FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

In an article titled ‘The Saddest Little Dictator,” Bulwark editor Jonathan Last hypothesized that President Donald Trump was taking his exclusion from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s extravagant military parade particularly hard.

“When the world’s most powerful dictators gathered for a show of force, they wouldn’t let Trump sit at the big kids’ table with them, even though he’s spent the better part of a decade angling to join their club. … Now I want you to contemplate that the American president probably watched this event and felt not revulsion, but jealously,” said Last, citing a Wall Street Journal report claiming Trump told aides he was disappointed with his own parade.

But “the world is moving on from America,” said Last, as indicated by leaders from across the Indo-Pacific region assembling at Xi’s request to discuss their futures. “Among them were Putin and India’s own aspiring authoritarian, Narendra Modi. The point of the meeting was to demonstrate that we now live in a post-American reality.”

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“This is not Trump’s fault,” said Last. “It’s America’s.”

It was to America’s eternal shame that Brazil treated a coup attempt “more seriously than we did,” said Last, adding that Trump’s second election was the confirmation the world needed to know that the American people can no longer be relied upon.

Other nations can no longer make long-term plans based on America, Last said, so “the world is now in the process of making alternative arrangements.”

“The Canadians are binding themselves to Europe. The Europeans are decoupling from America. The Russians are attempting to dominate the Europeans. The Middle East is getting ready for a post-petroleum future in which they function as the world’s hedge fund. The Indians are trying to become the Chinese,” said Last, “… But evidently China is farther along in its project than I realized, because Xi has reached the point where he no longer humors Trump. Which means that the Chinese believe America’s decline is terminal.”

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“That’s the reality and there’s no going back,” said Last. “The American people exposed themselves and the rest of the world can’t un-see it.

Read the partial Bulwark post here, with the full release behind a subscription paywall.