Nobel winner warns Trump has made US 'despised like nobody has ever been despised'
The United States may never recover from how Donald Trump and his administration have carried themselves, a Nobel Prize winner has warned.
Whether the U.S. is capable of clawing back its global standing is yet to be seen, but economist Paul Krugman believes Trump will have fundamentally changed how the world views the country. Writing in his Substack, the award winner warned that the world will no longer rely on the U.S., particularly when it comes to defense.
He wrote, "Trump constantly insists, in speeches and social media posts, that he took over a weak, despised nation and restored its international reputation. This is clearly something that matters a lot to him and his sense of self-worth. It’s also the total opposite of the truth.
"A stunning poll from Politico — just released, but taken last month — confirms what I and other observers strongly suspected: America is now widely despised, despised like nobody has ever been despised before.
"I don’t mean that we’re disliked, although that too. But this isn’t a case of oderint dum metuant — let them hate so long as they fear. Instead, the world increasingly holds America in contempt. Our former friends no longer consider us trustworthy."
Krugman went on to note that Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom no longer believe being an ally "offers protection" or that "a good relationship with America will deter potential enemies from attacking them."
He continued, "At this point, a plurality of the population in every one of our erstwhile allies considers China a more reliable partner than the United States. If this is world respect, what would world contempt look like? Why has America’s global reputation fallen so far, so fast? It’s not a mystery.
"After all, why would anyone consider America a trustworthy ally when Trump keeps insulting our neighbor and former closest ally, Canada, by insisting that it must become the 51st state and repeatedly calling its Prime Minister 'governor'? Why trust us when Trump tried to bully NATO member Denmark into handing over Greenland?