As I watched election returns on the evening of Nov. 5, 2024, I was struck by the sense that Americans had missed the memo. Across the nation, in blue states as well as red, county after county showed a marked rightward shift. It was so seemingly normal. What do you do when groceries are much more expensive than four years ago, the border is flooded with immigrants? You vote for the other guy.
It has been only four weeks since Donald Trump took the oath of office, and I wonder whether casual voters or even those who truly despised Joe Biden have taken onboard what they’ve done. The American republic is barreling toward a constitutional crisis as the president attempts to rule as an autocrat (“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” he claimed), a heedless billionaire smashes through people’s lives and complex systems he doesn’t understand with sadistic glee, the Justice Department descends into corrupt bargains antithetical to the ethical standards upheld for two centuries, a Putin/Assad apologist sits atop our intelligence agencies, a conspiracy theorist/anti-vaccine fool directs our health agencies, and the United States is in the process of reversing 80 years of world leadership.
Let’s focus on the global about-face, because however grievous the other depredations, they are, at least in theory, reversible. Abandoning world leadership is not.
Violating the understanding that Vladimir Putin’s naked aggression made him a pariah among decent nations (he is an indicted war criminal), Trump engaged in a 90-minute phone call with him (over Volodymyr Zelensky’s head), invited the dictator to visit the U.S. and suggested that Russia be asked to rejoin the G7. All of these marks of favor were offered in exchange for Putin doing what? Promising to withdraw troops? Returning the kidnapped Ukrainian children? Agreeing to cease targeting hospitals and power plants? No. For chatting on the phone with the world’s most credulous narcissist.
Next, the out-of-his-depth weekend TV host-turned secretary of defense offered two unilateral concessions to Putin by declaring that “The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement” and that no U.S. troops would be part of any security guarantee to Ukraine.
Isolating Ukraine from Europe and keeping it out of NATO has been Russia’s aim for 30 years. While NATO membership was not offered, it was never entirely rebuffed either — until now. Though Pete Hegseth attempted to walk back his comments in the face of criticism, the damage was done. Before a single water glass was filled at the negotiating table, the U.S. conceded some of Russia’s main aims. Besides, much worse damage was right around the corner, emanating from the vice president.
‘Intolerant of neo-Nazis’
JD Vance delivered the most shameful address by an American leader to a European audience in living memory. Vance did not mention Russia’s continuing aggression against Ukraine at all. Instead, he presumed to lecture America’s allies on their supposed failure to uphold our shared values. How so? By restricting speech too harshly and — the truly soul-crushing part — being too intolerant of neo-Nazis. In sync with co-president Elon Musk, who has blessed the AfD as the only hope for Germany, Vance scolded the Germans for being unwilling to enter into coalition with a party that wants a “180-degree turnaround in the politics of remembrance” about the Holocaust, plans to deport all Muslims from Germany and believes Germans should be proud of their soldiers from both world wars.
Not only is it morally bankrupt to ignore the fascistic aggression of Russia, it is galling to watch an American leader who supported the attempted violent overthrow of our 2020 election and who has called for the president to defy the Supreme Court and rule as an autocrat, to presume to speak as a small-d democrat. European diplomats exiting the meeting told the Financial Times that “America itself is now a threat to Europe.”
All of that was a prelude to Trump’s total betrayal of Ukraine — and with it, America’s global role. In a screed that mixed Kremlin talking points (Zelensky is a “dictator”) with Trumpian grotesqueries (alleging that Ukraine, not Russia, started the war, that Zelensky was a “modestly successful comedian” who hoodwinked Biden into spending $350 billion on defending Ukraine when the true figure is $183 billion that Republicans and Democrats approved), Trump has surrendered Ukraine to its tormentors without so much as a backward glance. On the contrary, he’s bursting with self-congratulation for this “negotiation to end the war with Russia” which “all admit only TRUMP … can do.”
What the world knows, and will not unlearn, is that the U.S. cannot be trusted. Faith in America, and in basic American decency and goodwill, has kept the peace for generations, but that is over. Nations that refrained from getting nuclear weapons because they were secure under the American umbrella will rush to get bombs. Nations that resisted China’s bullying will make their accommodations. The Taiwanese can kiss their independence and their freedom goodbye. Formerly close allies will not share intelligence about impending terrorist threats.
That is what Americans did on Nov. 5. Voters were thinking about high costs. Perhaps they are beginning to see what a price we will all pay for that election.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.
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