Trump is causing generational damage to American diplomacy
Ambassador Ken Brill (Ret), NSL4A Member
The Hill
July 29, 2025
In his second inaugural address, President Trump announced he would build “the strongest military the world has ever seen.” He followed up by sending Congress in June a record $1.01 trillion Defense Department budget for fiscal year 2026.
Trump also said in his inaugural address that he wanted to be remembered as “a peacemaker and a unifier.”
But later the same day he signed an executive order that led to the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and began an ongoing process of diminishing America’s diplomatic capacity to advance America’s global interests, prevent conflict and promote peaceful resolution of international problems.
A nation’s military capacity is easy to understand. It consists of troops, weapons, training, logistics and military bases. Trump’s $1 trillion defense budget will strengthen America’s already considerable military capacity. But to be successful diplomatically, America requires diplomatic capacity, which has three concrete dimensions and one intangible.
The concrete dimensions are: people, presence and programs. The intangible dimension is something the recently deceased Harvard University scholar Joe Nye called “soft power.”
Skilled and experienced diplomats are America’s greatest diplomatic asset, but they are made, not born. Acquiring language and other professional skills and knowledge require years of training and hands-on experience.
