Part II: When Performance Replaces Stewardship
Series: Retrenchment or Reimagination?
The Theater of Power
Every president speaks to an audience.
But not every president understands who that audience should be.
For Donald Trump, the presidency is a stage — and the show appears to be built for a faction, not the nation. Rallies become revivals. Policy decisions double as press releases. Cabinet reshuffles are reality TV plot twists.
It earns airtime. But it costs something far more precious: trust.
The Wrong Audience
The president of the United States has only one rightful audience:
The people of the United States — all of them.
Not a base. Not a donor bloc. Not the commentariat.
When the president governs for a slice of the electorate, foreign policy becomes a tool for domestic applause. And when that happens, strategy bends toward optics, not outcomes.
Antagonism as Governance
President Trump’s foreign policy illustrates this pattern:
Insulting NATO allies — not to negotiate, but to draw cheers.
Slashing aid — not as part of a long-term plan, but to score points in the war on “globalist elites.”
Amplifying Rubio’s dismantling of USAID — not because it failed, but because it plays well in disruption politics.
In this theater, Rubio’s actions — however defensible in isolation — are judged not on strategic merit but on tone. And the tone is one of antagonism.
The Steward’s Burden
To govern is not just to wield power. It is to steward trust:
To tend to institutions.
To think beyond the next news cycle.
To represent the nation’s character on the world stage.
A president speaks not just to the American people, but as them. And when that voice is used to divide or humiliate, the damage extends beyond domestic politics — it corrodes the credibility of U.S. diplomacy.
Leadership Beyond the Oval Office
But the duty to steward trust does not belong to the president alone.
Where is Congress in defining and defending a coherent national vision?
Where are the governors, mayors, and party leaders willing to put country before faction?
Leadership is not the sole province of one branch or one person.
It is the shared responsibility of every elected official — and, in a democracy, of every citizen who chooses their leaders.
The absence of a unifying vision for America’s role in the world leaves a vacuum. Into that vacuum rushes partisanship, short-term thinking, and performance politics. Without a compass to point us toward a shared future, even well-intentioned policies drift — untethered from principle and unmoored from purpose.
Why Tone Matters
Foreign policy doesn’t live in a vacuum. It’s judged through the lens of leadership.
Under a leader with moral clarity, reducing aid might read as realignment.
Under a leader who thrives on grievance, the same move reads as abandonment.
Rubio’s scalpel might be precise. But under Trump’s spotlight, it looks like a sledgehammer.
The Tragedy of the Frame
There could have been a different story here:
Rubio, with a sharp fiscal lens and deep understanding of America’s soft-power footprint, could have reimagined U.S. engagement under a president committed to unity and moral authority.
Instead, we have reform by wrecking ball — narrated from inside the circus tent.
A Closing Reminder
The presidency is not a megaphone for the loudest voice in the room. It is a mantle of care, carried on behalf of all.
When popularity is mistaken for principle, and performance replaces stewardship, America’s footprint shrinks — and so does its soul.
Up Next in Part III: The Moral Ledger of Power — why foreign aid is more than charity, and what we risk when we reduce it to a budget line item.