People who say Trump has made our country respected and feared again don’t really know what is going on or have an understanding of the world. There is a difference between being feared and being afraid, and it’s not a subtle difference. Fear comes from respect and an understanding that there will be consequences for your actions. Being afraid comes from uncertainty, instability, and chaos. Fear says, “That is someone we should not mess with.” Being afraid says, “We don’t know what they might do next because they have no direction, leadership, or morality.” Right now, we are a laughingstock to much of the world. Other countries don’t fear the United States because they respect us they’re afraid of us because we have an unstable, unhinged president. When that instability is paired with control over nuclear weapons, that fear isn’t about strength or leadership, it’s about unpredictability. A world that worries about whether the most powerful weapons on Earth are in the hands of someone who acts on impulse and seeks revenge is not a world that respects us. It’s a world that’s nervous and hoping nothing goes terribly wrong.
