The seeds of every great empire’s inevitable decline are embedded within the fruits of its successes. A predictable cycle of borrowing and spending occurs that boosts a great power’s spending power over the short-term and makes it appear very strong. But its finances are in fact being weakened. https://x.com/RayDalio/status/1928141283060552146
..watch the video to the end,...and you'd understand why American hegemony required it to provoke or get involved in military conflicts abroad. To this end, the US in the past could sell more military hardware and procure nuanced benefits including demand for their dollars to sustain their hegemony.
..and here comes Trump who wants to disengage America from international conflicts. To the everyday American, that is not bad but good. But this is where American soft power ends (or ending) as countries that previously could rely on American military support now perceives the US as no more than a paper tiger. While in the past, it could rely on foreign support to continue its borrowing binge to sustain the lifestyle they had, now that is no longer able to be taken for granted.
..in turn Trump 2.0 turned towards "colonialistic" approach to assert its power abroad, this only cements its (US) broader decline in its longstanding hegemony short of a full-blown war.
