Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
President Donald Trump has never been a fan of soft power. He much prefers the hard stuff: tough diplomacy, throwing around the weight of American might.
In keeping with this ethos, Trump has made deep cuts to America’s soft-power establishment, like the US Agency for International Development and the US Agency for Global Media, which seek to influence other nations with cultural and economic persuasion.
The leftist rot ran deep and the waste piled high at USAID and USAGM. Trump is right to put them through shock therapy.
But it will be equally important for his administration to rebuild them, so that the US can re-establish its role as the world’s beacon of freedom. There’s still a place for American soft power and the exportation of American values — if we know what they are.
Soft power is the ultimate strings-attached funding. We dole out cash so people will like us and like what we stand for.
The United States used soft power during the Cold War to wield moral authority, but in recent years we’ve wrecked ourselves by giving money to people who hate us. Trump wants to get back to basics.
Kari Lake is Trump’s senior adviser for USAGM, which runs Voice of America and other US-funded news outlets.
“Soft power should be used to put out information and a message that reflects America’s values and is in line with our policy,” she told me this week. “Not something that’s in line with our adversaries.”
That’s been a good and useful thing over the years — exporting the fight against Nazis, global vaccine roll-outs, blue jeans and rock music.
But Americans today are not unified on what it means to be American.
We should be. It hasn’t actually changed.
We’ve just buried it under nonsense.
Soft power in the 20th century effectively inspired the best and brightest international minds, people keen to jump on the American soul train and ride it to freedom and wealth.
What gave us that cultural edge was a set of aspirational values and a die-hard, unflinching confidence.
Americans want to live in a high-trust society with political stability.
Americans want to choose their own destiny without manufactured obstructions like climate change initiatives, diversity quotas or punitive taxes. We’re sure about what we want, and we’ll shoot down anything in our way.
Americans want to know their neighbors have the same hustle to create a prosperous country where our children can thrive, and if those neighbors need help, we’ll raise barns to do it.
We’re all obstinate enough that we’ll be damned if anyone is going to tell us what to do.
These are the basics of who we are as a people — fierce, unflinching, big-hearted, ambitious loudmouths.
Without blood unity we are bound by our shared history, our wish for a peaceful present, and our striving for a better future.
Leftists have told us our nation is founded on lies, that the Constitution is a racist document penned by racist men — but when faced with Trump’s revolution against norms, they cling to precedent and principles.
They lack consistency, sure, but even the crazed leftists, deep down, rely on America’s indivisible foundation.
Voice of America was founded in 1942 so Americans could counteract Nazi propaganda. USAID has let the world know that Americans are not only strong and powerful, but generous and empathetic.
Yet in recent years these and other American soft-power agencies have been exporting messages and practices that veer so hard into progressive ideologies as to be anathema to those values.
Trans musicals and comic books. DEI initiatives in Eastern Europe. Joe Biden’s USAID head pushed LGBTQ+ initiatives just to stifle the conservative government of Hungary.
Using cash to mess with allied nations’ leaders should not be our jam. Neither should funding meals for terrorists — yes, this has been happening.
And yeah, it’s all got to stop.
That’s not what the world needs from America, and it’s definitely not what Americans want to be exporting. Trump is right about that.
We are big on sharing, we want to help, we don’t want to hoard all our toys at the playground.
But we’re not going to give them to some bully who steals our stuff and kicks our little sister in the teeth, either.
America’s soft-power exporters have been informed by identitarian grievance politics for far too long.
Now that we’re wrenching the tendrils of that ideology out of every conceivable crevice, we have a chance at a reset.
Once we chuck out the absurd, wasteful projects — a pet-tracking app, designer knitwear — we can get back to basics like funding food and medical care for the poor, and spreading the word about our constitutional liberties and our unbounded optimism.
This is a rare moment in American history: A chance to rethink and redefine who we are as a people.
Generous not foolish, powerful not reckless, innovative, big, bold individualists — who want that same opportunity for all global citizens who are ready, willing and able to take on the challenge.
Libby Emmons is the editor-in-chief at the Post Millennial.