It is almost impossible to describe how primitive Trump’s approach is and how much joy it brings to the enemies of the USA: After his suicide as a superpower, America will find it difficult to regain its status.

Guest post by Timothy Snyder in the Süddeutsche Zeitung

The United States is spending billions of dollars to lose a war against Iran that enriches its oligarchs, impoverishes its citizens, damages its alliances, and strengthens its enemies. The war reveals a guiding principle of US President Donald Trump ‘s foreign policy : superpower suicide. Empires rise and fall, but to my knowledge, no state has ever intentionally and systematically destroyed its own power—certainly not with such speed.

Note: The original Article in English – “America’s Superpower Suicide” – is at Project Syndicate, but is behind a paywall. This is a German translation by Jan Doolan. (Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2026) which has been back-translated by Google translate. It’s a poor substitute for the original English, but the text is important enough that I felt it should be shared.

This strategic suicide is hard to admit: one still hopes that Trump’s failures are based on some understanding of the US national interest . They are not.

A superpower must at least be a modern state that—through the rule of law and other institutions—encompasses a substantial number of citizens committed to a common goal. But the Trump administration treats the US not as a modern state, but as a business opportunity for a select few.

To remain a superpower, a state must also be able to sustain itself over time. Continuity depends on a principle for the transmission of political authority. By striving to remain in power indefinitely and undermining trust in elections, Trump is challenging the very principle that enables political succession in the United States. There are, of course, other ways to achieve this, such as dynastic rule or a politburo decision. A transition to either of these forms—one could imagine the circle of tech oligarchs responsible for the rise of Vice President JD Vance as a capitalist politburo—would spell the end of the American republic.

The Trump administration has gutted the civil service and replaced the military leadership.

Ensuring the right people are in positions of power is crucial for a state to gain and maintain power. Throughout history , powerful states have found various ways to identify qualified individuals and promote them to leadership positions, regardless of their background. Ancient China had a system of examinations. Napoleon established the principle of merit in both civilian and military life.
The US, for its part, once had a civil service the world envied, as well as a highly merit-based military. But the Trump administration gutted the civil service and replaced the military leadership—a process overseen by people unqualified for the positions they held. The fact that Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Pete Hegseth are now Director of National Intelligence, FBI Director, and Secretary of Defense, respectively, is a clear indication that a superpower is committing suicide.

In a deeper sense, a superpower must have an education system that prepares its population, and thus its political leaders, to face global challenges. But in Trump’s USA, public education is being defunded, universities face reprisals if they defend academic freedom, and school libraries, including those at military academies, are being purged of useful books.

Similarly, the appreciation of science, which fueled the rise of many great powers, has come under attack in Trump’s USA. Like the ancient Mesopotamians, whose astronomers developed scientific methods for mapping the heavens, and the Romans, who used the scientific knowledge of the Greeks to build an empire, the USA became a superpower by creating government institutions to fund science and attract scientists—often immigrants.

However, the Trump administration has launched a shocking offensive against science. It is withholding research funding for political reasons, preventing aspiring and established scientists from moving to the US, and questioning fundamental scientific findings such as human-caused climate change.

Even if Trump’s new battleships were built, they would be completely unsuitable for modern warfare.

As a result, the Trump administration abruptly halted the energy transition in the US and instead increasingly subsidized ecologically and economically obsolete fossil fuels. As a superb forthcoming book demonstrates, societies that embrace new forms of energy rise; those that do not perish. This may be the most profound truth in human history and makes Trump’s decision an existential error that will accelerate the decline of the US and empower China—its main competitor and the global clean energy superpower .
The same applies to the technology and innovation that underpin military power. The US has always spent enormous sums on armaments. Yet the administration is focusing on equipment of the past, including a new class of battleships to be named after Trump . The plan is a complete pipe dream. Even if these battleships were somehow built, they would be utterly unsuitable for modern warfare, the contours of which have been laid bare by the high-tech war between Russia and Ukraine. They can be considered doomed from the moment they are launched.

The Ukraine war is a prime example of how the Trump administration disregards the art of diplomacy in favor of “deal-making.” Yet there is ample evidence—including his kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin—that Trump doesn’t know how to negotiate. Furthermore, US allies are vilified and ostracized for no other reason than personal grievances .

Without a sense of national interest, there can be no understanding of the purpose of alliances. Nor can there be any appreciation of the international system—the laws, rules, and norms that underpin US global dominance. It is almost impossible to describe how primitive Trump’s approach is and how much pleasure it brings to the enemies of the United States.

The war against Iran is a strategic defeat; to the extent that the US had any objectives at all, they were not achieved.

This brings us back to Iran. In international confrontations, a superpower wins at least sometimes. But the Trump administration loses time and again. The war against Iran is a clear strategic defeat; to the extent that the US had any objectives at all, they were not achieved. Trump’s policies have resulted in more enriched uranium remaining in the hands of an even more radical Iranian regime, which possesses new sources of economic power (control of the Strait of Hormuz; intimidation of the Gulf states), and have made it virtually impossible for the US to exert any influence on Iranian society.
The government also celebrates defeats in symbolic ways, as is characteristic of declining states. Consider Hegseth’s comparison of the rescue of a downed US pilot to the resurrection of Jesus—a blatant blasphemy that could distract us from the underlying strategic helplessness. Such Christological imagery is used to transform a defeat in the real world into a victory in an imaginary one. Polish Romanticism, for example, viewed the collapse of a republic (primarily due to wealth inequality) as proof that Poland was the “Christ of nations.”

Finally, many states are losing power because they simply cannot afford to maintain it. For the first time since 1945, US national debt is higher than gross domestic product. A useful point of comparison: large deficits are normal when facing a challenge like World War II. But the Trump administration is running these deficits for a very different reason: to avoid taxing wealthy individuals and corporations. This approach—which views the government as a service provider for the super-rich—is incompatible with winning wars or maintaining the social services that make a modern society function.

Reforms and corrections are no longer relevant, because the suicide of the US as a superpower under Trump is a symptom of the democratic distortions and inequalities that enabled such a world-historical strategic folly in the first place. What made the US a superpower also enabled the current attempt at self-destruction. Instead of striving for a return to the former status quo, intensive efforts must now be made to reshape US policy so that people are given more power to create a more just future.