Trump’s election is a backlash against decades of betrayal: Bush’s Iraq War, the 2008 Wall Street bailout, a broken healthcare system, and a meritocracy rotting into cronyism. Like the Wizard of Oz, bureaucrats and elites pulled strings behind the curtain, masking the corruption that hijacked American politics. As the U.S. lost its moral authority, its claims of spreading democracy rang hollow globally.

The decline of America’s soft power is crumbling, but the roots run deeper than one man. From political gridlock to lagging in innovation, the U.S. has become a dysfunctional shadow of its former self.