Trump is leading the US down Mexico’s troubled path
US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Imave credit: Abaca Press / Alamy.
by Eduardo García.
When I met my American father-in-law nearly 40 years ago, we often ended our long discussions about Mexico’s political and economic troubles with a phrase that seemed to explain it all: malos gobiernos — bad governments.
If Larry Malkin, a fellow journalist, were still alive — he sadly passed away three years ago — we might still conclude our conversations after all these years with that same phrase. But oddly enough, it would no longer apply just to Mexico, but to his country too.
Over the past two and a half decades, Americans have endured a series of poor governments that seem to have eroded the nation’s moral compass, steering it toward decline — a trajectory Mexico has been on for decades on end.
For generations, America’s culture was — in theory — rooted in a clear distinction between right and wrong. The principle of fair play frequently failed to extend evenly or consistently to everyone, but that principle was still a driving force behind the nation’s prosperity. Hard work, honesty, and perseverance were seen — even from a Mexico mired in corruption — as pillars of success. Wrongdoing, by contrast, generally carried real consequences. Crime really didn’t seem to pay in America. These values fueled a positive reaction chain, making America the envy of the world.
Yet, from my perspective, the past 25 years have brought an unprecedent erosion of these core principles. “Good” is regrettably no longer defeating “bad” – at least not the way it once did.
The 9/11 attacks probably marked the beginning of this decline, shattering America’s collective post-Cold War sense of invulnerability. Its prestigious intelligence and security agencies failed to anticipate or prevent the terrorist assault that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — especially the latter, justified by false claims about weapons of mass destruction — appeared to have left many feeling now deceived. Even though these 21st-century wars were less lethal than Vietnam, in which nearly 60,000 Americans died, they inflicted deep wounds: more than 30,000 war veterans committed suicide, tripling combat casualties — a tragic toll.
Worse still, none of its architects — President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, or Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz — faced legal consequences. Unlike the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, which forced President Richard Nixon to resign and sent several of his aides to prison, this time no one was held accountable for lying to the nation. It’s become clearer since then that the rigid but great principles of fairness America had generally relied on were no longer applicable to the ruling elite. The US has begun looking more and more like my country, where criminal politicians rarely face consequences.
The financial crisis of 2007–2009 I think further deepened Americans’ distrust in their authorities. At least 10 million Americans lost their homes and jobs due to reckless speculation, lax government oversight, and corporate greed — yet almost none of those responsible faced justice. Wall Street was bailed out; ordinary citizens — roughly 150 million who saw their standard of living decline — were not. Such impunity was once expected in countries like Mexico, where economic crises created by corrupt business and government officials never led to prosecutions. But now, America, once a beacon of justice, was beginning to resemble Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Globalization, which the U.S. itself championed, exacerbated these problems. After China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, its unfair trade practices — intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers and state subsidies — went largely unchecked. While some in America raised concerns, the overall response was insignificant, bringing devastation to American manufacturing and to industrial communities across the Midwest. Corporate leaders largely prioritized profits over domestic damage. Millions felt simply betrayed.
Meanwhile, the rapid influx of large numbers of undocumented immigrants — who now number over 12 million, with most of them sadly coming from my own country — stoked frustration and resentment among those who felt the system rewarded lawbreakers. Business owners hired cheap and productive labor, while offering little to those who played by the rules.
All these factors have converged into a growing and unprecedented cynicism in America. Many who once believed in a system of fairness and meritocracy now see corruption, inequality and elite impunity as defining features of a society that, though imperfect, was once admirable. This disillusionment, I believe, paved the way for Trump’s return. And yet, there may be no politician in the US less capable of Making America Great Again in its traditional values, than him.
Far from embodying the principles millions of Americans want to restore, Trump has represented, throughout his career — first as a businessman and now as a politician — exactly the opposite. He has broken rules, sidestepped norms, and bent the system to his advantage.
For many, that is precisely why they support him. His success, rather than his ethics, is what matters. He is in essence like any other Latin American caudillo, cacique or strongman. Yet, this moral decline carries unintended consequences, much like those Mexico has endured. If morality is reduced to a matter of expediency, the very foundations that allowed America to thrive — trust, accountability, and the rule of law — will, I am afraid, continue to erode.
Already, Trump’s actions in his second term indicate a deepening moral crisis from which Americans will have to awaken. His mass pardons of rioters who attacked police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, his tolerance of corruption among allies, and his attacks on democratic institutions all signal that America’s commitment to justice and integrity is fading.
This is the paradox of Trump’s presidency: he has capitalized on a national disenchantment with good and evil brought on by malos gobiernos. But If America wants to avoid the fate of nations where lawlessness and cynicism reign, it must reclaim its lost values — not through populist rhetoric, but through a renewed commitment to fairness, accountability, and the rule of law. The question is whether it still has the will to do so.
Editor’s Note: Eduardo García established Bloomberg’s Mexico City bureau in 1992 and served as its leader until 2001. He founded an online news organization, Sentido Común, now called Axis negocios and later served as Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer at Infosel, a Mexican financial news and data agency.