JANUARY 22, 2026 – Amidst the ongoing ICE goon squad raids here in the Twin Cities, I find both hope and despair; hope in the persistent and burgeoning local opposition to these cruel and unlawful encroachments on the peace and prosperity of our community but despair in the knowledge that a large contingent of Americans continue to imbibe in Kook-Aid peddled by a brand man whose exclusive product is untethered megalomania.
But here’s what I really worry about in the wake of Trump’s “performance” at Davos: How the rest of the world perceives us and what that perception portends for our future security, prosperity and “pursuit of happiness.”
There are two sides to the perception coin. On one side are authoritarian regimes whose threats to democracy and global stability, realistically, can be checked only by outside forces, not domestic ones. On the other side of the coin are our long-term friends, allies and principal trading partners—for the most part, robust democracies whose regimes cannot be too far out of step with their voters.
Adversarial authoritarian regimes view with whetted ambitions, our mercurial president’s one-man disruption of the world order. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, that world construct has favored the U.S. and its allies/principal trading partners and confined the latitude of authoritarian regimes. Those latter regimes are now well-positioned to exploit the instability created by Trump. Democratic countries, meanwhile, behold with dismay, Trump’s pattern of kicking field goals toward the opponent’s goal post, sabotaging his own team’s defense and charging extortionist fees for admission to their own locker room.
What worries me most, however, is not what foreign regimes and their people think of Trump, but rather, what they think of us and our “system.” This concern doesn’t emanate simply from personal pride or embarrassment. It stems from the likelihood that the rest of the world—people . . . in their capacities as investors, government officials, research scientists, laborers, professionals, tourists, to name a few, will conclude that America is irredeemably flawed. How else, our friends and allies must ask, does one explain that such a master of chaos would be allowed to create such an endless string of shocks and jolt—free from any constraints? What is so wrong with our system that we’ve been unable to remove this real and present danger to our own country as well as to the world? And if the answer is, it’s not the system that’s at fault but the people behind it, well, then what’s wrong with the American electorate?
If people outside the United States are playing the long game, we Americans must worry that because of what we’ve done to ourselves, we are no longer reliable; not only as a partner or ally, but as a place to live, work, study, conduct research or invest. Even if the Democrats were to be swept into powerful majorities in Washington and across the country, given our short election cycles, the entrenched power of big money, the historical draw of populism, the streak of religious zealotry, the fickleness of the American voter, our own loss of confidence in long-standing institutions, our growing contempt for the rule of law, our disturbing promotion of xenophobia, our falling academic scores, our endemic myopia coupled with our resistance to reform, how safe is long-term or even intermediate-term investment of time, talent and money in the United States?
In short, what I fear is that the rest of the world will conclude that America is no longer a “buy” but a “sell,” or out of strategic necessity, a “hold-to-sell.” Doubtless, divestment will take time. If executed precipitously, the divestors would get burned as the global economy collapsed. No, it will happen more gradually, but you can bet your dollar-replacement-currency that the rest of the world won’t simply hold its collective breath and wait for Trump to exit. The smart money—and minds—will step back and look elsewhere to invest time, effort and resources.
America, meanwhile, will retain sufficient critical mass to survive, but its fortunes will slide. If opportunities abroad exceed prospects at home, causing reverse migration, all bets are off. Only if America matures enough to adopt meaningful reforms, can we find our way back for another shot at our dreams, but time is of the essence.
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© 2026 by Eric Nilsson
1 Comment
I’ve already been reading about people abroad dumping their dollars, a Denmark pension fund unloading its US treasuries, observers wondering about “the next reserve currency”. We are, to put it most bluntly, “toast”. It was a good ride.