megalomania.

The feeble moral altruism of Christianity has been defeated by the self-serving nationalism of Trump’s narcissistic politics, which have been more about voters rejecting a divided liberal Democratic Party than accepting Trump’s corrupt policies. Trump has demonstrated the power of partisan politics over reason and common sense.  

Polls indicate a majority of Americans now oppose Trump’s economic policies based on the inflation caused by his widespread tariffs.  With a massive and unsustainable national debt of over $36.7 trillion and a falling dollar, there’s no public support for Democratic spending policies, or for a third party.  American democracy is caught in a political trap of its own making.  

The illusion of democracy as a political panacea in America’s polarized partisan politics is history, but we’ll have to wait and see if the 2026 midterm elections can restore some hope for repairing the Constitution and a functioning Congress.  Meanwhile, we can only hope that the cultural seams in American democracy can withstand the internal pressure of self-destruction. 

Notes:

Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts after prosecutors alleged that he engaged in a "scheme" to boost his chances during the 2016 presidential election through a series of hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and then falsified New York business records to cover up that alleged criminal conduct.  "I did my job, and we did our job," Bragg said following Trump's conviction.   "There are many voices out there, but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken."   https://abcnews.go.com/US/anniversary-hush-money-conviction-trump-continues-fght-criminal/story?id=122325361   "The alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump's state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal," the Supreme Court said in a brief unsigned opinion, though four justices said they would have granted Trump's application. For Trump's criminal defense, he relied on then-defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who now serve as the deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general. Earlier this week, Trump announced that he plans to nominate Bove -- who led a purge of career law enforcement officials before the Senate confirmed his nomination to help run the DOJ -- to the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.   "That President Trump's defense in fact takes the form of a new constitutional immunity announced by the Supreme Court after his trial ended, rather than a new statute enacted by Congress, should if anything cut in the President's favor," lawyers with the Department of Justice argued in a brief submitted on Tuesday.  The appeal -- as well as the ongoing appeal of Trump's $83 million judgment in the E. Jean Carroll civil case and half-billion-dollar civil fraud case -- is proceeding on uncharted legal grounds as Trump wields the power of the presidency in his defense. He has characterized the prosecutors who pursued the cases against him as politically motivated, and has touted his electoral victory last November as a political acquittal.  "The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people," Trump told reporters as he left court following his conviction last year. "And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here."

I’m an independent in my politics, and I’m still waiting on third-party candidates who have both altruistic morality and the potential to win a national office.  I have often referred to Trump as an evil man, and have reminded people who support him that they are supporting the power of evil in the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil.

Musings on Our Broken Democracy and Corrupt Culture

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 6, 2025

America’s culture is corrupt and we have a  broken democracy.  Can they be restored?  Only if Americans can rediscover the altruistic values that gave birth to our nation, and both parties in our polarized two-party duopoly seek altruistic standards of political legitimacy that provide for the common good; and that will take a new birth of American libertarian democracy.

Donald Trump and his dominant Republican Party have undermined the Constitution, and the Democratic Party is unable to function as the loyal opposition.  The first step to restoring the checks and balances of the Constitution is to fix America’s broken 2-party duopoly. A one-party system cannot produce the political choices needed for freedom and democracy.

  

The Founding Fathers who drafted the Constitution were committed to religious freedom in the Bill of Rights, and did not promote any religion.  Until the 1960s many red states had one-party (Democratic) politics.  As an independent from South Carolina I can vouch for the need for political competition at all levels of government to provide political legitimacy.

Non-partisan politics can depolarize partisan politics; but both parties are opposed to doing that.  And since popularity is the measure of success in both politics and religion. partisan polarization has been exacerbated by nationalist forms of Christianity,   That has allowed popular forms of Christian nationalism to corrupt both politics and religion.

A one-party system cannot produce the choices needed for freedom and democracy.  While some churches have avoided politics altogether, others have supported demagogues like Trump, further polarizing partisan politics and preventing the church from being the moral steward of democracy.   

 In 1787 the Constitution was approved, and George Washington was elected America’s first President.  The Civil War divided politics in America, but afterward both parties promoted candidates committed to reconciling major political differences.  But In 2016, Donald Trump was elected President and re-elected in 2024; and that changed everything.

The challenge for the church is to acknowledge its role as the moral steward of God’s universal Word as taught by Jesus in the greatest commandment, but without promoting any political party or individual candidates.  That’s a challenge in all religions; even ancient Judaism provides examples of competition for belief between sects supporting secular idols and Yahweh.

Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian.  His teachings are universal and altruistic moral standards of legitimacy for all people.  While the church has taught that Jesus was divine and that belief in Jesus as God’s only Son is the only means of salvation, Jesus taught that we love God by loving others, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves.

Notes:  The church can be a moral steward of democracy by promoting the moral teachings of Jesus without promoting a specific party or candidate.  See Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Virtues and Vices of Christian Morality.  Of course, every voter can individually promote whoever he/she supports.

Human Rights and Providing for the Common Good as Priorities in Democracy

Human Rights and Providing for the Common Good as Priorities in Democracy

            By Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 30, 2025

Events in Gaza and Russia have challenged the priority of democracy in America’s foreign policy.  Trump, Netanyahu and Putin are demagogues in democracies who have demonstrated that democracies do not guarantee politics that provide for the common good and are not an adequate defense to violations of fundamental human rights.  

The violence in Ukraine and Gaza and Trump’s radical right American regime are unlike conventional aggression where outside forces oppress a population.  They are more like slavery and colonialism where corrupt politicians brutalize those in their own democracies.  They ignore International human rights that are not just for those in wartime, but for all victims of violence.

Trump, Putin and Netanyahu have used Hitler’s playbook to promote their illicit power using nationalism and radical religion to establish their oppressive regimes.  For all of Trump’s braggadocio, he and his Republicans have not opposed the war crimes of Putin or Netanyahu.  They are all complicit in making a mockery of democracy and the rule of law.  

Hitler set a precedent for distorting democracy and Christianity into a political tyranny.  Putin convinced Russian Orthodox Christians to support his restoration of a Russian Empire in his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, while Netanyahu mobilized fiercely loyal orthodox Jews into a Third Temple Movement to keep him in power and avoid charges of political corruption.

Trump has equivocated on opposing Putin’s unprovoked aggression in Ukraine and Netanyahu’s killing over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza.  Those war crimes are evidence that demagogues like Trump can exploit divisions in a democracy.  But most Americans have proven that they are oblivious to that danger, having elected Trump twice as their President.  They have not learned that democracy cannot protect people from political depravity.

America has put too much emphasis on democracy to protect it from tyranny.  Trump has demonstrated how the exploitation of America’s polarized politics have made it vulnerable to unprincipled politicians.  Even in America a popular demagogue can undermine liberty and freedom with a majority of weak-minded and greedy supporters who ignore the warning signs.

Emphasizing fundamental human rights in the Constitution and providing for the common good rather than favoring the rich and powerful are moral principles essential to protect a democracy from the corruptions of human depravity.  Americans should have learned by now that democracy can offer a false sense of security from unprincipled politicians like Trump.

Democracy makes us the masters of our political destiny--for good or bad.  Democracy is not a panacea.  Too often we choose leaders like Trump who are committed to promote their own power and ignore human rights and the common good.  For democracy to be good, we must choose leaders committed to protect human rights and provide for the common good.

Musings on Ukraine's Fight for Its Independence

Musings on Ukraine’s Fight for Its Independence 

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 23, 2025

The primary moral imperative in American democracy is providing for the common good, and Donald Trump’s election twice as America’s president is proof that in U.S. politics, power trumps altruistic morality.  Trump exemplifies political immorality with ample evidence that American Constitutional democracy now fails to provide the rights that it provides. 

The church has been the primary source of moral standards in America, but it has failed to be a moral steward of democracy.   Thomas Jefferson once observed that “the teachings of Jesus are the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and they are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions as we love ourselves.  Its  moral imperative is to provide for the common good.

Trump is not alone in giving his personal power precedence over the providing for the common good.  Putin in Russia and Netanyahu in Israel have both nationalized their religions to promote their political power.  Putin has used the Russian Orthodox Church to promote his unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, and Netanyahu has used a Zionist Third Temple Movement to promote the expansion of Israel through its oppressive occupation of Gaza.

In a democracy power resides in the voters, and demagogues like Trump, Putin and Netanyahu have thrived within democratic regimes shaped by the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  All religious cultures have affirmed the precedence of political power over promoting the common good, in spite of their many prophets of altruistic politics.

History shows that democracies are as corrupted by materialism, hedonism and greed as autocracies, with little precedence for justice over political corruption and oppression.  In the continuing cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, democracies have been as corrupted by demagogues like Trump as those redeemed by more altruistic moral leaders.

The greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves, including those of other races and religions may provide the altruistic moral imperative to provide for the common good.  But in practice the church has ignored Trump's narcissistic emphasis on his personal power rather than providing for the common good.

What does American  exceptionalism mean today? In Trump’s America there is more emphasis on seeking power and glory than on providing for the common good.  With popularity now the measure of success in religion and politics, America’s values are more compatible with materialism, hedonism and greed than with altruistic moral standards.

Has America lost the universal and altruistic vision exemplified by Jesus?  Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian, but the church has made Jesus Christ into an exclusivist icon, limiting salvation to Christians who believe in church doctrines never taught by Jesus.  Can a diminishing church resurrect a universal Jesus committed to provide for the common good and save itself and America from themselves?

Notes:

Thomas Friedman has written on “how Ukraine diplomacy has revealed how-Un-American Trump is. The United States must provide the security guarantees that would deter Russia from ever trying this again and encourage our European allies to promise that Ukraine will one day be in the E.U. — forever anchored in the West. Trump is unlike any American president in the past 80 years. He feels no gut solidarity with the trans-Atlantic alliance and its shared commitment to democracy, free markets, human rights and the rule of law — an alliance that has produced the greatest period of prosperity and stability for the most people in the history of the world. I am convinced that Trump looks at NATO as if it’s a U.S.-owned shopping center whose tenants are never paying enough rent. And he looks at the European Union as a shopping center competing with the United States that he’d like to shut down by hammering it with tariffs. The notion that NATO is the spear that protects Western values and that the European Union is possibly the West’s best modern political creation — a vast center of free people and free markets, stabilizing a continent that was known for tribal and religious wars for millenniums — is alien to Trump.  “However much European leaders pile on their flattery of Trump, it’s clear the fundamental bond of trust that underlay the 80-year success of the trans-Atlantic economy, that served the U.S. so favorably for decades, is now ruptured.  There is only one conclusion: The only sustainable way to stop this war and prevent it from coming back is a massive, consistent Western commitment to give Ukraine the military resources that will persuade Putin that his army will be chewed apart. Putin’s punishment for this war should be that he and his people have to forever look to the West and see a Ukraine, even if it is a smaller Ukraine, that is a thriving Slavic, free-market democracy, compared with Putin’s declining Slavic, authoritarian kleptocracy. But how will Trump ever learn that truth when he basically gutted the National Security Council staff and shrank and neutered the State Department, when he fired the head of the National Security Agency and his deputy on the advice of a conspiracy buffoon, Laura Loomer, and when he appointed a Putin fan girl, Tulsi Gabbard, to be his director of national intelligence? Who will tell him the truth? No one. See Ukraine Diplomacy Reveals How Un-American Trump Is at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/opinion/trump-russia-ukraine-putin.html.