How Donald Trump took America from superpower to super-joke in 100 days 

It’s taken just over three months for the United States to go from global leader to global liability.

From the outside, America after Trump’s first 100 days looks like a parody of itself – an ageing strongman yelling on the internet while his country staggers through chaos. 

From my perspective inside the country, it feels like something more tragic: The slow, stunned realisation that the world is laughing at us, not with us, and that respect is non-existent. 

Once-steady allies – Europe, Canada, even the United Kingdom – are turning away. 

America’s place in the world has crumbled with shocking speed under Donald Trump, who has again proven himself a leader more interested in grievance than governance. 

The global catastrophe of Brexit now looks like a thoughtful rebrand by comparison with Trump’s actions. At least the UK kept a seat at the table. America set the table on fire, and live streamed it. 

In just three months, the US has gutted alliances, abandoned climate and health leadership, threatened or detained migrants and international students, and alienated trade partners. 

Embassies are understaffed. Aid is being slashed. The border is being militarised. Even its nearest neighbour Canada is boycotting American products. And global trust in the US presidency – already fragile – has collapsed further.

The scale and speed of the collapse in America’s standing would shock even Trump’s fiercest critics. Allies have been written off as enemies. Agreements have been ripped up. 

A nation of immigrants now deports them without due process, bans refugees, and has turned its back on international crises, from Ukraine to Gaza.

Cuts to US foreign aid have been cataclysmic. USAID programmes supporting health, food security, and crisis response have been cut to the bone, with some estimating the amount of deaths as a result could run into the hundreds of thousands. 

And that’s before we even consider Trump’s infamous tariffs, that upended international trade, sent prices soaring, and made business with every country on Earth next to impossible. 

This is a masterclass in isolationism – with a staggering impact and a deadly cost. American disengagement doesn’t just mean one country loses influence; it means people across the world die.

At home, the mood is a strange mix of exhaustion, cynicism, and wilful ignorance. Many Americans have tuned out, numbed by the chaos. 

Others feel heartbreak watching their country’s fall from grace, especially as it abandons Ukraine and shuns its historic role on the world stage. One of my American friends told me she pretends to be Canadian when abroad.

Trump loyalists, however, relish the power he now wields. Officers from ICE (the immigration enforcement agency) are more aggressive than ever. 

He’s issued more executive orders than any modern president. His supporters don’t believe the ‘fake news’ that the dollar is plummeting or that markets are collapsing, no matter what their bank accounts tell them. 

But between the reality deniers and the reality avoiders, there’s something else: A quiet, simmering frustration. 

People do understand what’s being lost. Talk to young people, immigrants, teachers, nurses – those whose work connects them to the world – and you’ll hear the same thing: We’re not sure how much longer we can hold things together, but we’re trying.

And that’s what makes the situation so dangerous. America’s international standing was never just about military might or economic dominance. It was about soft power – an idea of the US as flawed but open, brash but innovative, ambitious but generous.

Under Trump 2.0, there is no grand vision – just his campaign rally on loop.

In the UK, we’ve seen this before. Brexit was sold on sovereignty and pride. What followed was division, stagnation, and international embarrassment. 

Nearly a decade later, Britain is still reckoning with the consequences of shutting itself off from its neighbours. America is now walking the same path, only with more global fallout.

The collapse of America’s standing impacts everything: The climate, the economy, and democracy itself. That’s why the world is watching so closely – and why every laugh is laced with fear.

Still, this isn’t over. America’s institutions are bruised, not broken. Cities, states, universities, civil society – many are holding space for a different kind of future. 

But they’re under siege. And the longer this continues, the harder it becomes to rebuild what’s been lost.

The world won’t wait forever. And history won’t be kind to a country that mistook belligerence for strength and isolation for independence.

In 100 days of Trump, the joke has worn thin. What comes next – comedy or tragedy – is still up to America.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.