End of imperial America

By Artchil B. Fernandez

The end of imperial America has begun with Trump 2.0. Actually, the decline of the United States (US) as an imperial power started decades ago, but Trump will accelerate the fall of the American Empire. This is good news for the global South, which has long been victimized by US imperialism for more than a century.

American historian Alfred McCoy makes a strong case for the end of the American empire and its global power in an article for TomDispatch titled “Requiem for an Empire: How America’s Strongman Will Hasten the Decline of U.S. Global Power,” posted on November 19, 2024, a few days after Trump recaptured the US presidency.

While many leading American historians like Paul Kennedy and Piers Brendon contend that US global supremacy will persist until 2040 or 2050, McCoy argues that “the demise of the United States as the global superpower could come… in 2025…” McCoy foresees “a second Trump term in office, starting in the fateful year 2025, might actually bring a hasty end, silent or otherwise, to an ‘American Century’ of global dominion.”

“After the steady erosion of its global power for several decades, America is no longer the — or perhaps even an — ‘exceptional’ nation floating above the deep global currents that shape the politics of most countries,” McCoy asserts. He further notes that “a second Trump administration, whose policies are likely to simultaneously damage the country’s economy and further degrade Washington’s world leadership,” will hasten the downfall of imperial America. These are some of Trump’s policies harmful to the US.

Among the flurry of executive orders Trump issued on the day he assumed office was withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement. “By quitting that agreement, the U.S. will abdicate any leadership role when it comes to the most consequential issue facing the international community…” McCoy points out. Such abdication of leadership not only diminishes the US’s global role but is also detrimental to its economy. “As the world shifts to renewable energy and all-electric vehicles, Trump’s policies will undoubtedly do lasting damage to the American economy… Any attempt to slow the conversion of this country’s utilities to the most cost-effective form of energy runs a serious risk of ensuring that American-made products will be ever less competitive,” he adds.

Then there are tariffs, which Trump called “the greatest thing ever invented.” In his inaugural speech, Trump once again reiterated his erroneous idea on tariffs. “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump blustered. Imposing tariffs, according to McCoy, will only burden Americans, impoverishing them instead. “Such duties will undoubtedly end up crippling American farm exports, thanks to retaliatory overseas tariffs, while dramatically raising the cost of consumer goods for Americans, stoking inflation, and slowing consumer spending.” Economists warned that tariffs will undermine the US economy.

Trump will likely upend many of America’s multilateral and bilateral alliances, calling them a burden. Trump ignored the fact that the US is a global power due to these alliances, which the US used to maintain ties with countries and influence them. “…withdrawing from multilateral pacts is likely to weaken such ties and so American power…” McCoy stresses. The US cannot project its hard power without these alliances.

Richard D. Wolff supports McCoy’s contention. Trump 2.0 is hurtful to the US.

Isolationism and economic nationalism, the core of Trump’s thinking, according to Wolff, will wreak havoc on America, quickening the fall of its empire. Tariffs, trade wars, and “America first” will not make America great but irrelevant. “America first rhetoric risks the self-destruction of the United States’ global position,” Wolff emphasizes.

One key component of the American empire is “soft power,” demonstrated alongside the fearsome display of “hard power.” Wolff maintains, “U.S. soft power was and remains a kind of political advertising.” The US withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), among Trump’s first acts, torpedoed US “soft power.” Such retreat from international involvement pushes the US to global insignificance.

Trump and his MAGA fanatics forgot one important fact: the current neo-liberal global order, which they attack and want to destroy by turning inward, was created and established by the US. The international neo-liberal order is the American empire. The current prosperity of Americans hinges on their global empire. The loss of their global empire will not only end US global dominance but also the affluence Americans enjoy now.

More than a hundred years ago, US capitalism ventured outside and built an empire to generate wealth for Americans, bringing them material opulence, and making America the most powerful nation in the world. Globalization—the neo-liberal international order—is grounded on free trade: the free, unhindered, and unencumbered flow of finance, goods, and services among countries. This is the American empire.

Protectionism, isolationism, trade wars, tariffs, disengagement from the world, and similar measures are anathema to the neo-liberal global order. Yet Trump, the current “emperor” of imperial America, is enforcing these anathemas, actions that are destructive to the global arrangement the US built. The world is witnessing the suicide of an empire.

McCoy concludes that Trump’s “second term will almost certainly be one of imperial decline, increasing internal chaos, and a further loss of global leadership.” He projects that “as respect for American authority fades, Trump may yet resort to threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal…” but “it seems quite likely that the world pays next to no attention as the American Century ends in silence.”

However, for the exploited millions of people in the global South, the fall and end of the American empire is a cause for celebration. Hail Donald J. Trump, MAGA Führer!!!