President Trump, during his inaugural speech, reiterated with great confidence the underlying themes of his campaign: “Make America Great Again” and “America First!” While these apparently made for an appealing campaign pitch and many voters seem to believe this is how America ought to be governed, they immediately struck me as some of the most troubling and dangerous things a now sitting President could say, let alone say so stridently. “Make America Great Again” and “America First” are troubling and dangerous foundations for policy because they are backward looking, selfish, counter-productive, and demonstrate a withdrawal from the moral, economic and military leadership role America has in the world.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that “Make America Great Again” is largely backward looking. While it is important for all of us to appreciate where we’ve come from and learn from the past, an inordinate focus on the past, particularly by leadership, can trap us in sentimental impressions of what the past was like and distract us from the realities of the day and the actions needed to move forward. The “Make America Great Again” mantra has often been used to exaggerate how bad things are today and minimize many of our very real accomplishments. President Trump’s speeches about crime and health care are examples. While substantial improvements are needed in both areas, the facts are that national crime rates are near 40 year lows and the percentage of our population without health care insurance has dropped from roughly 18% in 2013 to 9% last year.
“Make America Great Again” also clouds the truth that the world has changed and things will never be “like they used to be”. Automation has replaced many workers. Technology is often mobile and can be set up wherever it is most opportune. Other peoples around the world have developed meaningful economic prowess, and whether we like it or not, they have a right to compete. Yes, playing fields need to be at least somewhat level and specific unfair competitive practices by other countries must be dealt with promptly and firmly, but a rush to punish others with trade barriers is a blunt and counter-productive approach toward growing the US economy. So much emphasis on punishing others fails to focus on forward looking solutions like investing in education and training, a means by which we can really grow the economy and the well-being of America without hurting our neighbors or inciting trade wars.
While America’s interests ought to be foremost in our president’s mind, the veracity of speech and policy with which President Trump promotes “America First” reflects a largely selfish mentality reminiscent of “taking care of me and mine”. Selfishness has never been a virtue, and we should not stoop to it even when times are tough. While we live in a competitive world and have been taken advantage of at times in the past, making threats and trying to bully other nations and leaders to recoup what we lost will not lead to long run gains. Life, and business, particularly in the long run, is more than a zero-sum game, where improving one’s own position comes at the expense of whomever you are competing with. One of the major problems with Donald Trump’s “America First” is that it is born out of his long history of approaching challenges as zero-sum games where he is a bent on being a “winner” and making someone else a “loser”. That approach, evident in President Trump’s language and early weeks in office, hasn’t and won’t sit well with other leaders, will at best lead to very minor short term gains, and more likely be detrimental in the near future and over the long term. My 40 years of experience in business tells me that approaching challenges as opportunities to collaborate is far more likely to produce positive results than threatening and bullying.
In President Trump’s rush to “Make America Great Again” and put “America First”, he has been disrespectful and needlessly alienated world leaders, particularly some of our closest allies. Trump’s repeated criticism of NAFTA and condescending words about Mexico have created chaos and has been counter-productive. Trump does not appear to fully appreciate that Mexico is our third largest trading partner and that 5 million US jobs are dependent on exports to Mexico. Trump rushed to threaten Mexico with a 20% border tax only to realize that US consumers would ultimately end up paying for it, and Mexico would likely retaliate against US exports. Hopefully, President Trump is learning that the economies of the US and Mexico are highly integrated and that his first impulse to threaten others is not constructive. Trump also flirted with withholding aid to Mexico only to realize that would hurt the US because most of that aid is used to help Mexico fight the flow of narcotics into the US.
With respect to building a wall with Mexico, President Trump could have taken a much more constructive stance with Mexico’s President Pena. He could have asked President Pena to work with him to improve upon the current border barrier, emphasizing that it is in both their interest to stop drug trafficking and the flow of migrants from Central America. Instead President Trump repeatedly made threats and insulted Mexico’s President and the Mexican people. President Trump would be wise to recall that the benefits of dealing from a position of strength are grossly undermined, particularly over the long term, when that strength is used to threaten and bully others. We would also all do well to remember that having the countries we share a border with being friendly states has been an immeasurable blessing to America. We would not be where we are today, and not grown nearly as much as we have, if it were not for Mexico and Canada being good neighbors.
Finally and foremost, “America First” demonstrates a withdrawal of American leadership the world has depended upon for that last 70 years. “America First” fails to appreciate that our real strength, including our economic strength, lies in our ability to see what is good and right and our willingness to put everything on the line to defend that. Our success hangs on America, our allies and especially our adversaries knowing that we stand ready to defend freedom around the globe. We would never have entered, let alone won, WWI, WWII or the Cold War had not a deep commitment to freedom resided in the heart of America and a resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with allies to protect freedom. It used to be not so long ago that America stood up for the weak and what is right. In 1999, President Clinton bombed Serbia to force them to stop the genocide in Yugoslavia. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush, after assembling the greatest collation of nations since WWII, pushed Iraq troops out of tiny Kuwait and called for a new world order where big nations would not be allowed to take over smaller neighbors. My how we have fallen from such an understanding of ourselves and our role in the world. Today, Ukraine is struggling to fight off a Russian invasion and hybrid war. So far over 15,000 Ukrainians have been killed and many more injured. The tiny Baltic States on the border of Russia are under the threat of Russian aggression. It is essential that President Trump abandon his cagey negotiating tactics and stand unequivocally behind our Baltic allies. To do otherwise, needlessly cultivates doubts and fear among our allies and emboldens Putin and other aggressors around the world.
Whether you agree or completely disagree with the sentiments above, as we consider the words, acts and policies of President Trump, and those in leadership in Washington, I submit that we keep two things in mind. One is that we do our utmost to listen and when we do speak do so civilly. Let us not follow in the footsteps of “leaders” that speak with derision. The second is to be engaged and speak up, whether by peaceful protest or just taking two minutes to email our congressmen and senators and let them know our thoughts and wishes. Let me close with the words my favorite statesman Edmund Burke admonished his friend with in 1770: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”