Donald Trump takes pride in his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). In his familiar style, a combination of arrogance, smugness, inconsistency, and contempt toward anyone who opposes him, Trump repeats, like a broken record, the mantra that he, and only he, will make America greater and stronger. Don’t believe it? Just look at his statements since the war with Iran began: “We have a stronger military,” “I will wipe out Iran,” “The operation will be over in three days” (as he himself claimed he told the British Prime Minister), along with many other examples that reinforce this posture adopted by Trump. But rhetoric and reality are two different things. David Ignatius, in a brilliant Washington Post article (May 21), already pointed out that more and more Americans are ignoring their president’s declarations.

After this introduction, it is worth examining whether the reality in which we live has indeed made America greater, or whether Trump himself is actually making America weaker (MAW).

Trump is tough on the weak. As of May 2026, I can identify three actors who were intimidated by his threats: the president of Colombia, who yielded to Trump’s demands out of fear of sanctions; the current president of Venezuela, who cooperated with him in overthrowing the previous regime in Caracas; and Hamas, which released all the hostages. It remains unclear what sanctions Washington could realistically impose on Hamas, but in practice Trump’s threats were enough to secure a deal in which all the hostages were released.

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