Trump makes everything worse but he didn’t start it

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As I see itAlex LoTrump makes everything worse but he didn’t start it

Essays from over a decade ago show that America’s institutional decay and populist revolt predate the current US president’s rise to power

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Alex LoAlex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China. Published: 8:30pm, 26 May 2026

While cleaning my basement, I found an old copy of Foreign Affairs dated September/October 2014. If you didn’t look at the publication date but only its table of contents, you would have thought it was a recent edition.

Titled “See America: Land of Decay & Dysfunction”, the edition’s front cover is a painting of a crumbling Capitol Building that houses the United States Congress.

Keep in mind we are talking about the second year of the second term of Barack Obama, whose presidency is now fondly remembered by many Americans as the high point of US democracy and prestige in the 21st century.

AdvertisementSome of the essays were penned by people who still write about US foreign policy. One essay is by Francis Fukuyama, the “end of history” guy. In “America in Decay: The Sources of Political Dysfunction”, he argues that the US’ political system is past its use-by date.

“The US political system has decayed over time because its traditional system of checks and balances has deepened and become increasingly rigid,” he wrote. “In an environment of sharp political polarisation, this decentralised system is less and less able to represent majority interests and gives excessive representation to the views of interest groups and activist organisations that collectively do not add up to a sovereign American people.”

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If the system doesn’t represent the majority, it can then only represent minority interests. Who are they? “In the contemporary United States, elites speak the language of liberty but are perfectly happy to settle for privilege,” he wrote.

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