The US And The World--A Seismic Shift?

Seismic, of course, suggests that the shift is massive—an earthquake. We’ll get to that, but first an update on what’s going on with USAID. This isn’t a digression, because USAID has for many years been the face of the US to the rest of the world, as much or more so than the State Department. To get the official version of what USAID is, where it came from, what it does, look no further than Wikipedia:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance – the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid. USAID was subsequently established by the executive order of President John F. Kennedy, who sought to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency.^[4] USAID became the first U.S. foreign assistance organization whose primary focus was long-term socioeconomic development.

USAID's programs are authorized by Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act, which Congress supplements through directions in annual funding appropriation acts and other legislation. As an official component of U.S. foreign policy, USAID operates subject to the guidance of the president, secretary of state, and the National Security Council. USAID has missions in over 100 countries, primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Zerohedge has a brief but highly suggestive article on the collective freakout by the Deep State and Ruling Class over Trump’s dismantling of USAID. The Trump effort is, of course, headed by Elon Musk and is focused on discovering where all that “foreign aid” with a “primary focus [on] long-term socioeconomic development” has really been going. The collective freakout tells you that the Deep State and Ruling Class are desperate to hide the truth from the American people. A predictable tactic has been deployed—accuse Musk’s team of ohmigod! accessing “secure spaces”. Could this be as bad as the FBI accessing Melania’s lingerie?

"Legitimately FAKE NEWS": White House Debunks Dem Freakout Over DOGE Access To "Secure Spaces" As Musk Drops Redpills Over USAID Biolabs

One of the things that has the Deep State in a lather is right there in the title: Biolabs. How do US operated biolabs overseas qualify as foreign aid? For long-term socioeconomic development? Grants to an American contractor (EcoHealth) is foreign aid? And you know that’s not the only thing we’ll be hearing about:

As it turns out, Musk's team gaining access to USAID - the deep state's international slush fund, which notably gave Wuhan Lab collaborator EcoHealth Alliance a $4.67 million grant in 2021, then stonewalled when asked for documents - and handed Ukrainian energy giant Burisma a lucrative contract months after Hunter Biden joined its board, and gave $15 million to organizations linked to George Soros - kicked a massive hornet's nest.

In a Sunday letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee penned an angry screed expressing "deep concern" about the USAID office.

…

Except, that's total bullshit according to White House assistant comms director Steven Cheung, who posted to X that the report is "Legitimately FAKE NEWS," and "Not even remotely true at all."

Exactly

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Meanwhile, Musk has been dropping USAID redpills all weekend. For example:

Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people? https://t.co/YVwyKA7ifs

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Yes https://t.co/hlfGsh1zxc

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Great question! https://t.co/Zu7vxtrQon

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

USAID has been paying media organizations to publish their propaganda https://t.co/L3rXRt3yxy

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Good question https://t.co/c2b3W7gtL4

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Regarding USAID paying media organizations, we’re learning that about 90% of the Ukrainian media was funded by the US—almost certainly by USAID. That means that the propaganda put out by Ukraine’s media is largely “legitimate fake news” provided by the US government to be fed back to the US media to pass on to We The People. Legitimate Fake News laundering, as it were. Also please notice that Musk minces no words regarding Covid Origins—it was the fruit of bioweapons research by the US government funded, in part, by USAID. When did bioweapons research become foreign aid?

Of course there’s more going on to the big shift, the seismic shift, in America’s interface with the world. Here’s Arnaud Bertrand trying to come to grips with it—the perspective of a Frenchman doing business in China. As you read, keep in mind that we’re all still grappling with what’s going on—what it all means, where we’re headed. Trump’s foreign policy, while it surely has some controlling principles, remains a work in progress that’s taking place while key pieces in the puzzle are changing shape. But I think Bertrand gets some of the principles right:

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

It's becoming clearer and clearer that we're looking at a seismic shift in the US's relationship with the world, between:

1) The US dismantling its foreign interference apparatuses (like USAID)

2) Marco Rubio stating that we're now in a multipolar world with "multi-great powers in different parts of the planet" (https://state.gov/secretary-marco-rubio-with-megyn-kelly-of-the-megyn-kelly-show/…) and that "the postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us" (https://foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/6df93f4b-a83c-89ac-0fac-9b586715afd8/011525_Rubio_Testimony.pdf…)

That’s pretty deep stuff. I wonder who spoon fed Little Marco?

3) The tariffs on supposed "allies" like Mexico, Canada or the EU

This is the US effectively saying "our attempt at running the world is over, to each his own, we're now just another great power, not the 'indispensable nation'."

It looks "dumb" (as the WSJ just wrote) if you are still mentally in the old paradigm but it's always a mistake to think that what the US (or any country) does is dumb.

Hegemony was going to end sooner or later, and now the U.S. is basically choosing to end it on its own terms. It is the post-American world order - brought to you by America itself.

Even the tariffs on allies, viewed under this angle, make sense, as it redefines the concept of "allies": they don't want - or maybe rather can't afford - vassals anymore, but rather relationships that evolve based on current interests.

You can either view it as decline - because it does unquestionably look like the end of the American empire - or as avoiding further decline: controlled withdrawal from imperial commitments in order to focus resources on core national interests rather than being forced into an even messier retreat at a later stage.

In any case it is the end of an era and, while the Trump administration looks like chaos to many observers, they're probably much more attuned to the changing realities of the world and their own country's predicament than their predecessors. Acknowledging the existence of a multipolar world and choosing to operate within it rather than trying to maintain an increasingly costly global hegemony couldn't be delayed much further. It looks messy but it is probably better than maintaining the fiction of American primacy until it eventually collapses under its own weight.

This is not to say that the U.S. won't continue to wreak havoc on the world, and in fact we might be seeing it become even more aggressive than before. Because when it previously was (badly, and very hypocritically) trying to maintain some semblance of self-proclaimed "rules-based order", it now doesn't even have to pretend it is under any constraint, not even the constraint of playing nice with allies. It's the end of the U.S. empire, but definitely not the end of the U.S. as a major disruptive force in world affairs.

All in all this transformation may mark one of the most significant shifts in international relations since the fall of the Soviet Union. And those most unprepared for it, as is already painfully obvious, are America's vassals caught completely flat-footed by the realization that the patron they've relied on for decades is now treating them as just another set of countries to negotiate with.

10:02 AM · Feb 2, 2025

Of course, as Bertrand says, our vassal states—especially in Europe—were the least prepared for this seismic shift. The political upheaval that’s developing in country after country is testimony to that. Here’s an interesting chart of the latest election polling in Romania. Recall that not long ago the EU (no doubt prompted by our Deep State, maybe through USAID) thought they had a handle on that situation—they simply twisted the arm of Romania’s judiciary to coerce them into canceling the election of a president who wanted to develop cooperative relations with Russia. That same candidate is currently wiping the floor with all the other candidates in the leadup to the new election.

Olga Bazova @OlgaBazova

Independent candidate Călin Georgescu is polling at 47% in the race to become Romania's next president.

What will be their next excuse to cancel the election results if he wins again in May?

1:22 AM · Feb 2, 2025

Bear in mind that not only is Romania one of the main conduits of armaments to Ukraine, but the US is currently constructing in Romania what is projected to be the largest military base in Europe. But the entire region south of Poland, all the way down to the Mediterranean, appears to be shifting toward Russia.

Trump is juggling all this, plus the Middle East, plus China, plus Iran while he works at executing a seismic shift that leaves essential structures still standing.