Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit Highlights China's Expanding Influence

"...Donald Trump believes in himself, in Trumpism and MAGA...."

"...He does not believe in American exceptionalism, the international rules-based order and America’s traditional alliances and friends...."

"...Trump is the state, and America’s national interests are the same as his own...."

"...With the power he has managed to grab from a compliant Supreme Court and a Republican Congress, against an ineffective Democratic opposition and cowed media, Trump now has nearly all the tools to impose personalist rule over all areas of American life...."

"...But internationally, he has to face other leaders who, with strong wills, personalities and national interests of their own, will not capitulate so easily...."

"...His personalist rule is a defining feature of autocratic and authoritarian regimes...."

"...It is antithetical to democracy and good governance...."

"...With the power he has managed to grab from a compliant Supreme Court and a Republican Congress, against an ineffective Democratic opposition and cowed media, Trump now has nearly all the tools to impose personalist rule over all areas of American life...."

"...But internationally, he has to face other leaders who, with strong wills, personalities and national interests of their own, will not capitulate so easily...."

"...On the world stage, America no longer exerts the influence it did even a year ago...."

"...Like many great empires, it is being brought down from within...."

"...Ryan Wiggins, chief of staff for the pro-democracy advocacy group The Lincoln Project, summarized this sad state of affairs:..."

"...“Trump has a child’s understanding of the world and is driven by ego and whatever impulses come into his weak mind...."

"...It’s causing the U.S. economy to burn as he pursues trade and economic policies that are completely unworkable and destroys U.S. leadership on the global stage...."

"...And he’s doing a lot of it to distract from the Epstein files.”..."

"...Wiggins also highlighted the role the GOP has played in aiding and abetting the loss of American prestige and power on the world stage...."

"...“Equally as dangerous is the utter refusal of Congressional Republicans to do their jobs and provide a check on Trump’s destruction of the post-World War II order,” she said...."

"...“They do not care at all about America, only their own local power and ability to get on right-wing media.”..."

"...Polls consistently show that Americans are generally poorly informed about foreign policy and global affairs...."

"...Enabled by the myth of American exceptionalism, this lack of knowledge has left much of the public unprepared for an authoritarian alliance between global strongmen and the American right, aimed at dismantling the country’s multiracial, pluralistic democracy...."

"...If the American people want a glimpse of our increasingly likely future, we only need to look abroad to Putin’s Russia and Orbán’s Hungary and their authoritarian models of government and society...."

"...These are the shining cities on a hill, to paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, that Trump and the right are now looking to as role models...."

"...American exceptionalism will not save the country from this dark future — or from the betrayal of its historic role as leader of the free world...."