When President Donald Trump announced sweeping import tariffs in April, the move was expected to ripple through the economy. The impact is evident in the prices of everyday goods. According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, consumer prices climbed 2.9% year-over-year in August. That’s above the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
Some categories have been less affected, but goods like coffee, bananas, televisions, toys and jewelry have seen sharp price hikes due to the tariffs. Here’s how much these five popular items have gone up since April.
Toys
Toys have been affordable over the years due to overseas manufacturing. However, tariffs has made toy prices jump 2.5% since April, according to CPI data. Near three quarters of the toys sold in the U.S. are imports from China, where many shipments now face up to 30% tariffs.
TVs
TV prices have been on a downward trend since the 1990s but with Trump tariffs they have risen 3.1% since April, per CPI data. Many TVs in the North American market are shipped from China, Vietnam and Mexico. Depending on the supplier, retailers can pay anywhere from 20% to 30%. If you’re in the market for a new TV, you may feel the pinch at checkout.
Jewelry and Watches
Luxury items have also been hit by the tariffs. And since the U.S. relies on imported jewelry components, jewelry and watch prices surged 5.5% in August, per CPI data. One of the reasons for the high spike is Trump’s 39% tariffs imposed on Swiss imports. Plus, India and Japan, major suppliers of diamonds and high-end mechanical watches were also hit with new tariffs.
Coffee
Your caffeine fix got a lot more expensive, with coffee prices jumping 9.8% since April, according to CPI data. While the 10% global tariffs is the major contributor, the U.S. also grows less than 1% of coffee, relying heavily on imports. Additionally, Brazil — which provides more than a third of America’s Arabica beans, according to Detroit News — was hit with a 50% tariff last month.
Bananas
Bananas, which have a long history of stability despite where the economy goes, saw a 4.9% jump in prices between April and August, per CPI data. Besides, almost all the bananas in the U.S. market come from central and south America.
The visiting room of the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Centre in Bakersfield, California, is small, loud, and crowded. When Harjit Kaur’s family arrived to see her, they could barely hear her – and the first words they caught shattered them.
“She said, ‘I would rather die than be in this facility. May God just take me now’,” recalled her distraught daughter-in-law, Manjit Kaur.
Harjit Kaur, 73, who unsuccessfully applied for asylum in the US, and has lived in California for more than three decades, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on 8 September, sparking shock and sympathy from the Sikh community across the state and beyond.
Harjit Kaur had filed several asylum appeals over the years which were rejected, with the last denial in 2012, her lawyer said.
Since then, she had been asked to report to immigration authorities every six months. She was arrested in San Francisco when she had gone for a check-in.
It comes amid a wider crackdown by the Donald Trump administration on immigration, and especially alleged illegal immigrants in the US.
The issue is a sensitive one – the country is grappling with how to deal with the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who arrive at its borders every year. More than 3.7 million asylum cases are pending in immigration courts. An increased budget for immigration enforcement means ICE is now the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency.
Trump has said he wants to deport the “worst of the worst”, but critics say immigrants without criminal records who follow due process have also been targeted.
“Over 70% of people arrested by ICE have no criminal conviction,” said California State Senator Jesse Arreguin in a statement demanding Harjit Kaur’s release. “Now, they are literally going after peaceful grandmothers. This shameful act is harming our communities.”
US Congressman John Garamendi, who represents the Californian district where Harjit Kaur lives, has submitted a request to ICE for her release.
“This administration’s decision to detain a 73-year-old woman – a respected member of the community with no criminal record who has faithfully reported to ICE every six months for more than 13 years – is one more example of the misplaced priorities of Trump’s immigration enforcement,” a spokesperson said.
In an emailed statement, ICE told the BBC that Harjit Kaur had “exhausted decades of due process” and that an immigration judge had ordered her removal in 2005.
“Harjit Kaur has filed multiple appeals all the way up to the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals and LOST each time. Now that she has exhausted all legal remedies, ICE is enforcing US law and the orders by the judge; she will not waste any more US tax dollars,” it added.
Harjit Kaur came to the US in 1991 with her two minor sons after the death of her husband, her lawyer Deepak Ahluwalia told the BBC. Her daughter-in-law Manjit Kaur said that the young widow wanted to shield her sons from and escape the political turbulence in India’s Punjab state at the time.
Over the next three decades, she worked modest jobs to raise her sons, one of whom is now a US citizen. Her five grandchildren are also US citizens.
Harjit Kaur, who lives in Hercules city in the San Francisco Bay Area, was working as a seamstress at a sari store for the past two decades and pays her taxes. Asylum applicants across the US are allowed to live, work and pay taxes legally once their claim is officially filed and in process.
Even after her final asylum appeal was rejected in 2012, her job permit was renewed every year.
After the rejection, her deportation seemed imminent, but she didn’t have the right documents to travel to India.
Indian missions in the US issue emergency certificates – a one-way travel document – to Indians of invalid status to enable them to return. This would require verifying Harjit Kaur’s origin and identity in Punjab through photos, cross-checking with relatives or acquaintances or finding old records, which would take at least a few weeks.
More than a decade since the rejection, neither Harjit Kaur nor US immigration officials have been able to get a travel permit for her. Manjit Kaur said they visited the Indian consulate in San Francisco in 2013 for this but didn’t succeed. India’s Consul General at San Francisco K Srikar Reddy told the BBC they had no record of Harjit Kaur applying for travel documents to India.
ICE did not respond to a question about why it did not get a travel permit in the past 13 years.
Mr Ahluwalia said he is following up with the Indian consulate for the documents which “ICE was unable to procure for the last 13 years”. The consulate says they are “facilitating all necessary consular assistance”.
Harjit Kaur’s family, meanwhile, say she never questioned her deportation and should not have been detained.
“Provide us the travel documents and she is ready to go,” Manjit Kaur said. “She had even packed her suitcases back in 2012.”
Right now, their immediate concern is getting her out of the detention centre.
“You can put an ankle monitor on her. We can check in with immigration when you want,” said Manjit Kaur. “Just get her out of the facility and when you provide us the travel documents, she will self-deport to India.”
Her lawyer said that when he met Harjit Kaur on 15 September, she had not been provided with her regular medication. He alleged that she had been “dragged by guards”, “denied a chair or a bed” and was “forced to sit on the floor” for hours in a holding cell despite having undergone double knee replacement.
He also alleged that she was “explicitly refused water” and not provided a vegetarian meal for the first six days.
ICE did not respond to specific questions on these allegations, but had earlier told BBC Punjabi that “it is a long-standing policy that as soon as someone comes into ICE custody, they are given full health care”.
Detainees have access to “medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care” and no-one “is denied essential care at any time during detention”, it added.
Kulvinder Singh Pannu, president of the gurdwara committee at The Sikh Centre in San Francisco Bay Area, says that Bibi Harjit (a respectful way to refer to an elderly Punjabi woman) is well-liked in the area.
“She always helped people in our community with whatever she had financially,” he said.
“A couple of hundred people turned up by themselves to protest against her arrest,” he said, referring to a 12 September agitation outside the Sikh temple in California.
As the uncertainty continues, Harjit Kaur’s supporters are planning to hold more protests, including in other US cities, with many saying they are touched by her plight.
A single mother, Harjit Kaur had formed deep roots and relationships in the US over the past 30 years. Her parents and siblings in India are no longer alive, says Mr Ahluwalia.
“She has no-one, no home, no land to return to.”
Assuming President Donald Trump’s claim that he couldn’t stop Israel’s strike on Hamas officials in a Qatar residential district is true, he’s just suffered another devastating blow to his international credibility.
Trump hurriedly made clear that Tuesday’s raid, which killed five Hamas members but not the top team negotiating a new US ceasefire plan for Gaza, was not his decision and that he’d rushed to inform Qatar when he learned of it.
“I’m not thrilled about the whole situation,” Trump said as he went for dinner at a Washington, DC, steakhouse. “It’s not a good situation … we are not thrilled about the way that went down.”
That seemed a rare Trumpian understatement.
The strike — in which Israel ignored profound implications for vital American interests — is a new embarrassment for Trump at a time when he’s also being taken for a ride by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who grinned through their summit in Alaska, then escalated attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Poland said early Wednesday that it had shot down drones that violated its airspace during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the violation of Poland’s airspace was “absolutely reckless” and not an “isolated incident.” NATO, Rutte said, will defend “every inch” of its territory.
Trump, meanwhile, seems sincere in his desire to be a global peacemaker. If he succeeds, he could save many lives and leave a valuable legacy. He returned to the White House in January insisting he’d quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But eight months later, both are even more bloody. And Putin, China’s leader Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly defy him.
Events in the Middle East are unlikely to do much to hurt Trump’s political fortunes at home, as his crime crackdown plays out amid worries about a slowing economy. But Israel’s attack in broad daylight in Doha — just like Putin’s violations — could be ruinous to his self-image as a hard-power-wielding strongman who is feared abroad.
That’s because the strike flagrantly trampled the sovereignty of a vital US ally that hosts the largest US base in the Middle East and was negotiating with Hamas at the behest of the White House on a plan Trump predicted would soon yield a deal.
Not only was this a personal affront to Trump, but it also puts Netanyahu’s goals over the critical security priorities of the United States — even after the last two US administrations rushed to defend Israel from two sets of attacks by Iran. CNN reported that some White House officials were furious that it took place after one of Netanyahu’s advisers, Ron Dermer, on Monday met Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff but made no mention of an operation sure to humiliate the US president.
“The attacks take place at a very sensitive moment in the ceasefire negotiations where the Trump administration, the president, and his envoy Witkoff have made clear that the president is looking for a comprehensive ceasefire, the release of all hostages, prisoner exchange and moving forward and ending the war in Gaza,” former US ambassador to Israel Edward Djerejian told Richard Quest on CNN International.
“Israel is not obviously paying much attention to US national security interests,” said Djerejian, who served in eight administrations, starting with that of President John F. Kennedy and ending with that of President Bill Clinton.
Huge ramifications for US foreign policy
The reverberations of the strike seem certain to end any hope of a negotiated peace to end Israel’s war in Gaza — one reason why it may have recommended itself to Netanyahu. There may be horrific ramifications for the remaining Israeli hostages who are still alive after nearly two years of torment in tunnels under Gaza.
It’s also the latest evidence that the Israeli prime minister places more importance on the total eradication of Hamas — a potentially impossible task — than the hostages’ return. And the almost certain result is an intensification of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and alienated most of Israel’s foreign allies.
For the United States, there are also serious ramifications.
► The fallout could sour the relationship between the US president and the Israeli prime minister and sow distrust between Israel and its vital ally the United States.
► It will shatter any credibility that the Trump had in posing as a distant mediator between Israel and Hamas and may cause Qatar to pull out of peace talks. The emirate’s prime minister accused Israel of conducting “state terrorism.”
► Some US observers accuse Qatar of playing a double game by hosting Hamas leaders. But Doha will see the attack by America’s closest Middle East ally as a betrayal after its years working to advance US diplomatic priorities, not just in the Middle East, but in hostage release deals beyond the Middle East as far away as Afghanistan and Venezuela.
► There could also be adverse consequences for Trump’s personal and political interests in the wider Arab world, which he energetically pursued during the first Gulf trip of his second term, including a lavish welcome in Qatar.
► And the administration’s hoped-for expansion of the first-term Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states — and which is key to Trump’s push for a Nobel Peace Prize — is now more distant than ever.
► Leaders of other states in the Gulf, a thriving business and leisure hub, will wonder — if Israel can strike with impunity at Qatar, under the noses of the US garrison — whether they will be next.
“It’s a pretty big bill for the Israelis to have conducted this strike,” retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, told CNN’s Kasie Hunt. He added that Netanyahu has “been in power forever by US standards. And over time, he’s gotten very comfortable in doing exactly what he wants to do.”
Israel insists it acted alone
Many US analysts will interpret Israel’s attempt to kill negotiators considering a US peace plan a day after they met with Qatari government officials as new proof that Netanyahu wants to prolong the war. The prime minister has succeeded in postponing inevitable investigations into the security lapses after the October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas in 2023. And his personal legal woes can be kept off the boil as long as he stays in power atop his far-right coalition.
Israel’s justification for the strikes was that it will pursue terrorist leaders wherever they are. Netanyahu has waged war on multiple fronts throughout the region, and conducted devastating strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon; Houthis in Yemen; and Iran. He said Tuesday that the “days when the heads of terror enjoyed immunity anywhere are over.”
Many Israelis viewed the Hamas attacks nearly two years ago not just as a strike against Israel but also as the most heinous attempt to wipe out Jews since the Nazi Holocaust. Yet many also now oppose the total warfare on Gaza waged by Netanyahu and are desperate to see the return of the hostages after a negotiated settlement.
Netanyahu was quick to make clear that the attack on Doha was a “wholly independent Israeli operation,” seeking to offer Trump some diplomatic cover. But the Middle East loves conspiracy theories. And the US faces a hard sell over its claim that it knew nothing as Israel got 10 fighter jets and their munitions — possibly American-made F-35 planes — within range of the target.
Some will suspect that Trump gave a green light, or at least tacitly condoned the attacks. The White House, however, said that the US military in Qatar alerted Trump, and he ordered Witkoff to tip off the Qataris. But the government in Doha said it only got a heads-up when the attack, which caused panic in the capital, was already over.
The White House damage-control effort does seem to bolster Trump’s claim that he couldn’t do anything to halt the strike.
“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
It was exceedingly rare criticism of Israel from the Trump administration. The president later said on Truth Social that “this was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me.” Trump also said he’d ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize a defense cooperation pact with Qatar.
How Trump’s new Air Force One complicates his response
There are geopolitical reasons to take the president’s comments at face value. But there is a complication. Trump earlier this year accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar to serve as a new Air Force One in violation of any previous understanding of presidential ethics. How can Americans therefore be convinced that he’s acting on his perception of their vital security interests on this matter — and not his own desire to pay back Qatar for the personal gift of a jet worth hundreds of millions of dollars?
That aside, Trump’s credibility with Qatar will need serious repair work.
What of the US security umbrella supposed to be provided by its vast Al Udeid Air Base in the desert outside Doha? It didn’t prevent a deeply humiliating violation of Qatari sovereignty by an enemy the US would like them to engage. By extension, how can other Gulf states and other US allies worldwide be sure that Trump’s security guarantees will be any more airtight than they were for Qatar?
The attack on Qatar will also cement an already widespread belief throughout the Middle East that Trump lacks any influence over Netanyahu despite the leverage of US defense sales to Israel and its vital role in the Jewish state’s defense. There was no public talk from the White House on Tuesday about consequences for the Israeli leader.
The loss of Trump’s credibility is especially critical since the new US peace plan envisages the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas in Gaza in return for a ceasefire. Trump would then guarantee to Hamas that Israel would stick to the deal while negotiations continue. Tuesday’s attacks in broad daylight in Doha suggest that’s an empty promise.
So yet again, Trump’s self-proclaimed role as the president of peace is thrown into question. And his foreign policy team’s understanding of ruthless global strongmen was left badly exposed.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/10/politics/trump-israel-qatar-airstrikes-hamas-analysis
How Will The $250 Fee Impact Tourism To The U.s.?
The CBO based its estimate solely on the potential revenue generated by the fee itself, while the U.S. tourism industry looked at the macroeconomic impact of implementing the fee, hence the wildly different estimates. The CBO estimated that charging roughly 11 million annual visa applicants $250 apiece would rake in roughly $2.7 billion per year for the State Department. Tourism officials say Congress wrongly assumed the pricey fee would have little impact on the volume of visitation. Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford Economics, estimated that the $250-per-person fee is onerous enough to deter 5.4% of international visitors from coming to the U.S., which would translate to a drop of nearly 1 million fewer visits annually. Fewer visitors translate to less visitor spending, and in turn to lower tax revenue and job losses in the tourism industry, sending a negative ripple effect throughout the national economy. “By longstanding tradition, the Congressional Budget Office does not incorporate macroeconomic feedback effects into its traditional cost estimates,” a CBO spokesperson told Forbes. “We didn’t specifically do a dynamic analysis of this provision.” In other words, the CBO did not factor in the potential negative economic impact from lower visitor spending, tax revenue and subsequent job cuts—key metrics used by the U.S. tourism industry and the U.S. Commerce Department to evaluate the overall value of tourism to the U.S. economy. “I think in the minds of congressional leaders, foreign visitors don’t vote, so making them pay more to help fund the [Big Beautiful] Bill wouldn’t come at any political cost,” Erik Hansen, senior vice president of government relations at the U.S. Travel Association, told Forbes. “But the problem is it comes at a huge economic cost to American businesses.”
What Else Do U.s. Tourism Experts Say Congress Got Wrong?
“Congress made the mistake of assuming that this worldwide visa integrity fee would not have a big impact on visitors from countries like India or Brazil,” Hansen told Forbes. “This is the exact type of armchair public policymaking that is going to get us into a big mess.” India, in particular, is a “bright spot” for inbound international travel because visitation numbers have surpassed where they were in 2019, he said, while most other countries are lagging behind their pre-pandemic volume. In 2024, Indian tourists spent roughly $13.3 billion in the U.S., according to the National Travel and Tourism Office, part of the U.S. Commerce Department. “Applying a $250 fee to a country where travel is growing is mindboggling. It will absolutely deter travel—that’s what our research has found,” Hansen said.
What Do International Visitors Need To Know About The Visa Integrity Fee?
The fee is not actually as “refundable” as Congress has billed it to be. As written, the Big Beautiful Bill says the State Department “may reimburse” the fee after the visitor’s visa expires, provided that the visa holder has complied with all conditions of the visa. But most visitor visas are valid for 10 years, Hansen pointed out. “The idea that you’re going to give the government money and then wait around 10 years and remember to ask for it back, even if you followed the rules, is just absolutely crazy,” he said. Indeed, to arrive at its projection, the CBO reasoned in its estimate that “a large number of nonimmigrants would not be eligible to seek reimbursement until several years after paying the fee” so consequently only “a small number of people would seek reimbursement.” In other words, said Hansen, “there’s a very good understanding that the refund process itself is not going to be easy, and even if it is easy, that a lot of people aren’t going to seek that refund after a decade.” Another red flag: The $250 fee was inserted into the Big Beautiful Bill without a plan for processing refunds. In its analysis, the CBO wrote that “the Department of State would need several years to implement a process for providing reimbursements.”
Why Are So Many International Travelers Avoiding The U.s. This Year?
In June, a World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) analysis of the economic impact of tourism in 184 countries revealed the U.S. was the only country forecast to see international visitor spending decline in 2025, which by some estimates is as much as $29 billion. The root causes of this decline, multiple studies have found, are a combination of President Trump’s tariffs, travel bans, inflammatory rhetoric and harsher immigration policies, all which have created a chilling effect on visitors. “While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign,” Julia Simpson, president and CEO of WTTC, said in a statement. “Given we’re halfway through the year and we’ve seen these impacts, we don’t know when the stiffest headwind is, but I think it does stay sustained,” Aran Ryan, director of industry studies at Tourism Economics, told Forbes last month. “We’re generally assuming that this persists for a while and that some of it is going to persist throughout the end of the administration.” Simpson characterized the WTTC study as a “wake-up call for the U.S. government,” adding that “without urgent action to restore international traveler confidence, it could take several years for the U.S. just to return to pre-pandemic levels of international visitor spend.”
Tangent
Trump’s signature spending bill contains another blow to U.S. tourism. A Senate committee led by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) slashed the budget of Brand USA, the country’s public-private destination marketing organization, from $100 million to $20 million. “This is another error that Congress has made,” Hansen said, noting that the Trump administration recommended full funding for the organization in its fiscal year 2026 budget. “We have a big misperception problem among international visitors right now, but Congress cut funding for the one organization that’s in charge of setting perceptions and sending a welcoming message about travel to the United States.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/08/15/visa-integrity-fee-cost-us-11-billion
Mexican nationals are more likely to be detained after being apprehended by federal immigration officers, according to data compiled by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
TRAC figures show that in July, 57 percent of Mexican nationals arrested for crossing the border or for being in the country illegally were held in detention centers while their proceedings take place in immigration court.
By contrast, overall, only 30 percent of migrants were detained after their apprehensions.
According to TRAC, ICE determines when a person is held, and that there is no specific pattern in the decision-making.
“In reality, little is known about the factors that influence these custody decisions,” writes TRAC. “The ICE agents have wide discretion to make decisions and their criteria is rarely revealed.”
According to TRAC, it appears decisions are taken by the agents themselves and are influenced by their own backgrounds and ethnic identity.
However, the state in which migrants are apprehended can also determine whether they are detained.
TRAC says being detained can have major implications, adding that individuals who remain in custody have a more difficult time obtaining the documents and the legal help to make a case against deportation.
TRAC also says that the vast majority of individuals in ICE custody, through June 30, had no criminal record, and that 4 out of 5, either had no record or had only committed a minor offense such as a traffic violation.
The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men. They preside over brutal autocracies replete with secret police and prison camps. But they are, nevertheless, serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one. For nearly a decade, they have taken Donald Trump’s measure, and they have clearly reached a conclusion: The president of the United States is not worthy of their respect.
Wednesday’s military parade in Beijing is the most recent evidence that the world’s authoritarians consider Trump a lightweight. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korea’s maximum nepo baby, Kim Jong Un, gathered to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. (Putin’s Belarusian satrap, Alexander Lukashenko, was also on hand.) The American president was not invited: After all, what role did the United States play in defeating Japan and liberating Eurasia? Instead, Trump, much like America itself, was left to watch from the sidelines.
But the parade was worse than a mere snub. Putin, Xi, and Kim stood in solidarity while reviewing China’s military might only weeks after Putin came to Alaska and showed no interest in moving to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. The White House tried to spin that ill-advised summit into at least a draw between Putin and Trump, but when the Kremlin’s dictator shows up with no interest in negotiation, speaks first at a press conference, and then caps the day by declining a carefully planned lunch and flying home, that’s a humiliation, not an exchange of views.
Nor has Trump fared very well with the other two members of this cheery 21st-century incarnation of SPECTRE. In the midst of Trumpian chaos, Xi is adroitly positioning China as the new face of international stability and responsibility. He has even made a show of offering partnership to China’s rival and former enemy India: Chinese diplomats last month said that China stands with India against the American “bully” when Trump was, for some reason, trying to impose 50 percent tariffs on India.
Likewise, the North Koreans, after playing to Trump’s ego and his ignorance of international affairs during meetings in the president’s first term, have continued their march to a nuclear arsenal that within years could grow to be larger than the United Kingdom’s. Trump was certain that he could negotiate with Kim, but the perfumed days of “love letters” between Trump and Kim are long over. Pyongyang’s leadership seems to know that it costs them little to humor Trump politely, but that they should reserve serious discussion for the leaders of serious countries.
Trump responded to his exclusion from the gala in Beijing by acting exactly like the third-tier leader that Xi, Putin, and Kim seem to think he is. As the event was taking place, Trump took to his social-media site—of course—to express his hurt feelings with a cringe-inducing attempt at a zinger. “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”
Now, the reality is that Russia, China, and North Korea are conspiring against America, but it is beneath both the dignity and the power of an American president to whine about it. Trump continued his unseemly carping with a demand that China recognize the valor of the Americans who died in the Pacific:
The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader. Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice!
This message does not exactly project confidence and leadership; instead, it sounds like the grousing of a man beset by insecurities. A more self-assured commander in chief would have ignored the parade and, if asked about it, would have said something to the effect that the United States has always respected the sacrifices of our allies in World War II. But not Trump: He petulantly declared that he would not have attended even if the cool kids had invited him.
Authoritarians are unfortunately in good company in treating Trump as an incompetent leader. Even America’s allies have recognized that Trump may be their formal partner, but that they mostly get things done with the American president by soothing his ego and working around him. After Trump emerged from the summit in Anchorage essentially parroting Putin’s talking points, seven top European leaders rushed to Washington to tell Trump that he had done well and that they truly, really respected him, but that perhaps he should hold off on being a co-signer of Kremlin policy.
Trump’s damage to American power and prestige would be less severe if the president had a foreign policy and a team to execute it. He has neither: Trump ran for president mostly for personal reasons, including to stay out of prison, and his foreign policy, such as it is, is merely an extension of his personal interests. He holds summits, issues social-media pronouncements, and engages in photo ops mostly, it seems, either to burnish his claim to a Nobel Prize or to change the news cycle when issues such as the economy (or the Jeffrey Epstein files) get too much traction.
Worse, Trump is no longer surrounded by people who care about foreign affairs or can competently step in and create consistent policy. In his first term, Trump had a secretary of defense, James Mattis, who helped to create a national-defense strategy, a document that Trump might have ignored but was at least promulgated to a national-security establishment that needed direction from someone, somewhere. Now, at the Pentagon, Trump has Pete Hegseth, who shows little apparent inclination or ability to think about complexities.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was supposed to be one of the new “adults in the room,” but he has instead become a man in a Velcro suit, with the president sticking jobs and responsibilities onto him without any further guidance. He has been reduced to sitting glumly in White House press sprays with foreign leaders while Trump embarrasses himself and his guests. Meanwhile, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is spending her time trying to root out the spies she thinks hate the president. Unfortunately, the agents she’s hunting are Americans, which must bring a smile to Xi’s face and perhaps even produce a belly laugh from former KGB officer Putin.
America is adrift. It has no coherent foreign policy, no team of senior professionals managing its national defense and diplomacy, and a president who has little interest in the world beyond what it can offer him. Little wonder that the men who gathered in Beijing—three autocrats whose nations are collectively pointing many hundreds of nuclear weapons at the United States—feel free to act as if they don’t even think twice about Trump or the country he leads.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/trump-parade-china-putin-xi-kim/684113
