Trump is causing generational damage to American diplomacy
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.
America’s Foreign Service and Civil Service diplomats represent a significant investment in U.S. national security and the protection of citizens abroad. America needs the best diplomats to compete with other countries’, particularly China’s, best diplomats.
Yet, earlier this month, the Trump administration announced the firing of 1,300 State Department officials, which follows the firing of virtually all USAID staff. This amounts to throwing away many years of investment in an American national security asset.
In diplomacy, being there matters. Diplomatic presence consists of America’s embassies in global capitals and consulates in major cities important to significant U.S. interests.
Embassies and consulates are the eyes, ears and voice for America on the ground internationally. They protect American interests and citizens, keep Washington informed of developments, and build support for American policy priorities.
Until recently, America had the most robust diplomatic presence internationally. Now China does. Nonetheless, Trump is planning cuts to America’s overseas diplomatic presence, which will only help our adversaries.
Diplomacy is not just talking, it is also making things happen. Diplomatic programs are tools that support U.S. strategic priorities — and those programs change as administrations change.
Such programs range from humanitarian and development assistance and support to U.S. farmers and companies in developing international markets for their products, to leveraging the United Nations and other international organizations to achieve U.S. goals.
They also include international radio stations like the Voice of America that bring the truth about America and the world to people whose governments lie to them.
Diplomatic programs represent approximately 1 percent of the federal budget, but yield outsized returns to U.S. national security.
In dismantling or slashing funding for diplomatic programs like Food for Peace, Voice of America and funding for international organizations via the United Nations (where others pay 78 percent of the costs for U.S.-shaped agendas), Trump is taking tools out of the U.S. national security toolbox that will hurt his and future administrations’ abilities to achieve their international goals.
Trump is also undermining the intangible soft power dimension of America’s diplomatic capacity. America’s global alliances testify to its predominance of global soft power. Nye defined soft power as “the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment.”
Others wanted to work with the U.S. on shared objectives and share the burden of doing so. But that is changing and, as Nye said before his death, and as recent international polls indicate, under Trump, America is shedding soft power, which can only help our adversaries and competitors.
In undermining America’s diplomatic capacity, Trump is also undercutting America’s military capacity. America’s military and diplomats work as a team, with each complementing the other.
As Trump’s first secretary of Defense, James Mattis, said when he was the commander of U.S. Central Command, “If you don’t fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition.”
Diplomats help prevent conflict and, when conflict occurs, diplomats help end it and sustain the peace. Whether in Europe, the Middle East or Asia, the military counts on U.S. diplomacy to help create supportive coalitions.
For example, no matter the size of the Defense Department’s budget, there can be no successful defense of Taiwan without robust and sustained diplomacy in Asia and beyond before, during and after a conflict.
Diplomacy is about getting others to help achieve America’s goal for a world that supports U.S. prosperity and security. The Trump administration has a number of international priorities, not one of which can be resolved by the U.S. or its military force alone.
If Trump hopes to achieve any lasting, positive international legacy, he needs to end the radical Project 2025-driven attack on America’s diplomatic capacity and begin a systematic review of how to structure and use the nation’s diplomatic capacity to achieve his international goals.
A good first step would be to immediately rescind the mass firing of American diplomats and assess how existing diplomatic programs can be reshaped to serve Trump’s goals.
If Trump harnesses America’s diplomatic capacity to engage with others and shape the global agenda, he may, despite everything, be remembered as a “peacemaker.”
Ken Brill is a retired foreign service officer who served as an ambassador in the Clinton and Bush administrations.