The Change in the World Order

March 26, 2026.

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vivian

Balakrishnan, put in bold language the change in the world order instigated by President

Donald J. Trump.

For 80 years, Balakrishnan explained, the U.S. was the underwriter for a system of globalization

based on UN charter principles, multilateralism, territorial integrity, sovereign equality.

That system heralded an unprecedented and unique period of global prosperity and peace.

Of course there were exceptions and of course the Cold War was still an effect for at least

half of the last 80 years.

But generally, for those of us who were non-communists, who ran open economies, who provided first-world

infrastructure together with a hard-working discipline people, we had unprecedented opportunities.

The story of Singapore, with a per capita GDP of $500 U.S. in 1965, now it is somewhere

between 80,000 to 90,000 U.S. dollars.

It would not have happened if it had not been for this unprecedented period, basically

Pox Americana, and then turbocharged by the reform and opening of China for decades.

It has been unprecedented, it has been great for many of us.

In fact I will say for all of us if you look back 80 years.

But now whether you like it or not, objectively this period has ended.

Basically, the underwriter of this world order has now become a revisionist power, and

some people would even say a disruptor.

But the larger point is that the erosion of norms, processes, and institutions that underpin

a remarkable period of peace and prosperity, that foundation has gone.

In its place, a scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder said to me in a YouTube conversation

yesterday, Trump is aligning himself with international oligarchs like Russia's Vladimir

Putin, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman or MBS, and China's Xi Jinping.

Because of his position as president of the United States of America, this means he is

aligning the United States of America with this oligarchical axis as well, abandoning the

country's democratic principles and traditional allies.

On February 28, Michael Burnbaum, John Hudson, Karen DeYoung, Natalie Allison, and Suad McKenna

of the Washington Post reported that Trump initially launched the strikes on Iran at the

urging of MBS and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the assessment of

U.S. intelligence that Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S. and would not

for at least a decade.

Both countries see Iran as a threat to their power and want it weakened.

Netanyahu has been eager to get rid of the Iranian regime for decades and has urged

previous presidents to attack without success.

On Tuesday, March 24, Julian E. Barnes, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmidt of the New York Times

reported that MBS sees a historic opportunity to remake the Middle East, and so has been

pushing Trump to continue his war against Iran.

MBS, the journalist's report, has urged Trump to use troops to seize Iran's energy infrastructure

and drive the regime out of power.

He is assured Trump that the jump in oil prices will be temporary, although most observers

disagree.

Judd Legham of popular information notes that the Saudi Public Investment Fund, or PIF,

controlled by MBS, invested $2 billion in the private equity firm of Trump's son-in-law

Jared Kushner, one of Trump's volunteer Iran negotiators before the war.

A report by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and House Oversight Committee, released

on March 19, says that, since 2021, Mr. Kushner has collected more than $110 million from

the government of Saudi Arabia for investment management services that have reaped little

to no return.

The follow-up from the Iran War has also benefited Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Despite reports that Russia is aiding Iran in the fight, the Trump administration dropped

sanctions on Russian oil that was already at sea, giving Russia an injection of up to $10

billion a month into its cash-strapped war effort against Ukraine.

Today, Trump reposted Russian propaganda, claiming that Ukraine discussed funneling money to

Biden's re-election campaign.

Also today, four Russian lawmakers arrived in Washington, D.C. for the first such visit

since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, to talk with lawmakers and officials.

Part of the normalization of relations with the United States of America is one of the

Russians told the Russian press.

Trump declared he was determined to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine, but this

week, according to Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky, administration officials said the

U.S. would not guarantee Ukraine's security unless Ukraine withdraws from its own land

in Donbass.

Seating the region to Russia would essentially give Putin what he launched the war to grab.

It's the same region that was at stake in 2016 when Russian operatives told Trump's

2016 campaign manager.

They would help Trump's presidential candidacy if he would look the other way as Putin installed

a puppet over the region.

This afternoon, Noah Robertson and Ellen Francis of the Washington Post reported that

the Pentagon is considering diverting weapons intended for Ukraine to the Middle East.

They also noted that on Monday, Pentagon officials told Congress that it was going to divert

about $750 million in funding provided by NATO countries for Ukraine to restock military

weapons in the U.S. instead.

About allocating weapons, Trump told the reporters, we do that all the time.

We have them in other countries like in Germany and all over Europe.

Sometimes we take from one and we use for another.

Next week, the U.S. eased sanctions on banks in Russia's ally Belarus, and today Trump

announced he would ease further sanctions on Belarus to try to get fertilizer into the

U.S. since Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz has stopped the transportation of about

20 percent of the world's fertilizer.

Also today, Belarus's president Alexander Lukashenko signed a treaty with another of Putin's

allies.

North Korea's president Kim Jong-un announcing a fundamentally new stage of the relationship

between the two countries as they oppose undue pressure on Belarus from the West.

Both Belarus and North Korea support Russia in its war on Ukraine.

Trump has openly endorsed Orban for re-election in Hungary's April 12 elections, posting

on social media yesterday.

Relations between Hungary and the United States have reached new heights of cooperation

and spectacular achievement under my administration.

Thanks largely to Prime Minister Orban.

I look forward to continuing working closely with him so that both of our countries can

further advance this tremendous path to success and cooperation.

Virging Hungarians to vote for Orban, Trump continued, he is a true friend, fighter and

winner and has my complete and total endorsement.

I am with him all the way.

The framers of the Constitution tried to set up a system that would make it impossible

for a president to go to war for private interests or the benefit of other countries, establishing

that Congress alone can declare war.

The framers wanted the American people to weigh in on whether they wanted to dedicate

their lives and their fortunes to a war.

But Trump simply began the Iran War without consultation with Congress, and administration

officials have refused to appear at hearings, instead briefing Congress behind closed doors.

At an annual fundraising dinner for Republican members of Congress, Trump appeared to acknowledge

he was violating the Constitution.

He spoke of the tremendous success of what he called his military operation in Iran.

He continued, I won't use the word war because they say if he used the word war, that's

maybe not a good thing to do.

They don't like the word war because you're supposed to get approval.

So I will use the word military operation.

Now as the war costs at least a billion dollars a day and Trump's declarations fluctuate

wildly, from saying the war is over, to suggesting he is considering deploying ground troops,

to posting this morning that Iranian negotiators better get serious soon before it's too late

because once that happens, there is no turning back and it won't be pretty.

Even Republicans are starting to have misgivings.

The war has pushed Trump's approval rating down to just 36%.

While a new Reuters poll shows that only 25% of Americans approve of how Trump is handling

the cost of living, today the stock market, which has generally trended downwards since

the invasion, dropped sharply as traders apparently recognize that the cost of oil is not coming

down anytime soon.

Yesterday, after a classified briefing, House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers,

a Republican of Alabama, who backed the Iran's strikes, told reporters that Congress members

want to know more about what's going on, what the options are, and why they're being

considered, adding, and we're just not getting enough answers on those questions.

Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, a Republican of Mississippi commented,

I can see why he might have said that.

In an in-depth interview with Hunter Walker and Josh Kovinsky of Talking Points memo yesterday,

representative Joe Morelli, a Democrat of New York, who sits on the House Appropriations

Committee, explained how Trump's Iran incursion has become a mess for the president.

The administration has suggested it is going to ask for $200 billion for the war, and Morelli

noted that we are already closing in on $30 billion in spending on it, and that when

you consider all the things that Trump rejects or the Republicans reject as too costly, the

fact that they have now spent $30 billion in effectively the span of a month without

even talking to Congress about this expenditure is really somewhat staggering.

Morelli noted that even if the White House or the Pentagon did start to provide specifics,

I'm not sure it would matter anyway, because the president changes his mind so frequently.

He might say something and literally without exaggeration a half hour later say something

completely different, or even sometimes within the same press conference, give two wildly

different answers.

Morelli told Walker and Kovinsky, they find us on things that will help American families

be able to pursue dreams, take care of the food, housing, and health care needs of millions

of families that they can't afford.

Precisely the things that, as Minister Balakrishnan noted, the post-World War II international

order enabled people around the world to attain.

But Morelli said they can go into an ill-conceived military action that has neither the support

of Congress nor the support of American families, which has no clear objectives, shifting

goals, and has alienated our allies, and made us less safe.

Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead and Massachusetts, recorded with music

composed by Michael Moss.