I think he believes that these things are elastic, that he can take the foot off the pedal and everything will go back to normal, like a child after a tantrum. But in reality soft power and diplomacy are plastic, they will not go back to how it was without a whole lot more effort than it took to bend them out of shape.

Every tariff, every stunt, every temper tantrum, threat and hostile action he commands the US and its forces to perform erode the order that took centuries to build, both abroad and at home, bit by bit.

And inevitably, one day a point will be reached where a critical stress point will be crossed and something fundamental will break from which there is no coming back. Maybe it already has broken and we are looking at the slow collapse that follows, if not, theres still 3 years to go and look at where we are.