THE NEW YORK TIMES — OPINION:
ALGORITHMS AND AUTOCRATS HAVE
RATTLED GLOBAL STABILITY. / TO SAFEGUARD LIBERTY, THE U.S.
MUST REMAKE ITS MILITARY.
AS RECENTLY AS a decade ago, it would not have been hard to unite a broad majority of Republicans and Democrats around a shared idea of what America's military power should be for.
Defense of the homeland. Deterrence of would-be aggressors. Cooperation with treaty allies and protection of kindred democracies confronting common foes. Humanitarian aid and relief. The security of the global commons: sea lanes, air corridors, undersea cables, digital networks. Upholding the laws of war.
In sum, the ability to prevent war wherever possible and win it whenever necessary — all for the sake of a safer, more open, rules-based world.
The Trump administration brings a starkly different mind-set to the issue. Out with the Department of Defense;
back to the Department of War. Well-established rules of engagement have yielded to blowing up small boats on the high seas. In place of standing with Ukraine’s embattled democracy against Russia’s invasion, the administration has adopted a course of moral equivalence between the two sides while seeking profits from the war through
arms sales and
mineral deals.
As for the kind of military alliance-building that typified American foreign policy for much of the 20th century, President Trump has reverted to threats of conquest more common in the 19th. And this is to say nothing of his efforts to deploy troops to American cities, impose political loyalty tests on senior officers or hamstring reporters at the Pentagon.
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The Editorial Board | Sunday, December 14, 2025
Donald Trump is not America’s friend, and he is most certainly not Europe’s. Trump’s best friend is himself and his second best friend is Putin.
When it comes to geopolitics, Trump is absolutely clueless, as are his acolytes. They are rich, but they are also clueless. Either that or they just don’t care.
Trump’s re-election to the presidency should show any right-thinking person proof of why one should be very wary of electing a businessman to high office. For a businessman, the bottom line is always gain and profit. He is always thinking of his bank balance. A cursory glance at Trump’s behaviour shows this to be true. But the fact is—and it’s a very important fact—that a country cannot be run and governed on a businessman’s principles. The leader of a country, even more so the free world, has far, far more important things to think about than profit. A man/woman who tries to lead his/her country on the profit principle is destined to fail. Trump’s miserable record will prove this to be so. History will not be kind to Trump. His legacy is bound to be tarnished. — © Mark Alexander
