Has Trump’s America Gone Rogue?

There are certainly plenty of reasons to believe so—and plenty of people willing to say so. The exhibits of this Trump administration’s disdain for lawfulness, both domestically and internationally, are legion.

Is the United States now a rogue state?

There are certainly plenty of reasons to believe so—and plenty of people willing to say so. The exhibits of this Trump administration’s disdain for lawfulness, both domestically and internationally, are legion.

The attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean as well as the designation of Venezuela’s leader as the head of a drug cartel—and thus a “terrorist” and a legal target under legal authorities designed to deal with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks—are just the most glaring examples. There are also the threats of military action against Mexico, Nigeria, perhaps Panama, and potentially even Greenland.

There are the questionable tariffs levied on the whole world, an expansion of executive power never contemplated before and currently under Supreme Court review. And there are other tariffs, abusing narrow national security exceptions, that also breach international trade norms. Even seemingly innocent things, such as international maritime shipping standards, are cause for contempt and personal intimidation of foreign diplomats.

There are also the domestic measures, from a rampaging Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol, to U.S. national guard troops being sent to U.S. cities for no reason, to the politicization of the justice system to prosecute Trump’s political opponents. There is a formal end to enforcement of anti-corruption statutes, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the informal embrace of apparent corruption, f