Trump's America—Land of Cruelty and Vengeance

 https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-americaland-cruelty-vengeance-opinion-2027498

Yet, for all his talk of "making America great again," it's evident that Donald Trump's version of greatness has nothing to do with leadership or moral rectitude. Trump's definition of greatness rests solely on the notion of power. To Trump, a great nation is not one that leads the world, but one that ignores its suffering in pursuit of self-interest.

Trump goes beyond simply promoting callousness, he relishes it. And now he's made this self-centered philosophy a cornerstone of our politics. Rather than extend helping hands to the world, we've made one hand into a stop sign and the other into a fist. "America First," we constantly hear from Trump's MAGA crowd; in truth they mean "America only."

Yet, as cruel and terrible as Trump has been and will undoubtedly continue to be, what's even worse is the fact that so many millions of Americans embrace his ideology, believing, as the antagonist Gordon Gekko once said that greed is good, and that our first and only priority is to look out for ourselves. If that means abandoning our allies, so be it. If it means mischaracterizing DEI efforts to maintain white hegemony, also OK. And if it means cutting off crucial medications to other countries, that's not our problem, they reason.

The MAGA world doesn't take issue with Trump going after political opponents or people in the Justice Department he doesn't like either because, as they see it, the world is a harsh and corrupt place, and no one else would do any different. They race to Trump because they see him as their glorious leviathan—the monster whose wings they can take shelter under to feel powerful. He justifies their every negative notion about the world, and for that they love him.

What they're all missing is that truly great nations are compassionate nations, and right now we're pretty far from greatness.