US Sacrifices Global Power to Advance Fake MAGA Narrative
By Tom Kagy | 27 Nov, 2025

Trump's peevish decision not to invite South Africa to the Florida G20 on a false narrative of White genocide is one of many instances of his pandering to false MAGA narratives over serving real US interests.

Post-World War II American foreign policy was built with alliances, diplomatic engagement, and the projection of soft power to stabilize the world while cementing US hegemony.  

This all changed after Trump prioritized serving isolationist and nationalist domestic narratives with his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. This embodies a self-defeating sacrifice of long-term US status as the preeminent global power for short-term political gratification, a strategy of cutting off the nose to spite the face that benefits Trump's MAGA standing at the expense of real national power on the global stage.

The most recent example of Trump's strategic diminishment of the US is his treatment of South Africa. The decision to forego this year's G20 in Cape Town and withhold an invitation to next year's G20 summit in Florida based on unfounded and racially charged claims of a "white genocide" serves is childishly peevish.  

This white genocide narrative, popular with extremist elements of the MAGA base, is a demonstrably false conspiracy theory, but one Trump embraced as a pretext to punish a key regional power.  With this irresponsible act the US sacrificed its relationship with South Africa, the economic and diplomatic gateway to the African continent.  

This foolish action also ignored the need to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the developing world, alienated a nation with a rich democratic transition history, and signalled to the entire African Union that US foreign policy is now dictated by domestic culture wars rather than sober strategic interests. The immediate political benefit—shoring up support from a specific, aggrieved domestic constituency—came at the colossal geopolitical cost of diminished US influence in a continent critical to future global trade and resource competition.

This pattern extends far beyond a single diplomatic snub. The core MAGA narrative frames international relations as a zero-sum contest in which allies are "freeloaders" and multilateral agreements are mechanisms for "foreigners taking advantage of the US"  This adversarial view demands punitive action, regardless of the strategic consequences. The aggressive use of tariffs on traditional allies like Canada and the European Union, the abandonment of crucial climate agreements, and the persistent undermining of NATO were all measures that resonated powerfully with a domestic base yearning to see America “win” by disrupting the status quo.

The result of this transactional, grievance-driven approach is a weakened American hand on the global stage.  By ceding leadership in areas like climate change and global health, the US created a vacuum that rivals like China and Russia are only too eager to fill.  The abandonment of established diplomatic norms fractured alliances, forcing partners to hedge their bets and seek stability elsewhere. When the U.S. pulls back from global cooperation, it does not achieve true isolation; it merely forfeits its right to define the rules of the international system, leaving the field open for competing, often illiberal, powers to write the next chapter.

The tragedy of this foreign policy posture is that it misunderstands the source of American strength.  US geopolitical status was built not just on its military might, but on its ability to lead by example, and to build durable coalitions.  Sacrificing this legacy for the momentary applause of a domestic base fixated on an “America being cheated” narrative is an act of diplomatic self-immolation.  It transforms the nation’s foreign policy apparatus into a mere instrument for validating domestic grievances, thereby ensuring that the US will be less secure, less prosperous, and ultimately, less "great" in the complex, multipolar world it helped create.  The South Africa incident is a clear indicator of a nation diminishing its power to feed a fake parochial narrative.