From Democracy to International Extortion in Six Months
The United States told twenty-seven democratic nations representing hundreds of millions of people: pay us $600 billion more in investments, buy $750 billion of our energy, open your markets completely to our goods while we impose 15% tariffs—or face economic destruction.
Some call it a victory. I call it heartbreaking. It’s not strength. It’s disgusting. And it started at home.
It wasn’t necessary
It’s particularly heartbreaking because the system was working fine. Nearly $2 trillion in annual trade built on average tariffs of just 2.5%. Both sides prospered. We were, in fact, the world’s most respected economic leader. The system wasn’t broken. Until yesterday.
How allies see us
European officials said they were “dealt a bad hand” and had to make “the best possible play under the circumstances.” Think about that. Our allies—people who have stood with us for decades—are talking about negotiations with America the way you’d describe dealing with a loan shark. They “lacked the leverage” to resist our demands, so they capitulated to avoid something worse. We’re shaking them down.
We have become an organized crime operation
We’ve transformed from the country that built cooperative systems into the one that threatens to destroy lives unless nations pay up. We used to be the nation other countries wanted to work with. Now we’re the one they have to pay off, or face economic ruin.
This doesn’t make America great. It makes America hated. We seem to have forgotten the difference between respect and fear.
Imperial blackmail
This is American leadership now: raw economic coercion replaces partnership; fear substitutes for respect; extortion poses as negotiation.
America is now the strong-arm in a protection racket. Japan’s $550 billion investment package will be deployed ‘at Trump’s discretion’ – foreign tribute money flowing directly through the boss’s personal control. This isn’t trade policy, it’s organized crime.
Our responsibility
We voted for this. For whatever reasons – gerrymandering, emotional manipulation, inability to distinguish lies from truth – we chose this path. It’s particularly galling that we’ve exported the same predatory model we use on our own people.
The truth is that Americans are suffering from wealth extraction by the extractors. For decades, this system has been draining money from working people while wages stagnated and costs soared. Healthcare bankrupts families. Housing eats half your paycheck. Education prices out entire generations. But the extractors perfected controlling the story – calling their extraction ‘economic growth,’ their extortion ‘deals.’ When the scapegoating worked so well domestically, they just switched the tactic to direct threats internationally.
Can’t afford rent? It’s the immigrants driving up demand. Lost your factory job? It’s China stealing our work. Struggling to get ahead? It’s all that foreign trade hurting America. The same people who’ve been robbing you blind hand you a scapegoat and say “there’s your real enemy.”
Can’t solve America’s problems because you’d have to stop extracting wealth? Just shake down other countries instead. Make them pay tribute. The beautiful part is that Americans will pay for this shakedown through tariff taxes while the tribute money flows right back to the same extractors who created our problems in the first place.
It’s the perfect con. Extract wealth from Americans, blame foreigners for the damage, then extract more wealth from the foreigners while Americans pay the bill. The extractors get paid three times while everyone else gets poorer.
The cost to others
In 6 months, we have successfully exported that economic trick worldwide. I feel sorry for the rest of the world, our one-time friends.
Read More
For the wealth extraction argument:
- Money in Politics Part 1: The Auction Block Democracy – Shows exactly how the extraction system works through political capture
- The Collapse of the Middle Class Is a National Security Issue – Accessible explanation of systematic wealth extraction and its consequences
For the broader pattern:
- Assault on America: Dismantling the Productive Economy – Documents how extraction is attacking all productive sectors simultaneously
- The Distraction Doctrine: Trump’s Pattern of Manufacturing Crisis – Analysis of the manipulation tactics used to cover extraction
For historical context:
- The Gilded Age: When Corporate Power Took Over – Shows this extractive pattern has happened before and how people fought back
- Make America Great Again: Public investment, shared progress, and real national strength – Positive vision of what real national strength looks like
Cross posted at https://lfitzhugh.substack.com/p/my-president-the-mob-boss