Editor's note: Chris Hawke is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and a journalist who has reported for over two decades from Beijing, New York, the United Nations, Tokyo, Bangkok, Islamabad and Kabul for AP, UPI, and CBS. The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Now that Donald Trump has agreed to start a transition of power, many Democrats are concerned that President-elect Joe Biden will have no more luck pursuing a progressive agenda than Barack Obama had during his eight years in office.

Over the last four years, Trump took a sledgehammer to efforts to solve all of the most urgent issues threatening humanity: environmental destruction, climate change, global poverty and global public health.

Biden will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, put in place all of the environment regulations that Trump cancelled, rejoin the WHO and try to restore U.S. ties with its allies and trading partners.

But global solutions to global problems seem further away than ever.

It is becoming obvious in the wake of the 2020 election that even with Trump gone, the U.S. is only a few hundred thousand votes away from turning on its allies and partners again in four years, once more deciding to put "America First." The world can no longer trust the U.S.

Biden faces significant domestic opposition to efforts to solve the critical problems facing the entire planet. And globally, on every continent, there are examples of cynical right-wing populists seeking to rally their people against global cooperation and toward blind nationalism. These people no longer trust institutions or global organizations.

Trump and his followers represent a rejection of experts, science and scientists. They are against the idea that the U.S. has any sort of system-wide problems that need grand solutions. They don't trust the government to help them.

Trump's followers are extremely loyal. They will support and believe in him no matter what lies he spins. A few are rubes being duped, but most don't mind Trump's falsehoods as long as he is fighting for the values they believe in. For them, truth and lies no longer matter. Trust is gone, and all that remains is power.

After decades of being let down by Democrats, Republicans, and even the leaders of their own religious faiths, Trump supporters are deeply cynical about all institutions, and basically want government to leave them alone. From this perspective, the right's obsession with guns can be seen as the ultimate vote of no confidence in the power of the government and police to protect them.

They are against experts because the proposed solutions that will inconvenience people, cost money, and, in their view, won't work anyways.

Regarding the environment, they don't trust their individual actions will make a difference. Trump famously complained about using paper straws instead of plastic straws. People know plastic microfibres have been detected at the top of Mount Everest and in the lowest depths of the Pacific Ocean, but can't see how their choice of straw matters when it is impossible to shop for food without plastic packaging.

Many Trump supporters think the reporting about COVID-19 is a massive overreaction. Lockdowns are just delaying the inevitable. Government efforts to stop the infections are a pretext to seize more freedom from the people. This explains their refusal to wear a mask.

In the view of many Trump supporters, the federal government is bad enough. Welcoming a global level of governance would just reduce people's freedom even more. From this perspective, climate change has been caused by globalization and corporate interests, so international "solutions" will only worsen the problem.

There are television networks, web sites and entire communities of people who support and reinforce this profoundly cynical worldview. To be fair, a lot of this criticism is valid. Paper straws are performative when no meaningful action seems on the horizon to reduce plastic packaging. But on the whole, Trump supporters are holding a needlessly bleak and pessimistic worldview that sees human progress as an illusion — despite much evidence to the contrary, such as the new COVID-19 vaccines.

The world is changing fast and global cooperation is desperately needed. However, Trump's supporters and people like them around the world are unwilling to cede their religious traditions, wealth, or daily habits for a common good they believe will never materialize.

It is as if the people of the world are stuck in a global version of the classic prisoner's dilemma. Everyone is better off if we work together — but the safest bet is to be selfish because everyone else is anyways. Without trust, everyone loses. But without trust, building solutions to global problems will be impossible.

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