A Day of Infamy
Will February 24, 2025 be the day that the United States stopped being the leader of the free world?
On August 14, 1941, the United States of America became the leader of the free world.
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On that day, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met aboard the USS Augusta in Plancentia Bay, Newfoundland and issued what became known as the Atlantic Charter. It affirmed the joint determination of the United States and the United Kingdom to defeat Hitler’s Germany. As British military power waned after standing alone against Hitler for almost two years, the United States was rapidly becoming the most militarily powerful country in the history of the world.
In the Atlantic Charter, Churchill and Roosevelt declared that “their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other”; that “they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned”; and, that they wished “to further the enjoyment by all states, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.”
It thus marked the commitment of the United States to use its vast economic resources to create overwhelming military power that would be used to underwrite a world order in which peaceful trade would flourish and aggressive wars of conquest would be resisted. In World War II, the United States delivered on those promises to the extent possible given a devil’s bargain with Joseph Stalin, and the Anglo-American alliance became the nucleus of NATO and a broader system of western alliances centered on the United States. That system of alliances has allowed the United States to create a world order that has worked to our benefit. It has enhanced and projected American power around the world. It has worked and worked well for the United States.
Donald Trump views American alliances as a sucker’s game in which Uncle Sam is taken for a ride and receives nothing in return. His complaints against American allies are not without substance. Many NATO countries have had shamefully small defense budgets, relying on the United States to provide deterrence. Trump is right to demand that they contribute more to the maintenance of the world order from which they benefit. But he is right to make those demands precisely because NATO, and more broadly the western alliance system centered on the United States, is a good thing. It is something in which Americans should take pride and which they should cherish.
Trump is fundamentally wrong to view alliances as a sign of American weakness. For 80 years, a large part of what it means for the United States to be a powerful nation is that it can expect the support of the wealthiest and freest countries of the world. That gives the United States influence and global reach that literally no country in the history of world has been able to match. He is rapidly destroying one of the twin pillars on which that American power has been based. That power is not based solely on economic or military clout. It also comes from the fact that, despite the inevitable machinations of nations and America’s compromises and shortcomings, ultimately the United States has been committed to the defense of western democracy and has stood against aggression and military adventurism.
Earlier today, the United States sided with Russia, Iran, and North Korea, voting against a UN resolution condemning Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukrainian war. Every single one of America’s European allies, with the exception of Victor Orban’s Hungary, voted against the United States. This comes on the heels of Trump’s claims that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the war. He has point blank refused to criticize Vladimir Putin, while decrying Voldymyr Zalenskyy as a dictator. All of this is obscene.
Far from Making America Great Again™, this makes America less powerful, less influential, and makes the world less friendly to our interests. If our allies believe that we will side with aggressive dictators against countries that we have supported, that we will stand with Vladimir Putin rather than the countries of NATO, and that we cannot be trusted to oppose aggressive wars of conquest, they will not trust us. If we do that, they shouldn’t trust us. And that lack of trust means that we will be less powerful, less able to safeguard American interests, and ultimately less able to make the world a better place. It is not in America’s interest to reward those who launch wars of conquest. It is not in America’s interest to live in a multipolar world of regional hegemons rather than the rules-based system birthed by the Atlantic Charter. It is not in America’s interests to side with dictators who are invading democracies.
I hope and pray that the damage that Trump has done in the last few weeks is not permanent, but if it is, I fear that February 24, 2025 will mark the day when the United States of America stopped being the leader of the free world. It is a deeply shameful thing to sell out an ally that has bravely resisted, with our support, an aggressive tyrant. Deeply shameful.
I am furious at what Trump is doing to Ukraine. More than that, I am furious at what he is doing to the United States.
Until next time.