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Xi, Putin, and Modi unite to discuss a new world order: Trump's "America First" is weakening the US [1]
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Date: 2025-09-02
On Monday, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization met in Tianjin in northern China. This Eurasian organization comprises, at best, an uneasy club of US rivals and fence-sitters. At worst, it is a hit list of America's enemies. Prominent members include China, India, and Russia, along with Iran, Belarus, Pakistan, and four other 'Stans". The big men on campus were China's President, Xi Jinping, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, and India's PM Narendra Modi.
The AP reported on the event in dry and unemotional prose.
The summit represents an emerging challenge to U.S. global leadership. The security forum, originally seen as a foil to U.S. influence in Central Asia, has grown in size and influence over the years. Xi stressed Monday that countries should reject Cold War thinking, rival power blocs and bullying, and instead protect the U.N.-centered international system. He called for a world order with multiple power centers and a more just and balanced global governance system.
When Xi says “a more just and balanced global governance system,” the Chinese strongman means one in which America is no longer unilaterally browbeating the international community. And (more importantly for Xi), one that is more agreeable to China’s aspirations.
Beyond the coded language of international relations, there was diplomatic love in the air. Pictures show Xi smiling benevolently at Putin. Putin holding hands with Modi. And Modi yucking it up with Xi.
It was a show of unity that should chill the isolationist aspirations of the America First crowd. They may dream of Fortress America. But future wars will be economic and electronic. Oceans are no longer a barrier to the global dreams of America's enemies.
Before Trump, the U.S. could count on Western Europe. Washington was also drawing former Warsaw Pact states toward the liberal democratic ideal. But thanks to a leader with an oversized ego and a limited IQ, the EU is wondering if its marriage to its Atlantic partner is over.
The news is bad all over. Africa has always been flexible in its relationships. South America never had much regard for the US at the best of times. Even America's closest neighbors, North and South, are wondering why the US is acting like the thoughtless neighbor who blasts his music on a school night.
Thank God for the genocidal Bibi, Trump's Saudi sponsors, and a dismal selection of tin-pot dictators, or America wouldn't have any friends at all.
It doesn't have to be this way. The rest of the world used to have mixed emotions about the US. But no matter how jaundiced the foreign views, America had cachet. The rest of the world viewed the US as the golden land of opportunity where pluck and vigor could catapult a striver. There were negatives. To many, the US was the big guy who spoke too loudly and broke into strangers' conversations at cocktail parties.
But even then, it was considered the friendly Great Dane that wants to be loved and means well, but in its exuberant happiness, keeps knocking the furniture over. Now the growing consensus is that the Great Dane is no longer friendly and might even be rabid.
America is still the world's strongest power. A decade ago, it seemed that China would surpass the US as the world's leading economy in terms of national GDP. But the CCP has made mistakes. And its economic juggernaut has sputtered. Even today, the summed GDP of China, India, and Russia is less than that of the US. While America's defense spending still outstrips them collectively.
But the prognosis is dodgy. When the world last faced a global power struggle. American isolationism gave way to a national commitment to beat the Axis Powers in WWII. The country was clear-eyed and unified in winning the damn thing. Now America is in the hands of a functional autocracy. And its commitment to freedom is no longer sure.
The Constitution's checks and balances have been eviscerated by one-party rule controlling the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Trump faces no meaningful political opposition. The GOP Congress is a rubber stamp. And the Supreme Court has ruled that he is immune from criminal prosecution as long as he commits his crimes as President, not as a private citizen.
However, I remain optimistic—why not? After all, whether I embrace hope or despair, it won't change the outcome. The polls show an increasing disaffection with Trump, even on his signature issues of immigration and tariffs. And the voters have swung to Democratic candidates in recent elections. This shift in affection proves that, while the Democratic Party has the popularity of spoiled milk, the electorate favors left-wing ideas over MAGA philosophy.
The pessimists say there will be no more free elections. Either the states will be so gerrymandered that the Republicans will maintain control of the House, regardless of the popular vote. Or Trump will declare a national emergency and cancel the midterms. If the doomsayers are correct, then the struggle will have to take a different form.
However, I'm not yet ready to play Taps for American democracy.
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