Democracy Journal – Donald Trump Re-Meets the World

The upcoming second Trump term will not be a mere retread of his first, post-Obama and pre-pandemic administration. Instead, Trump will return to power in a changed landscape, with new billionaire backers like Elon Musk and new conflicts that will shape his terms and choices. As Nancy Okail explains in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, this second Trump era will defined by new depths of corruption, Trump’s personal self-interest, a backdrop of “Great Power Competition” with Russia and China, and a global justice system on life support.

Writes Okail:

By eroding domestic institutions and bankrupting international ones—such as the World Health Organization and the World Food Program—Trump will undermine the very mechanisms that are vital for addressing global crises. Climate change, geopolitical instability, and pandemics do not—and will never—respect borders. It is impossible to safeguard Americans, not to mention people around the world, from these and other threats without international collaboration. While there are rightful critiques of our domestic and international institutions, destroying them without well-thought-out replacements will make life worse, not better, including for Trump’s own constituencies.

As international progressives, we must not be deterred, and there are four key areas on which we must focus to go beyond resistance and build a better world.

Read the full piece “Donald Trump Re-Meets the World” in Democracy Journal.