The Bling and Brutality of American ‘Diplomacy’

How do we want the world to see us? Which of our nation’s traits do we highlight — as a show of our strengths, as an assertion of our values, as an act of self-definition?

In the past we answered that question by helping to rebuild Europe after World War II, by tackling the scourge of AIDS in Africa, by sharing our trailblazing scientific advances and by tapping our extraordinary wealth.

President Trump is answering it with brutes in cages beating each other to pulps.

I don’t mean the desecration of the White House on his 80th birthday last month, when he and members of his cabinet cheered the chokeholds, body slams and bloodshed of Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on the South Lawn. Or at........

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