Diplomacy 101: Undiplomatically Speaking
Where Beliefs Clash and Stories Flash
The Disunited States: When Personality Replaces Policy
It’s tempting to treat Trump’s ever-changing roster of aides and officials as part of the political theatre Americans have come to expect—another headline, another firing, another loyalist ushered in overnight. But what appears chaotic is a form of controlled disorder, with serious implications at home and far beyond.We’ve entered a second Trump term, and the pattern hasn’t changed—it’s deepened. National Security Advisors come and go. Acting department heads seem to outnumber confirmed ones. This isn’t poor management. It’s strategic impermanence.
In a democracy, institutions are meant to outlast individuals. But Trump has reshaped the executive branch around performance. The result is less like a government and more like a show: fast-moving, improvisational, driven by optics. The White House has become a revolving door.
This instability doesn’t stop at the border. In international relations, trust is built on consistency. Diplomats, allies, and adversaries rely on continuity—not just of policy, but of personnel. Who speaks for the U.S. if the spokesperson changes every quarter? What value does a treaty hold if one administration signs it and the next tears it up?
Credibility erodes. And when that happens, other powers—China, Russia, even the EU—begin planning for a world where the U.S. isn’t steady. Europe pursues strategic autonomy. Asian allies hedge. Multilateralism frays.
The domestic costs are subtler but corrosive. This model of governance sends a message: loyalty over expertise, optics over policy, control over collaboration. It discourages independent thinking. It hollows out the institutional core.
It also sets a precedent. If one president can rule by momentum, why not the next? Trump may be the accelerant, not the origin—but he’s made the fire impossible to ignore.
To dismiss it as chaos is to miss the point. The revolving door isn’t a bug—it’s the system working as designed, in a new political order where personality trumps structure.
What happens when a world power loses its memory? When it stops speaking the language of institutions, and instead speaks only in the fragmented voice of whoever holds the mic?
We’re about to find out.