MAKING IT EASY FOR AMERICA'S RIVALS
- Paul Hansbury
- Apr 29
- 7 min read
When it comes to foreign policy, arguably the most damaging things President Donald Trump has done since taking office have been his steps to dismantle the instruments of US soft power.
In his administration's efforts to cut costs, Trump turned on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announcing in January a 90-day pause on funding for development assistance programmes. In tow with this, he slashed funding to a raft of agencies with the goal of promoting freedom and democracy round the world. More recently, government funding for public universities has come under the spotlight and foreign students have been taken out of classes and deported on various pretexts. Taken together, all of these moves considerably damage US soft power.
Trump may revel in being a disruptor but he needs to learn that destroying things is usually far easier and quicker than creating them in the first place. By undermining the instruments of US soft power, Trump may be doing irreparable damage to US power in the future; unlike wayward economic policy, where market forces can provide a check of some sort, there is far less standing in the way of Trump's misguided policies towards soft power (though see my conclusion below).
What is soft power?
