Trump's America is Un-American

World
Europe

The US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries has aroused indignation and shattered hopes of the people who toil hard on the American land, who cling to their American dreams and who believe in a liberal world order.

Hugging himself, Trump later called the ruling “a tremendous victory for the American People.” Well, “a victory?”

The United States was founded on the land of the free, which, however, has been tossed away by the 45th president, who pulled his country out of the Paris climate accord, the TPP, UNESCO, and the Iran nuclear deal. He likened Mexicans entering the US to invaders. He is immersed in gaining tight bargains from trade provocations against China. He has pushed his Western allies away with irrational tariffs, jeopardizing the most valuable relationships of the US.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch meeting with Republican lawmakers, in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, DC, June 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Trump administration’s unilateralism is leading the US astray to isolationism, or back to isolationism. What he’s doing has raised once again the debate over whether the US is really founded on globalism or isolationism.

There’s no denying that over the past 200 years since 1771, America was haunted by isolationism for quite some time. The 1823 Monroe Doctrine reached a peak in this philosophy. But from the late 19th century on, the country embarked on the path of de-isolationism, with the onset of two world wars.

A flurry of financial institutions including the Bretton Woods system, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank was set up. Also with NATO, the US has fostered a cast-iron trans-Atlantic relationship. The world transitioned to a post-war order led by the United States. For seven decades, the international community managed to avoid destruction and chaos because we believed in trust and reciprocity in a liberal world order.

Protesters come out to protest the Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Trump's travel ban in New York City, June 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

Now Trump, the leader of the very architect of this world order, is abdicating the common values of idealism and freedom. His "America First" doctrine is a doctrine of withdrawal. He is sending America to a new era – it’s true – but an era of decline with a barrage of clumsy diplomatic tactics.

The consequences will be disastrous. America was born from the iconic Mayflower in the 17th century when it carried the ship of pilgrims to the East Coast during the Great Puritan Migration. These early settlers helped set the American foundation that has stood for more than 200 years.

Moreover, a surge of German survivors from World War II headed to the US in the 1940s and 1950s, contributing immensely to the advancement of US science and technology as well as the prosperity of its economy. In the meantime, German Americans also flourished in various areas.

And do not forget Trump’s paternal grandparents were both born in Germany, but the president has tried to deny his German heritage.

Without immigrants, America would have been Un-America. But Trump’s rhetoric and action point to undermining the very foundation of the United States. He and the enforcers of the ruling are making America Un-American.

Furthermore, with the travel ban, Trump is opening a Pandora's box for his somehow estranged European allies. Imagine what will happen if Germany, France, Italy all rejected the influx of immigrants from the war-ridden Middle East and the chaotic African continent.

The EU is already plunged in a gridlock regarding who should take responsibility for immigrants and refugees, but there's concern that they might follow Trump's lead. By then, the Western world will be isolated.

When every builder of the existing world order flouts the rules, the integrity of the international order will be lost.

(The author is a journalist for CGTN Opinion.)