Trump's legitimacy is weak.

The foundation for American power in the world has been, since President John F Kennedy established USAID in 1961, the concept of Soft Power.

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2023/06/27/views-of-american-soft-power/

Many people in 23 countries around the world view American technological achievements, entertainment, universities and military as the best in the world or above average among wealthy nations. Yet, people generally see the U.S. as similar to other wealthy nations on five societal measures tested in the survey: political stability, safety, democracy, religiosity and tolerance.

Even though roughly four-in-ten say the U.S. is about as politically stable as other wealthy countries, one-in-three see the U.S. as more politically stable, while a median of just 17% believe the U.S. is less politically stable.

That seems to have drastically changed even just since Trump started his second term. To avoid going on ad nauseum, I will call on you to either do some internet research on your own, or engage your imagination to consider the impact of USAID programs throughout the world. What would be the human cost? What would the impact be on your life?

Joseph Nye and Soft Power

In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (in contrast with hard power). It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Soft power is non-coercive, using culture, political values, and foreign policies to enact change. In 2012, Joseph Nye of Harvard University explained that with soft power, "the best propaganda is not propaganda", further explaining that during the Information Age, "credibility is the scarcest resource".[1]

Nye popularised the term in his 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power.[2]

In this book he wrote: "when one country gets other countries to want what it wants might be called co-optive or soft power in contrast with the hard or command power of ordering others [isn't that what dictators prefer to do?] to do what it wants".[2] He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

Maybe I'm overstating the notion, but I believe the Musk/Trump regime is headed for collapse. With Musk/Trump completely cutting off ALL funding for USAID, is/was there any place for the US to be other than behind the 8-ball. That is, until SCOTUS unfroze said funding on Wednesday.

Without that desperately needed legitimacy, the dictators cannot continue to rule indefinitely. Exponents of peace should not provide them legitimacy.

Sharp, Gene. From Dictatorship To Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation . The Albert Einstein Institution. Kindle Edition. 

From the Washington Post:

Judge orders USAID payments to some foreign aid groups by Monday

Global health groups accused the Trump administration of flouting a judge’s order to restart nearly $2 billion in payments for food, medicine and more.
Updated
March 6, 2025 at 8:42 p.m. ESTtoday at 8:42 p.m. EST

A U.S. District Court judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration must pay tens of millions of dollars in outstanding foreign aid by the end of Monday, but the fate of hundreds of millions more in spending for lifesaving food and medicine has yet to be resolved.

Judge Amir H. Ali ruled that the government must pay the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, the Global Health Council and other plaintiffs the outstanding balances they are owed, calling it a “concrete step” forward in an ongoing lawsuit over the Trump administration’s abrupt pause in foreign aid.

The suspension and cancellation of thousands of humanitarian contracts has led to life-threatening disruptions in food assistance and medicine around the world, aid groups have said. [Do you have any legitimate reason to doubt their claims?]

From the BBC on February 7, 2025:

The future of the US government's main overseas aid agency has been cast into doubt, with employees locked out and the Trump administration planning to merge it with the US Department of State [do you think that merger would MAINTAIN America's Soft Power throughout the world].

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said thousands of employees would be put on leave shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office. The agency then recalled its workers from missions across the world.

Trump has made it clear he wants overseas spending to be closely aligned with his "America First" approach and the international development sector is braced for a profound effect on humanitarian programmes around the world.

Trump posted on his Truth Social page on Friday that USAID's spending "IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE... CLOSE IT DOWN!"

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire working on the White House's effort to shrink the federal government, has previously claimed that the aid agency is "a criminal organization" and that Trump has agreed to "shut it down".

Neither Trump or Musk provided clear evidence to support their claims, and the president's effort to shutter the agency is expected to face legal challenges.

Getting news on this matter from BBC is valuable because American news sources water down the facts to appease MUSK/Trump.

The FACT is Trump doesn't want YOU to know the significance of the work and the impact of US Soft Power in the world. By controlling the news available for you to get an understanding of the genuine impact, and the reasons Congress appropriated the funding in the first place, might you be less willing to go along with it yourself? Do you have a deficit in human empathy? I hope not.