The US elections are a strange phenomenon. The country’s position as a global empire makes its domestic politics everyone’s business every few years. American domestic decisions have shaped international geopolitics, and elections have increasingly become make-or-break events for people across the world. Recently, changes in the US government have led to a complete policy flip-flop, leaving allies and enemies scrambling.
The Trump era has made this uncertainty impossible to ignore. Domestically and internationally, there is a broader tendency to categorize his behavior as an ugly anomaly in history. He is often singled out as the sole problem, a crazy old man, with the hope that his eventual demise will somehow restore global stability. But the political reality is different.
For most of the world right now, American elections mean preparing for the worst. Their consequences extend far beyond the US borders, including the fracturing of NATO, ego-driven trade wars with historical allies, yet another war in the Middle East, and the devastating reversal of environmental policies. Smaller countries that once built their economic and security arrangements around American leadership are now asking essential questions that seemed unimaginable 2 decades ago- How do we survive without US Aid? How do we reduce our trade and weapons reliance on America? Can we plan our future around a country whose policies might change completely after another election?
Meanwhile, inside America, there are broadly three responses to Trump. A third of the electorate actively supports him, whether because of or despite his bigoted politics. Another chunk remains politically disengaged, treating international affairs as a TV program until they affect their personal lives. And then there are those who actively oppose him; and some are nostalgic about the good old days, reducing the entire problem to Trump’s character.
Many Americans risk overlooking a fundamental problem. Trump behaves in an unruly manner, occupies media space constantly with fresh tantrums, and we grow numb to it. It is normalizing things that should not be normal. It leads people to hate Trump, treating him as a political aberration; they assume that removing him from power means returning to peace. It ignores the history of flawed institutions and government mistakes that made his rise possible.
Trump is not a typical corrupt politician. His personality is useful in concealing his actions of an international mafia boss. He doesn’t operate as a powerful US leader; he operates on personal favors and whims. In Trump’s America, institutions are not independent entities with responsibilities; they are instruments for more power, protection, loyalty, and personal enrichment for Trump. Relationships are transactional, loyalty is rewarded, dissent is punished, and rules matter only when they serve the people at the top.
If we look at the Trump administration through this mafia lens, its random, crazy, self-sabotaging behavior starts to make sense. Loyalty to Trump is rewarded with economic aid in Argentina. Congress is never asked before they start a war on Iran as a favor to Israel. Greenland is threatened with a US invasion despite being a NATO ally. Russian invasion of Ukraine is used as a tool for business gains of the Trump family. Domestic opposition is treated as personal enemies, and Trump’s minions replace government officials in “peace deals”.
This is not about one person’s abuse of power. An individual cannot dismantle institutional safeguards without people willing to cooperate, institutions unwilling to resist, and a political system that was customized over past decades to enable this behavior. In this mafia system, all entities play a part. However convenient, we cannot blame one person for a country of about 350 million people.
Propaganda networks in the media play their assigned role in this. In the past 2 decades, political communication has shifted to social media algorithms. It now revolves around pushing a million narratives, manufacturing outrage through bot farms, and blaming one another without acknowledging the public’s common enemies. When every controversy becomes another identity crisis, political accountability loses its meaning. People may not agree with what is happening, but we all eventually become players in the outrage game rather than questioning its rules.
The international consequences are also significant. American power was never built on military or economic blackmail. Its influence depended on alliances, institutions, and relationships that took decades to establish. Trust in American commitments was an asset, and whoever came to power, however bad, knew how to use it. America remains powerful for now, but that power is eroding. Other countries are quickly diversifying their economic relationships, developing independent defense capabilities, and establishing alternative partnerships. A post-Cold War world order is emerging. Once these alternatives set in, restoring old ties will not be easy for Americans.
There is a lesson here from Russia, where decades of illiberal democracy, public apathy, a polluted media environment, and military aggression against their neighbors have increasingly changed their previous impression as a world power. America is not Russia yet, but it is a case study of how a former empire sabotages itself in modern times.
To think about what happens after Trump, we all must recognize that this was never just a Trump problem. It is a deeply rooted problem of the modern political landscape, oligarch-controlled media, institutional weaknesses, and unresolved racism that enabled his rise. The world will learn to live without America. The question is whether America will recognize what is lost before it is too late. All empires eventually decline; America’s turn will come too. Our responsibility, as spectators and participants in this international order, is to prepare for that possibility, learn from its mistakes, and ensure that the same political failures do not take root in our own countries.
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