Honestly, that's the least of the damage to the American reputation.
He's actively distancing the US from our traditional allies. Tariffs undercut our trade partners. We're threatening to invade NATO countries. Even after 2028, our partners are going to have a hard time believing our commitments.
It was known well in advance that those making big contributions to his reelection campaign, e.g. as did the oil and gas industry, also the cryptocurrency industry, will receive major favors as they have. Memecoins were just an extension of the approach in a post-victory setting. To my knowledge, it's all legal.
For the future, I wonder if it would be better or worse to eliminate almost all powers from the President's authority, giving him an elevated position mostly just in name, with most decisions being made by Congress. It has its pros and cons, but it's the safer choice.
I think the main pro is that you can't have these arguments of the president being hamstrung by congress.
There's a very common trend of a president campaigning on something and then never delivering as president.
I don't think we'd see much difference in terms of corruption though if Trump was elected by people or congress. The heads of agencies and etc were all confirmed by congress and those agencies are turning a blind eye.
OK but I was referring not to his election but to the significant post-election power that he has. If much of this power were to be stripped from his role, then yes he would be hamstrung, but any damage would also be limited.
This has been the case in the US for at least 50 years but it did get recently much worse. Previously, Obama was openly shilling for Boeing. Reagan arbitrarily deregulated things, creating the S&L crisis and wrecked many other things, and funded American-trained death squads by getting poor and brown people hooked on drugs. The duopoly "choices" offered thus far have been between John Birch Society Nazis and limousine liberals... both warmongering corporatists who won't do anything for ordinary people but are totally engrossed on winning more money and passing more laws for their masters.
There is nothing foolish about it because those who buy a big chunk of the memecoin know they'll be getting special favors in exchange for the purchase. It's transactional, and it yields significant protections and returns for their businesses.
You need your head of state to be neutral in matters of business.
This sort of corruption is badly damaging the reputation of the USA
He's actively distancing the US from our traditional allies. Tariffs undercut our trade partners. We're threatening to invade NATO countries. Even after 2028, our partners are going to have a hard time believing our commitments.
Compared to that, mere grift hardly registers.
For the future, I wonder if it would be better or worse to eliminate almost all powers from the President's authority, giving him an elevated position mostly just in name, with most decisions being made by Congress. It has its pros and cons, but it's the safer choice.
There's a very common trend of a president campaigning on something and then never delivering as president.
I don't think we'd see much difference in terms of corruption though if Trump was elected by people or congress. The heads of agencies and etc were all confirmed by congress and those agencies are turning a blind eye.