The USA's position on the world's stage has taken a dramatic, shocking turn away from the rest of the liberal democracies.
Consumers are reacting with boycotts.
It is one thing to say that Europe must spend more on defence, that it must be able to carry its own weight in NATO, and that it has not been doing enough. I have said so myself. I get it, and I fully agree with the US on this.
Another thing is to shamefully attack a man, a victim, representing a country at war, who is desperate for help to save his nation, when he is willing to sign away his countries' resources to stop Putin from coming back for more of his country every few years. Zelensky is the victim here. Let us be crystal clear: Putin is a dictator who doesn't deserve a shred of our sympathy. Whatever you think of Zelensky, his country has been invaded by Russia. These are the facts: if you cannot handle them, you are in denial.
Calling Zelensky a dictator, inviting him to the oval office for a humiliating display of power, almost making him beg and worship the "leader of the free world", whom Zelensky should apparently thank every other word, every time he speaks: these are all part of a broader pattern of selfish, entitled behaviours that will keep people studying Trump's psychology busy for centuries. I'll leave the thrilling task of a medical diagnosis to the experts, but for now I think it's safe to say that Trump's erratic behaviour is rooted in a sense of superiority that makes him unfit for the job. Any job.
It isn't just Trump either. The whole administration is a constellation of insufferable personalities -- from Elon Musk to JD Vance, it is hard to imagine how all three of them could ever sit in a room without one's ego suffocating the others'.
People all over the world are watching how this administration is taking the side of the oppressor, blaming the victim, and working full time to dismantle democracy in their home country despite the many "checks and balances" that American political pundits have been claiming make "the US the greatest democracy in the world".
People are watching, and they are reacting. When tariffs were announced on Canadian imports, Canadians started boycotting American products at the supermarket. In Europe, Tesla's sales are down 45% on the year prior, and its share price is down 24% in a month -- numbers that make you wonder if he's still the richest man in the world, after all.
Social media users are promoting the boycott of American products, and a quick search on Reddit shows just how many engagements they're getting. The boycotts might turn out to be short-lived, but a lot depends on whether the perception of the current US administration will change. Musk's call for the US leave NATO is certainly not helping the case, and if the situation isn't deescalated quickly we might see anti-American sentiment spread further and reach concerning levels -- with banks ditching US stocks and, most importantly, US debt. I wouldn't put it past Trump to end the dollar's supremacy one mistake at a time.