Power Without Compassion - Trump's Global and Domestic Politics of Coldness

While medications run out in the health stations of Monrovia and more and more young women in rural Senegal face unplanned pregnancies, Donald Trump invites guests to lunch. A “multilateral lunch,” as the White House calls it. On the guest list: the heads of state of Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania, and Guinea-Bissau. The host: a president who only weeks earlier had cut the most vital lifeline for many of these countries - the development cooperation of the United States of America. Since the sudden dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), West Africa has been on the brink. Liberia has been hit particularly hard: with 2.6% of its gross national income derived from US aid, no country in the world was more dependent on the United States. Now, entire clinic networks are empty, vaccination programs have come to a standstill, and prevention efforts against malaria and HIV exist only on paper. The US government speaks of a paradigm shift - no more “charity” but “partnerships with countries that are willing and able to help themselves.” What that means is now being felt by those for whom every dollar made the difference between life and death. That such a meeting is taking place at the White House right now is not just an act of political dissonance - it is symbolic politics in the shadow of moral indifference. From a West African perspective, it feels like humiliation - first withdrawing aid, then inviting them to the table. Officially, it’s about “cooperation.” Unofficially, it’s about saving face. No concrete programs have been announced, and it is unclear whether the US is even willing to provide substantial funding again. The silence from Washington is as loud as the rattle of empty medicine cabinets in Freetown.

But it’s not just Africa suffering under Trump’s new foreign policy. On other fronts as well, America’s international credibility is crumbling. At the same time as the West Africa summit, new tariffs were announced on imports from the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya, and Iraq - countries that are not major industrial powers but now face import taxes of 20 to 30%. The economic course of the Trump administration leaves no doubt: America is pulling back - with tariffs, sanctions, and cuts. One particularly grotesque example is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who not only oversees the nation’s weather services but also runs a financial firm that would profit from the privatization of government forecasting. Amid deadly floods in Texas, the consequences of budget cuts become clear - early warning systems fail, staff is lacking, and the National Weather Service is fighting for survival. In the midst of this political wreckage, Attorney General Pam Bondi also fails to provide transparency - she refuses to release further documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case. While Trump backs her publicly, criticism from the far right is escalating. The scandal over the sealed files is just one in a series of institutional breakdowns with consequences that stretch far beyond party lines. And as if global insecurity weren’t already great enough, the US Treasury has added 22 companies from Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey to a sanctions list - allegedly for operating as part of an Iranian shadow banking system. The measure is intended to block Tehran’s access to the international financial system but also affects civilian economic structures.

The contradictions of this administration are many: while SNAP benefits (food assistance) are being cut on a historically unprecedented scale and even legally residing parents are losing eligibility, the CDC - the top public health authority - is led by a woman who has done nothing to oppose the course set by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Susan Monarez was narrowly confirmed by the Senate committee on Wednesday. Meanwhile, her agency reports the worst measles outbreak in three decades. It is a portrait of erosion - in foreign policy, in social policy, in institutions. What remains is a president who sends out invitations while chairs around the world are collapsing. A host without an offering. A lunch without morals. And a world that must watch as the superpower postpones its empathy.