{"id":3020,"date":"2026-07-09T11:06:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:06:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:06:49","slug":"trumps-secret-weapon-and-the-one-thing-that-makes-world-leaders-bow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3020","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s secret weapon \u2014and the one thing that makes world leaders bow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At the NATO summit just ended, Trump lashed out at other NATO members, saying he was \u201cvery disappointed with NATO\u201d and asking \u201cWhy are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they\u2019re not there for us?\u201d He reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, blasted European energy and immigration policies, insulted Spain, and worried allies by declaring that the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow \u201cdoesn\u2019t affect us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Sundowning\u2019 Trump has ensured America\u2019s \u2018decline\u2019: Nobel economist<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet throughout the proceedings, Trump was treated by other NATO powers with as much courtesy and respect as any U.S. president has ever received from NATO \u2014 perhaps more. \u201cIt was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,\u201d Trump crowed when it was over. <\/p>\n

What happened? It\u2019s important to understand the source of Trump\u2019s power. <\/p>\n

His power doesn\u2019t come from his being president of the most powerful nation in the world. In fact, his arbitrary tariffs, absurd war in Iran, and outright abduction of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife have reduced America\u2019s standing in much of the world. <\/p>\n

Nor does his power come from his MAGA base, which is now having second thoughts about supporting someone who got the U.S. involved in another Middle Eastern war, caused prices to rise, and still refuses to release the complete Epstein files. <\/p>\n

Nor does his power flow from his strategic brilliance or cunning. Of all U.S. presidents in modern times, he easily ranks as the stupidest. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s power comes from his willingness to violate all the norms, rules, and laws about how American presidents are supposed to act \u2014 to do anything <\/em>that helps him accumulate more wealth, power, and glory, and wreak vengeance on anyone who has tried to get in the way. <\/p>\n

The NATO presidents and prime ministers treated Trump with extraordinary deference because they\u2019re afraid of what he might do if he doesn\u2019t get what he wants. <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s NATO, Iran. the World Cup, the 2020 election, making billions off his presidency \u2014 or anything else \u2014 he\u2019s unconstrained by norms, rules, treaties, and laws. <\/p>\n

When the global community of World Cup fans objected to his intervention last weekend on the side of the U.S., he responded, \u201cIf [Belgium] beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we\u2019ll say it was \u2014 I\u2019d say \u2014 it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note how he corrected himself \u2014 from we\u2019ll <\/em>say to I\u2019d <\/em>say. Ethics is all about \u201cwe\u201d \u2014 our collective judgment about what\u2019s right or wrong. Trump doesn\u2019t give a fig for the world\u2019s or the nation\u2019s judgment about right or wrong. He doesn\u2019t think about right or wrong. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been missing the boat by characterizing Trump as breaching ethical standards. Ethics assumes some sort of agreed-upon standards against which a breach can be defined and measured. But Trump doesn\u2019t have any standards at all. His entire approach to life, to business, and now to the presidency, has nothing whatever to do with standards. It\u2019s about winning at all costs. Whatever it takes.<\/p>\n

Trump isn\u2019t unethical. He\u2019s non-ethical<\/em>. He isn\u2019t immoral. He\u2019s amoral. <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for most of us to conceive of living in a Trumpian world without standards, norms, rules, or laws \u2014 a world composed only of transactions and calculations in which the only test is what\u2019s in it for me<\/em> and at what cost.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump busted for claiming credit for something he didn\u2019t do<\/a><\/p>\n

And that difficulty most of us have of imagining such a world is itself the key to Trump\u2019s power. <\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re president of the United States or anyone else, it\u2019s always possible to extract personal benefits by being the first to break a widely accepted norm. <\/p>\n

Think of a small town where people don\u2019t lock their doors or windows because of the unwritten rule that no one steals. Under these circumstances, the first thief to commit robberies operates at a huge advantage. He can effortlessly get into anyone\u2019s house. <\/p>\n

This first-mover advantage disappears as soon as people catch on and start locking their doors and windows. But the thief doesn\u2019t bear the costs of the locks or the hassle of locking all the doors and windows. He exploits the community\u2019s trust. Then, once he destroys that trust, he leaves it to them to protect themselves against such future violations.<\/p>\n

That asymmetry \u2014 small cost for the violator of trust, large costs for everyone who has to thereafter protect themselves \u2014 is the very essence of Trump\u2019s MO. He gains wealth, power, and glory for himself by shattering norms, after which everyone else has to pick up the pieces. <\/p>\n

As president, he has far bigger norms to shatter than does a small-down thief, and at far greater benefit to himself<\/p>\n

As president, his thuggery has paid off, at least for himself. But it has also damaged all sorts of institutions that America and the world have relied on \u2014 from NATO to FIFA to the U.S. Department of Justice \u2014 institutions based on the trust that no American president would ever do what he\u2019s done. <\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be remembered as the most powerful president America has ever had, but also the worst. <\/p>\n

When he\u2019s gone, all of us will be paying to clean up the mess. We\u2019ll have to buy an infinite number of locks for an endless number of doors and windows, and spend huge amounts of our time installing them and then keeping them locked.<\/p>\n

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Desperate Trump plans to use military on 2026 midterms: Experts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the NATO summit just ended, Trump lashed out at other NATO members, saying he was \u201cvery disappointed with NATO\u201d and asking \u201cWhy are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they\u2019re not there for us?\u201d He reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, blasted European energy and immigration …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's secret weapon \u2014and the one thing that makes world leaders bow - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's secret weapon \u2014and the one thing that makes world leaders bow - 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