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February 14, 2025 | 12:00am
It is sad to watch a world power in the process of imploding before your eyes. America had never been perfect, far from it. But at least it had institutions and principles one can depend on to justify trusting it to uphold basic human rights and ethical behavior. Now it seems, it is not just about America First but Money First. Everyone has a price and making a deal is expected.
Many of the executive orders issued over the last three weeks are furiously dismantling the American constitutional order. The institutions are going down. It won’t take long before the courts will be declared irrelevant and ignored. There goes the rule of law, the basic framework of American democracy.
America is starting to look like a banana republic where the whims of one man supported by blind or fearful followers constitute the law of the land. It won’t be long before Trump will be indistinguishable from Maduro.
I stopped being shocked after they dismantled the USAID. The agency had never been a truly philanthropic organization. It was designed to use soft power to help America convince the world that it can be trusted and is ready to help when called upon. I have no doubts that there had been leakages of funds but that’s expected for an operation of that magnitude and scope. Officials should be held accountable but the institution shouldn’t be dissolved.
Putting the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on hold convinced me America under Trump has become one big marketplace where the only thing that matters is money.
The rules governing FCPA are bedrock principles of how American businesses operate overseas. The law applies not only to direct bribes that are paid, but also to bribes that are offered or planned or authorized by a company’s management. Violators of the FCPA face a maximum possible criminal sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, or three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value demanded by a foreign official. Last year, the DOJ announced enforcement actions in 24 cases related to alleged violations of the FCPA.
Trump said the pause will stop putting US businesses at an economic disadvantage to foreign competitors. “It sounds good, but it hurts the country,” Trump said of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as he signed the order at the White House.
Conflict of interest as well as protection of national security are also not that important to Trump. An opportunity to make money justifies sacrificing both.
I like the energy and entrepreneurial originality of Elon Musk. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a big national security risk to the United States because his business interests may conflict with national interest.
US Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré sounds the alarm about the “national security risk” posed by Musk and it is serious.
“Mr. Musk’s business ventures are heavily reliant on China. He borrowed at least $1.4 billion from banks controlled by the Chinese government to help build Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, which was responsible for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter of 2024,” the general writes in an op-ed for The New York Times.
“China does not tend to give things away,” he adds. “The country’s laws stipulate that the Communist Party can demand intelligence from any company doing business in China, in exchange for participating in the country’s markets.”
According to Honoré, this means that China could demand that Musk hand over sensitive materials due to his close proximity to the Trump administration, using his businesses as leverage. “The last thing the United States needs is for China to potentially have an easier way of obtaining classified intelligence and national security information,” writes the general.
Additionally, Mr. Musk’s companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts last year with 17 federal agencies. And he is effectively Trump’s co-president. But Trump said there’s no conflict of interest because Musk is not personally filing for government contracts, his staff are. Trump must think all Americans are stupid to believe such an assertion.
Trump has no intention of being stopped by institutional road humps. Trump has fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, while he was in the process of vetting Trump administration appointees for potential conflicts of interest. Trump has rescinded the Biden ethics executive order for political appointees. And he has fired about 17 independent inspectors general at government agencies, a sweeping action to remove oversight of his new administration in violation of federal oversight laws.
When I was in journalism school, we were required to read the book The Ugly American (1958) by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick. It is a political novel that highlights the failures of American diplomats and officials who are depicted as arrogant, culturally ignorant, and ineffective in their dealings with developing countries.
I asked ChatGPT what lessons the current crop of American leaders can learn from this time in history when America was still rising as a world power.
Here is one: “The Ugly American serves as a warning that America’s global leadership depended not just on military or economic power but also on its ability to engage with foreign societies effectively.”
Overall, “The Ugly American presents a cautionary tale about the challenges of maintaining America’s global influence and highlights the importance of diplomacy rooted in understanding and respect rather than superiority and ignorance.”
It seems the Ugly American is back. Trump lost even long-time allies like Canada and Mexico due to his arrogant posturing and his lack of respect expected of America.
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin must be celebrating nonstop. They didn’t have to do anything to start America’s downfall.
Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco
