The Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield
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The Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield
Episode 21- No One Is Afraid of Trump Anymore: America's Declining Global Influence
The world is watching America with growing concern as Trump's second term unfolds with diminishing global influence. Despite domestic policy victories, international leaders increasingly ignore presidential demands while pursuing their own agendas without fear of meaningful consequences.
This episode of The Greenfield Report provides an unvarnished assessment of America's declining international stature four months into Trump's second presidency. While the administration celebrates domestic wins and distracts with controversies, Putin continues bombing Ukrainian cities, Netanyahu proceeds with military operations in Gaza despite civilian casualties, and Gulf states extract concessions while offering token gestures in return.
The economic impact of these failed policies cannot be overstated. A 15% decline in the dollar's value, reduced foreign investment, and a 14% drop in tourism signal a troubling trend. Perhaps most alarming is the emerging brain drain, as international students who contribute an estimated $80 billion to the American economy increasingly choose alternative destinations like the UK and Canada. Research institutions face funding cuts and talent shortages that threaten America's innovation leadership.
Meanwhile, the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to counter what CBS reported as "a few dozen" protesters in Los Angeles raises serious questions about proportionality and priorities. Defense Secretary Hegseth's statement about readiness to deploy Marines further fuels concerns about the militarization of domestic law enforcement.
Subscribe to The Greenfield Report for continued analysis of how America's changing role affects global stability and what these shifts mean for our collective future. Your understanding of these complex dynamics has never been more essential than in today's rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape.
Welcome to the Greenfield Report with Henry R Greenfield, your gateway to understanding today's geopolitical landscape. With 50 years of experience across 10 countries, henry shares expert insights on world affairs, offering practical solutions and engaging guest perspectives. Dive into the Greenfield Report for lively discussions on the issues that matter report for lively discussions on the issues that matter.
Speaker 2:This is Henry R Greenfield reporting from Europe, wondering if it is Taco Tuesday or Paper Tiger Wednesday. Or does Donald J Trump really have a plan? And is that plan to attack, to forget about his foreign policy defeats on every continent and to turn to attacking his domestic foes, declaring them either enemies or the deep state, or both, while the real enemies of the United States, like Putin, just do whatever they want? As, yes, trump did send troops, but not to support Ukraine, rather to attack his own citizens in the place Trump despises the most Los Angeles, california. Over 2,000 National Guards, federalizing them for the first time in decades to quell a protest of an initially reported few hundred that turned out to be no more than actually a few dozen, according to CBS. And on top of that, secretary of Defense Hegseth said he is ready to call in the Marines from a nearby Marine base. You might be a little shocked and ask Defense Secretary Hegseth said what and for what, and why did he just say that? So is Trump's only plan to draw attention away from his foreign policy failures? His dramatic bromance blow up this week with Elon Musk that dominated the headlines for a few days and reverse what is now incontrovertibly obvious to all non-Americans, and that is what I want to say to the Americans today that this endless string of losing for Donald Trump and the United States since he has taken office four months ago in a blaze of glory, endless executive orders and promises, none of which he has kept.
Speaker 2:Internationally, regardless of how Trump or his supporters, or Fox, where he has plucked countless cabinet members and advisors, including Hegsett, or Project 2025, or the seemingly endless spin machine of bro podcasters or Christian evangelists, let's admit it, as the entire order already knows, trump is floundering on the international stage. Of course, you would never know it with the equally preposterous pronouncements and proposals to rename. Well, here's just a few of the national monuments, airports and highways that his supporters want to see renamed in honor of the 45th and now the 47th president want to see renamed in honor of the 45th and now the 47th president. This is, by the way, in no particular order, the so-called Trump train, where some in Congress say they will refuse to vote for the final big one, beautiful tax cut bill unless the Washington DC metro is renamed after Trump, is renamed after Trump. How about a non-existent $250 bill, even though a law enacted in 1866 forbids placing the likeness of a living person on US currency.
Speaker 2:Say what you want about Trump's competency at this point, but he most certainly is alive and well, unlike what he said about Joe Biden this week, which was yet another distraction, and we will not even repeat that craziness. That, by the way, was after the first proposal for Trump, which was to replace Trump on the $100 note, where Ben Franklin has been for decades and decades, meaning all those jokes touting it's all about the Benjamins would have to change to. I've got a briefcase full of donalds. Who loves mcdonald's? Then there are the airports, like dulles to be changed, of course, mount rushmore, which christine gnome gave trump a bust of and then was promptly named homeland security secretary. Endless highways and dams and, my favorite, a new fighter, the F-47, in honor of the 47th president. By the way, that would be a boondoggle too, where the Ukrainians this week showed that $750 million aircraft sitting on a tarmac can be taken out anywhere in the world by drones costing about $1,000. As they say, the world of military has changed, while Trump's military and Trump's approach keeps marching on. Speaking of military, marching when they are not doing so on the streets of LA. Don't forget Trump's birthday this week, which will be honored with a military parade this year. He says, of course, in honor of the birth of the US Army 250 years ago, and it is also Flag Day, and his supporters are pushing for you got it to make it a national holiday. So many honors for such an accomplished man.
Speaker 2:This week has yet been another triumph of domestic policy for Trump. He got the House to approve his one big, beautiful bill enshrining $4 trillion extra in debt to be added to the ginormous $37 trillion deficit. That is also approaching another $2 trillion a year in interest payments alone, as the interest rates cannot be dropped, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, as Trump's erratic tariffs have upended the economy. Perhaps Trump can get some more names for some of these things, such as Trumpflation or how about a Trumpflagration, but never mind. To be honest, he is winning domestically, as the domestic opposition is incredibly weak. The right-wing activist Supreme Court, which was a pet peeve of conservatives to stop before Trump, generally rules in his favor, including allowing Trump to deport, get this half a million legal I repeat, legal refugees back to their home countries where they fled from including Venezuela, by the way, which could also mean for many of them, certain death. Never mind, as Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt also subtly puts it, every time it's all in a day's work in a day's work.
Speaker 2:Still, the US economy is slowly bottoming out from the four years of steady growth under Joe Biden, where the GDP, as we always remind you, increased 50 percent from 21 trillion US dollars to 30 trillion, smashing the anemic growth of China and leaving the no-growth or, let's be honest, recessionary situation of Trump when he left and COVID in its wake. Yet Trump continues to have solid support, regardless of price changes, as inflation came in at a low 2.5% the last of the Biden legacy as every corporation in America and its 340 million people stocked up on everything from toilet paper to laptops in anticipation of the next round of ups and downs, particularly with China, which is currently stuck at 30% on top of other selective tariffs, making it impossible to eat it, as Trump keeps telling Walmart and other corporations with minimal competitive margins, keeps telling Walmart and other corporations with minimal competitive margins. Maybe we should pause for a moment and ask well, what are the other 96% of the people in the world doing in response to all of the up and down and around Trump moves, and is it fair to really call him the taco? Or Trump always backs down or paper tiger, meaning a loud, loud roar but no teeth and certainly no bites, presidents, of course, if you are on the streets in la right now, you wouldn't say it's no bite. You wouldn't say that if you lost your job in the federal government. And guess what? Now that musk is gone, they're hiring people back in the thousands. Such incredible competency. Well, how can that be if trump is triumphing even as the chairman of the kennedy center well, maybe they'll name that after him too and still managing to get in a few rounds of golf this week, as in every week, or last night once again, he was at the ufc fights, where he sat ringside with his entourage as jared and ivanka made a comeback, along with marco rubio, while the crowd roared for trump.
Speaker 2:All the while the left rages on about corruption and the 400 million dollar use 747 that will cost more than that to keep it up which has been preposterously delivered already and using now I'm quoting has been accepted by the Pentagon. Really, the Pentagon now accepts free 400 million dollar old jets? Well, maybe they will get a write-off on their taxes, but then again, no one is going to be paying taxes anymore other than consumers, as Trump is cutting taxes, especially for the rich. You know the consumers will be paying those import taxes, as in tariffs or what is surely coming soon, a VAT or value-added tax, as Trump copies the Orban playbook, whose VAT, by the way, of 27 percent, is among the highest in the world and still Hungary only manages to achieve the worst economy in the European Union. Maybe Trump should just forget about it and declare himself to be president for life.
Speaker 2:According to his supporters, trump has told Russia what to do. He controls the Gulf, of which he has now renamed faithfully from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Arabia. You know you have to do something for that free plane. Besides meeting with jihadists from Syria and wishing them well and Godspeed Qatar, we love you, man. He is beating China and kicking out up to a million foreign students, costing the economy of the United States up to $80 billion per year, costing the economy of the United States up to $80 billion per year. He has Harvard on the run, trying to win with death by a thousand cuts, each worth hundreds of millions, and now into the billions. Research in cancer and a hundred other diseases have been halted and PhD students are running for the exits Soon between RFK Jr and Trump, the vaunted US research and education system, the envy of the world, will be a hollowed out mess.
Speaker 2:Hello London, hello Paris, hello Rome, hello Shanghai, hello Toronto. Not far away, in the same town, for former harvard folks and my favorite, shenzhen, were tens of thousands of the 28 million that were trained by apple over the years, and their 55 billion a year that apple put in again for over 20 years in investing in china is really paying off for their shareholders. But and in no particular order has also also done the following Apple has helped create the Chinese electric vehicle industry. It has seeded all of its Chinese competitors, who now have their own operating system, not Android, which Trump cut off in Trump 1.0 and will soon be the Chinese system that is the de facto operating system in the world for mobile phones and all other operating systems. And, most of all, an untold number of Chinese scientists and engineers trained by Apple who are now leading the Chinese military into AI and new technology and is about to pass the United States. Hey thanks, steve Jobs, and a special thanks to you, tim Cook. I love my 401k, even if it does mean the end of the United States in the world as a military technology mobile phones hub and wiping out the US and European auto industry with low-cost EVs.
Speaker 2:So then, why are Europeans, the Gulf States, putin, xi Jinping, bibi Netanyahu, the Houthis of all people and countless others ranging from Canada to Australia to Europe, all smiling? And what are they doing? Turning their backs on the United States and Trump? Well, say, it isn't so. And, as David Brooks points out, the US has all but lost its moral leadership via Musk and Doge, by eliminating USAID, where Brooks says not me, but Brooks says up to half a million have or are starving right now around the world due to canceling the food and other assistance, including vaccines, which will lead to the proliferation of diseases coming back, as they inevitably will do, to the United States. Thanks, rfk Jr. Nice to know you aren't just letting children die with a totally preventable outbreak of measles, but you are an equal opportunity purveyor with your friends. Musk and others are preventable diseases around the world.
Speaker 2:To sum it up, it has been yet another busy week for Donald Trump On the international side. Unfortunately, it was a total failure as, while Ukraine took out the Russian long-range bombers, trump's only contribution to the global right-wing autocracy was getting CPAC and Kristi Noem to scare Poland into voting for a right-wing boxer, as Trump threatened to cut off Poland if they did not vote for him. Back in the day we would have called that meddling, but in the age of Trump it's just as Caroline Le Lovett would say all in a day's work. Still here we are four and a half months now into Trump 2.0 and there's nothing but defeats and mocking of Trump everywhere around the world. And that's what's important for you Americans to know and for the rest of the world to also understand. The rest of the world is literally moving on as Trump is out with his National Guard in LA or arguing with Elon Musk, or trying to put through his giant tax cut. Putin, as an example, has completely thumbed his nose at Trump. Knowing Trump would do nothing, of course. The paper tiger humiliating Trump time after time, with no ceasefire, nothing but continued bombing of cities in Ukraine.
Speaker 2:Trump's surrogates lost every single election, from Australia to Germany, to France, to the UK, and on and on it went. Except now they've gotten a little bit more clever by sending out Kristi Noem. And Kristi stood up there and she made it clear if you don't vote for us in Poland, donald Trump's going to cut you off and the right-wing candidate, the boxer, barely eked out a victory. But let's be honest. Everyone should know that Trump is getting more sophisticated in his meddling in elections, a la the Russian approach around the world. The Gulf states got Trump to give them everything they wanted, which we've already talked about, and in return, trump got a free plane. Saudi will now be an AI crypto capital, but guess who will be in control? Prince MBS. He will control that and not Trump, and Trump, of course, has given him the latest military hardware. Well, control that one baby, because Trump MBS is in charge, not you.
Speaker 2:Bibi Netanyahu in Israel has totally ignored Trump and keeps grinding up Gaza, with no real progress except to starve the people of Gaza. And even this week, when they let in some aid, horrific scene came out, where refugees were shot down by Israelis who said that they had gotten out of line. Well, speaking of starving Trump, musk and Doge, as we mentioned, blew up USAID. What else is happening in Africa? Well, speaking of South Africa, the White House is no longer a go-to place as everyone is avoiding it to make sure Trump doesn't use it to lie about your country. Just this week, when Trump had Chancellor Merz in, it happened to be on D-Day, 81 years after, and Trump made a comment that can only be regarded as beyond callous. He said to Chancellor Merz Well, that was not a very good day for your side. Are you kidding me? 80 years later, merz, the chancellor of a free Germany with no Nazi present for over 80 years, and he's bringing it up and trying to rub it in his face. This is the kind of way that Trump ambushes people in the White House.
Speaker 2:What about China? There was that all-out trade war Then, not Now a war on Chinese students and other foreign students who bring in that estimated 80 billion. No worries, I guess. Let them go to Oxford and trust me, a very close personal friend who runs a huge American high school system in China which was completely focused on getting the best and the brightest into US university, now is redirecting them to the UK and anywhere but the United States. Folks, the brain drain is on. And then there's China and, of course, the ongoing tariffs. Trump for a moment seemed to get it and was slightly ahead of the game, but now he has needlessly upset the Chinese and off with more export controls as he can't get enough rare earths. So the fight is on.
Speaker 2:Trump just the other day said, after a 90-minute phone call with Xi Jinping, that the rare earths would now be once again delivered to the US. And don't forget, it's not the fact that there are these rare earths, it is the processing of the rare earths that China controls. Up to 90% of the processing of rare earths, of which small trace amounts, but sometimes larger amounts, as in up to 200 pounds of various rare earths are used in those fighter jets, are controlled by China. And there is no plan by Trump to have those rare earths refined in the United States because it is very expensive. So who's losing? Once again, it's Mr and Mrs Maga.
Speaker 2:Well, by the way, speaking of brain-dain, every country, from Canada to France to Germany to Australia, all allies or former allies, are all making direct pitches for US academics and students to escape the United States, pitches for US academics and students to escape the United States and those exports. Well, the Europeans figured it out. On previous episodes of the Greenfield Report, we covered in detail with experts on disproving the lies, ranging from the euro's successful green supply chain strategy to finding alternative markets to the United States, which, by the way, the Chinese, are also finding those alternative markets which are primarily in Europe. Again, speaking of Germany, germany now has more foreign direct investment that famous FDI that Biden went on every year than the United States. And don't forget, germany had a flat economy until Trump came along. And now Trump wants to tax foreign investments. It's not a joke, folks, to hear that phrase. Make Europe and make Germany great again, and then down go the US military exports. Let's not make a joke either on that. But fantastic job there too, donald, is that really what you wanted?
Speaker 2:And the US dollar continues to be down 15%, making everything the US imports more expensive, along with US exports, down 20% since Trump took office. Down, down, down. Foreign money drying up for US treasuries and that mountain of US debt, with Moody's downgrading US securities, meaning higher interest rates for the US Treasuries. And that mountain of US debt with Moody's downgrading US securities, meaning higher interest rates for the US government to service that, as we've already said, now approaching $2 trillion a year in interest payments. That's more debt for you, Mr and Mrs Maga. You're paying higher interest rates on your credit cards and your home loans. Trump's response More debt in the trillions on his tax cut. Great job, donald.
Speaker 2:I will stop there, but the bottom line is and this is important for everyone again to realize no one is afraid of Trump anymore. Not the autocrats, not the democracies, not anyone. They know he is the taco president on every single international item. Only in the US, where he has a Supreme Court which gave him immunity on doing any kind of corruption in the billions at this point in rising and his control and retribution his term, not mine can he get away with the nonsense like he's doing right now in Los Angeles, putting 2,000 National Guard troops on the street to try to stop. I'm quoting now a few dozen protesters, by the way, I just finished, before doing this recording, watching live CNN. There's nobody on the streets right now in LA. Nobody. There's not even anybody protesting anything. They found one car that was burning. That's going to justify calling out the troops, or Pete Hegseth saying the Marines are ready to go in. What kind of fascist nonsense is that? Well, no one is paying attention.
Speaker 2:And now that Hegseth is, by the way, he also turned his attention to attacking China. You should check out what the Singapore Defense Minister Conference said, which was 100% of Hegseth attacking China, and we can look to more tension in Asia because of that. Well well done, donald. You have 100% messes everywhere around the world, but at least you got you know, one thing right, which is what you got that free plane. Well well done, america. With Trump, you are going backwards with lightning speed. Just keep on naming thing after.
Speaker 2:And I'm sorry to say this, this is what everyone is saying outside the United States after the loser president, while the rest of the world increasingly avoids the United States. Did I mention in closing that foreign visitors to the United States, which under Biden was the world's second largest for tourism and was looking for the best year since pre-COVID, is now down 14 percent? As they say, people vote with their feet and non-Americans want no more part of you, mr Trump. This is Henry R Greenfield signing off for the Greenfield Report, as thus Trump is left once again to find a distraction for the MAGAs who will listen to anything he says, or that the fake right-wing news drums up, including what was just reported to me, that Mexicans were attacking the National Guard, thus justifying Trump's heavy-handed approach and laying the groundwork possibly for Hegseth to use the Marines.
Speaker 2:And, of course, the ever-compliant media, who interviewed Speaker Johnson this morning, who said Trump was protecting America. From what Speaker Johnson says, does anybody ever ask him? What does he really mean and how can this be justified? Of course not. And of course away most of all from Trump's bromance breakup with Elon Musk, and far away from his defeats around the world and Putin's mocking him, or Netanyahu and I'm sorry to say this, but we have to say it how it is murdering yet another dozen Gazans today, who again stepped out of line trying to get some type of provisions so that they would not starve. And even Netanyahu didn't say that they were terrorists, they just stepped out of line. So what is Trump going to do? He will be left to pick on a few protesters today in Los Angeles and he will try to escalate this into something even worse, where the National Guard is far outnumbering the protesters. Thus, life slogs on in the golden age of Trump.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on the Greenfield Report with Henry R Greenfield. We hope today's insights into the ever-shifting geopolitical landscape have sparked your curiosity and broadened your perspective. Stay connected with us for more in-depth discussions and expert solutions. Until next time, keep exploring the world beyond the headlines.