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View all search resultsAmerican Götterdämmerung
The Trump administration’s mounting blunders are hastening the transition to a post-American world order.
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United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh attend a plenary session on Aug. 31, 2026, as finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries meet in North Carolina, the US.
(Reuters/Sam Wolfe)
I
n what United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has heralded as an "Economic D-Day", the US is threatening to tighten the noose around Iran with sanctions on countries that continue to trade with it. But far from compelling others to join its efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic, the Trump administration’s mounting blunders are hastening the transition to a post-American world order.
It’s understandable why US “allies” are reluctant to join President Donald Trump’s costly, misbegotten war of choice. They weren’t consulted beforehand, and they obviously do not want to get involved now that the US has failed to topple the Iranian regime or devise a Plan B. Why, for that matter, would anyone come to help an administration that constantly berates its friends and partners, threatens to seize their territory (Greenland and Canada), and hits them with punitive tariffs?
There are two ways to convince others to go along with you: persuasion and bullying. But in Trump’s case, neither is working. Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is right to conclude that D-Day, in this case, means “desperation day.”
Persuasion requires credibility. Others must believe that the administration has achievable objectives and the means to attain them. But Trump has a well-earned reputation as a liar, so no one believes anything he says. In June 2025, he claimed to have “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capacity, and in March he declared that the US had “literally obliterated” Iran’s military. A war that was supposed to last four weeks, or perhaps a little longer, is now into its seventh month. And everyone from the Iranians to the Canadians knows that any agreement Trump signs will be as sturdy as tissue paper.
Bessent was supposed to be the cabinet member with the most credibility. But he has now squandered it with his recent, failed attempts to steer the bond and currency markets. His real motive was almost certainly to signal to his boss that he is “doing something.” But why do Trump a favor when he may turn on you the next day, as he has done to just about everyone who previously carried his water?
With persuasion off the table, Trump’s only option is the one he prefers anyway: bullying and chest thumping. But this presents a problem. He and Bessent seem not to realize that the US cannot push others around as much as it once did. Nor does Trump understand the changing nature of modern war or the evolving US role in the global economy. Perpetually stuck in the past, he is unable to realize that America’s share of global GDP (in purchasing-power-parity terms) has shrunk by half since the end of World War II, from roughly 30 percent to just under 15 percent in 2025.
More importantly, the US has lost control of key strategic chokepoints. The advanced chips used in most cutting-edge technologies are produced in Taiwan, and China dominates magnets and rare-earths production and processing. In these cases, even Trump realizes that America no longer holds all the cards. He may want to throttle the Islamic Republic’s oil revenues by targeting the buyers; but China purchases 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports, and it still holds a rare-earths trump card.
