Trump Should Remember that He is Just as Expendable as He Believes Others to be

If there is anything consistent about the inconsistent Trump administration so far, it has been a belief in self-importance. Amidst the endless threats and flip-flops of tariffs on other countries, the vague words around peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza, and the winding road of the domestic war against left-wing wokery, the administration has never stopped believing in one underlying principle: that the other countries fundamentally need the US more than the US will ever need them, and that in the face of the administration's agreessions, its enemies cannot credibly muster effective counterattacks.

Of course, some facts justify the arrogance. There is no getting around the fact that the economies of Canada and Mexico depend heavily on free trade with the much larger American economy, while American businesses and consumers, if push comes to shove, can find alternatives for their neighbors if they are willing to sacrifice low prices and shorter lead times. With the Democrats in disarray after a thump electoral loss still fresh in memory, domestic opposition to Trumpian policymaking is simply not unified enough to deter further rightward shift of American governmental institutions.

Yet, even recent history has taught us that no one and no idea is indispensable and that the peak of power exposes onself to the full criticism should lofty visions do not fulfill the promise of greater prosperity but end up hurting those that reforms based on the visions are supposed to help the most. The Trump administration, after months in the office and a whirlwind of controversial moves both inside and outside the country, is at that crossroad. The administration can no longer retain popular support based on what it "will" do but increasingly, must answer to what it has already accomplished.

The arrogance soon clashes with the questions of "whose side is Trump really on?" He promised to support the ordinary blue-collar workers by kicking out the immigrants stealing their jobs and bringing back to America the vast manufacturing plants that represented steady, well-paying jobs to raise multigenerational families on. Yet, even before any factory gets built, they have to contend with soaring inflation on still over-stretched personal finances, as the cheap foreign imports that they relied on to make ends meet become more expensive or simply unavailable.

Abroad, right-wing parties hailed Trump's reelection as the beginning of a new global movement toward clawing back national sovereignty and cultural homogeneity from the supranational entities like the EU and liberal internationalists who tolerated millions of refugees who dilute great Christian traditions. But as Trump threatens to annex Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, and Gaza, right-wing nationalists should begin to wonder whether Trump is really for sovereignty or is he actually using the term just for American expansionism at the expense of everyone else.

So far, Trump has shown little care about the increasing ambivalence of his supposed allies. Speaking about the negative repercussions of his expanding list of tariffs, he remarked that short-term pain is unavoidable for America's long-term revival. The implicit askance for individual sacrifice is not only inconsistent with the great American tradition of individualism, but it is also entirely incompatible with a political system in which many policies are dictated and implemented to generate positive results that are synchronized with a four-year election cycle.

Perhaps, without saying so explicitly, Trump has really started to not just act arrogant but live it: he is really convinced that he is above the need for popular support and that everyone around him is quite expendable as he goes about fulfilling his belief of what a "great" America ought to look like. If someone starts to question him or no longer fits with his political and economic needs, he could simply jettison them from his worldview with little practical consequences. In believing that he can go it alone or find new allies when needed, Trump is persuading himself that he is truly politically invincible.

He should be a bit more careful. People see others as expendable only until they become expendable in others' eyes. There is no doubt that at some point in the recent past, Trump did have an overwhelming mandate to remake America, taking the country in a new direction in response to a large segment of the population that was dissatisfied with the status quo. But we ought not to forget that he is by no means the only one with the ability to manipulate anger for personal gain. He will be all the more isolated and alone when a bigger demogogue, even brasher and more fickle, comes along to take his place.