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A War Without Bullets How Trump-Era Policies Have Advanced the Goals of U.S. Adversaries [1]
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Date: 2025-06-07
A War Without Bullets
How Trump-Era Policies Have Advanced the Goals of U.S. Adversaries By Trenz Pruca
In an era where influence is measured as much by perception as by power, the most dangerous battles are no longer fought with bullets. They unfold in trade negotiations, climate agreements, diplomacy, and increasingly in the narratives we export through digital platforms.
The Trump administration’s foreign and economic policies—whether driven by ideology, ignorance, or something more troubling—consistently weakened U.S. global leadership and opened the door for adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran to advance their strategic agendas.
These weren't merely the consequences of misguided nationalism. Many decisions echoed the long-standing goals of rival regimes—nations that have worked to destabilize the West through influence campaigns, division, and the careful erosion of trust in liberal democratic institutions.
Abandoning Global Leadership
Under President Trump, the U.S. withdrew from nearly every major international agreement that bolstered Western unity and credibility. Walking away from the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran nuclear deal, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) left allies isolated and rivals empowered. The TPP exit in particular handed China a strategic win, allowing it to expand its Belt and Road Initiative across Asia unopposed.
Trump’s repeated attacks on NATO—mocking Article 5 and demanding “protection money” from allies—echoed the Kremlin’s long-standing goal of weakening the alliance. Cutting off funding to the World Health Organization during the COVID crisis handed China a public relations coup, allowing it to claim leadership on global health.
Even more damaging was the attempt to dismantle USAID, America’s premier tool for humanitarian aid and global development. This move had no fiscal justification and stripped the U.S. of one of its most effective soft-power assets. USAID has long fostered economic growth, democracy, and goodwill in fragile states, helping keep Chinese and Russian influence at bay. Gutting it created a vacuum swiftly filled by authoritarian competitors with infrastructure investments and propaganda.
Undermining U.S. Competitiveness
The Trump administration also inflicted deep wounds on America’s economic standing. Ill-conceived trade wars, particularly with allies like Canada, the EU, and Japan, disrupted supply chains, spiked prices, and triggered retaliatory tariffs. The trade war with China, meanwhile, failed to alter its core behaviors and instead exposed U.S. businesses to long-term risk.
At the institutional level, Trump undermined the World Trade Organization’s dispute resolution system, dismantling a key pillar of global commerce. That instability gave authoritarian economies more leeway to bypass fair trade norms. Simultaneously, the administration’s attacks on high-skilled immigration pushed global talent away from the U.S. and toward Canada, Europe, and Australia—just as innovation became central to global competition.
Nowhere was this more glaring than in the renewed 2024–2025 push to limit foreign students and researchers in the U.S. Framed as a national security issue, Trump proposed visa bans for students from “adversarial nations,” limits on foreign participation in STEM research, and threats to defund universities employing international researchers.
“We shouldn’t be training our enemies to outsmart us,” Trump declared in March 2024. But the data tells another story: more than 70% of full-time grad students in fields like computer science and electrical engineering are international. Many go on to found companies, lead research labs, and contribute to American innovation. Most pay full tuition, supporting universities and local economies. There is little evidence of visa abuse.
Excluding them undermines U.S. tech leadership while rivals like China and the EU stand ready to absorb displaced talent. This isn’t security policy—it’s strategic sabotage, with America isolating itself from global research networks and ceding its edge in science and innovation.
A Familiar Pattern
While direct foreign authorship of these policies is difficult to prove, their alignment with enemy interests is hard to ignore. Russian disinformation campaigns in 2016 promoted anti-NATO, anti-immigration, and anti-globalist themes—many of which surfaced later as official U.S. policy under Trump.
The 2016 GOP platform softened language on Ukraine at Trump’s insistence. His first impeachment revolved around withholding aid to Ukraine. His campaign chair, Paul Manafort, shared polling data with a Russian agent. Throughout his presidency, Trump praised Putin, denied Russian aggression, and parroted Kremlin talking points.
These are not random incidents. They reflect a broader ideological alignment with authoritarian regimes—an alignment that chipped away at America’s alliances, institutions, and global influence.
The Real Cost
Supporters may argue that these were tough, necessary reforms. But in strategic terms, they delivered more benefit to our adversaries than to American interests. They fractured alliances, undermined democratic norms, disrupted economic stability, and weakened the institutions that make the U.S. a global leader.
Our enemies didn’t need to fire a shot. America did much of the damage itself—retreating from the world, mistrusting its allies, and tearing at the fabric of its own institutions. This war may have lacked bullets, but its casualties are real: credibility, stability, trust, and long-term strategic advantage.
The real question isn’t whether these were missteps or betrayals. It’s whether we have the political will to repair the damage—or whether history will show that America’s enemies didn’t defeat us, they simply watched us undo ourselves.
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