The Ugliest American

The Ugly American was a hugely important political novel in the 1950s that ended up indirectly shaping White House policy in the 1960s. The term "ugly American" then came into wide international use to describe the worst sort of Americans -- brash, crude, greedy, grasping, and indifferent to those less fortunate.

I thought of the book when I was reading Jeffrey Goldberg's superb short essay in The Atlantic yesterday (link here) with the title "A Senior White House Official Defines the Trump Doctrine: ‘We’re America, Bitch’" and the subtitle "The President believes that the United States owes nothing to anyone—especially its allies."

Essentially, Donald Trump has embraced the policy of being the ugliest American abroad. He is brash, crude, greedy, grasping, and indifferent to other nations' peoples and needs. He wants to acquire as much as possible and fuck the consquences and anybody hurt in the. It's an official policy of smash and grab.

While this might lead to short-term gains, and could have worked a hundred years ago, it won't work today and will be highly destructive to America's long-term interests.

Russia is a gangster nation. No wonder Trump admires Vladimir Putin so much. He wants to turn America into a gangster nation, too.