analysis
No plan, no strategy, just greed: the USA is squandering its role as a superpower.
April 25, 2026, 9:55 a.mApril 25, 2026, 9:55 a.m
Timothy Snyder is one of the most famous historians today. His specialty is tyrants and dictatorships. He follows the current development of his own country not only with interest, but also with a great deal of specialist knowledge. He came to a depressing conclusion: the USA is about to commit superpower suicide, the history professor states.
In the podcast of the Daily Beast news portal, Snyder explains his thesis as follows: “Unlike the decline of Rome or the Habsburg Empire, with us it is our own rulers who consciously sabotage the power of their own country.” The reason for this is the fact that Americans are suspicious of the government. This is a crucial difference between the USA under Donald Trump and Germany under Adolf Hitler. “The USA is not a state, but a collection of oligarchs who want to make as much money as possible,” says Snyder, adding that as a historian he finds it strange that people are voluntarily giving up a lot of influence.
Historian Timothy Snyder.Image: imago
In fact, Trump is currently wasting his political capital like a drunken sailor. He started a war against Iran without any reason or plan. Not only has he broken a key campaign promise, but he is also failing to meet the concerns of his voters. Rising gasoline and food prices are fueling inflation and exacerbating the affordability crisis.
This leaves the president cold. The war is already boring him and he doesn’t know a way out. Instead of taking on so-called kitchen table issues – things that directly affect his voters – he devotes himself to his vanity projects like the Ballroom and the Triumphal Arch. Recently he also wants to renovate the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
He receives the receipt for this in the regularly published opinion polls. They show that Trump’s popularity ratings are plummeting. That’s not surprising. Once faithful disciples like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly have definitely broken with him. Former groupie Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex Jones, a right-wing extremist influencer, are even calling for him to be expelled from the White House using the 25th Amendment.
MAHA idol Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Image: keystone
Trump is about to destroy the coalition that helped him win the election. He drives away Catholics with his argument with the Pope and offends Evangelicals with his Jesus memes. Recently he has also been taking on MAHA. Based on MAGA, this acronym stands for Make America Healthy Again. This movement is led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He actually wanted to run for president as a Democratic candidate. When he saw that he had no chance, he joined Trump, who in return rewarded him with the post of health secretary.
However, the house blessing in the marriage of MAGA and MAHA is currently hanging awry. Kennedy went too far in his anti-vaccination campaign and had to be rebuffed. Casey Means, an alternative medicine figurehead and major MAHA standard-bearer, is struggling to win Senate confirmation as Surgeon General.
Will Trump rig the midterm elections?
What is particularly frustrating for Kennedy’s supporters is the fact that the Trump administration is apparently unwilling to withdraw the pesticide glyphosate, also known by the brand name Roundup. Alex Clark, an activist for the conservative movement Turning Point USA, summarized the result to the New York Times as follows: “They (the MAHA supporters) no longer know who to turn to. They feel like their voice has become worthless and they have lost their enthusiasm.”
Although he cares less and less about his people, the would-be king Trump wants to stay in power with all his might. It is therefore feared that he will leave no stone unturned in the coming midterm elections to prevent an emerging Democratic victory. He is even thinking out loud about canceling these elections because of alleged manipulation. “When I think about it, we shouldn’t have elections at all,” he said in January.
It’s unlikely to get that far unless Trump declares a state of emergency. However, he can only do this if he can credibly prove that the national sovereignty of the USA is in danger. However, it is unlikely that he would get away with it in court.
However, it is likely that he will not leave any dirty trick unturned to influence the election result in his favor. There is speculation that he has his ICE hooligans parked in front of the polling stations to stop Hispanics from casting their votes. He wants to prevent alleged election fraud with the SAVE American Act, a law that prevents postal voting and requires stricter ID controls. So far, however, he has failed in the Senate.
It is also conceivable that after the elections, Trump wants to challenge the results and initiate a lot of legal proceedings, especially if the Democrats win narrowly. He already did this after his defeat against Joe Biden, although with limited success. His attempt to use so-called gerrymandering to change the division of electoral districts in his favor also turned out to be a boomerang.
It remains to be seen whether Trump will be successful with his dirty tricks. Viktor Orban’s crushing defeat in Hungary showed that this can also be counterproductive and have exactly the opposite effect. The president has already inflicted serious damage on the mother of democracy. According to The Economist, only 25 percent of Americans still trust that the midterm elections will be fair.