TWO developments – one unfolding and the other about to take place – are emblematic of President Donald Trump’s effect on US politics and policy-making.
They also have ramifications for America’s soft and hard power standing in international relations. The first relates to the Trump administration’s action to block Harvard University from enrolling international students.
“I am writing to inform you that, effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Programme certification is revoked,” US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a letter shared on X.
Noem, despite providing no evidence, asserted that the Trump administration is holding Harvard accountable for “fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”.
Quite surprisingly, this latest pro-Israel and anti-China target of the Trump administration has drawn Trump supporters in the Western media outlets to join the almost unanimous condemnation of the move.
Conservative columnists have described it as a disastrous and unnecessary politically motivated attack on higher education and a damaging blow to America’s soft power standing.
For now, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the order but the announcement and ongoing legal battle is continuing to generate media coverage around the world.
Reaction to charges against Harvard
Amid the reports of the widespread anxiety and confusion among Harvard’s international student body and incoming cohort, including those from Asia and Malaysia, critics argue that the ban will undermine Harvard’s and the broader US higher education system’s appeal as a top destination for international talent.
Concerned American educationists have noted how international students contribute significantly to their university revenue and research, and they point out that the ban
will have severe economic and academic consequences, especially if extended to other universities and colleges with international student enrolments.
Whether opponents of this unprecedented action undermining the independence and autonomy of academic institutions will succeed or not, it is clear they are battling an administration that sees this policy development as necessary and consistent with the “Make America Great Again” (Maga) electoral platform that propelled Trump to power.
Apart from its foreign policy components aimed at the retention of American hegemony, a key aspect of this agenda is its broad hardline domestic stance on immigration. This has included attempts by the highly influential Zionist lobby to exert control over universities for permitting pro-Palestine demonstrations condemning the genocidal activities in Gaza.
Apparently, Homeland Security authorities view the targeting of student visas, along with the increased scrutiny and deportation of international students involved in the demonstrations, as insufficient punishment, hence the decision to go after Harvard.
At the same time, critics of this latest
hard-line policy are concerned that it could lead to a waning of US soft power, which has sustained the status and dominant position that the country has in global geopolitics.
Others view it as another example of the hypocrisy of American policy in failing to align with the values and image it espouses as human rights champion, liberal democracy model and academic freedom advocate.
This concern has been heightened by the free fall in the country’s reputation, especially since the beginning of Trump’s tariff war against the rest of the world.
Reinforcing and parading American hard power
To make up for the decline in American soft power, its hard power is being reinforced. On May 20, Trump announced plans that could result in US$540 billion (RM2.30 trillion) being spent over 20 years on the “Golden Dome” missile defence system to protect the US from ground- and space-based weapon strikes.
The project has now received an initial US$25 billion from the “big beautiful bill”, a comprehensive piece of tax-and-spending legislation passed by the House of Representatives. Intended to be more flashy and striking in its public relations impact is an unprecedented US army parade through the streets of Washington DC to commemorate the force’s 250th birthday on June 10.
Trump had tried unsuccessfully to hold a similar military parade during his first term. This time he has succeeded in organising it on a day to coincide with his 79th birthday.
The parade featuring cutting-edge military assets and equipment is intended to show off American hard power and to reflect the Maga agenda aimed at strengthening the US military’s superiority and destructive capability.
It also ties up with the “America First” philosophy – the belief that a strong America can project its might and will without relying on international bodies or alliances.
The parade can also be seen as an effort to restore the prestige and public image of the American military after its retreat from Afghanistan – a subject that Trump repeatedly brings up in his denunciation of the Joe Biden administration – and its diminished standing in the country and abroad.
Though viewed by some as an unnecessary expense and unprecedented politicisation of the military – critics have described it as a display befitting authoritarian regimes – the looming grand display of military strength is also intended to play up to the patriotism of Americans as well as send a message to the world of the alignment of US hard power with Maga.
Geopolitical ramifications
The Trump-era convergence of declining US soft power with the assertion and reinforcement of hard power is already evident in today’s shifting geopolitical landscape.
We are seeing the steady erosion of the soft power appeal that America once relied on to lead and sustain strong alliances.
Increasingly perceived as an untrustworthy and unreliable bully by Western and Asian allies, the US is making itself isolated in the global system, besides breeding resentment and resistance.
Countries such as Canada, Mexico, Denmark and the European Union countries subjected to the soft and hard power tactics of the Trump administration are being incentivised to look for more reliable and beneficial partnerships to the current one with the US.
It is entirely possible that they will retaliate by adopting the same transactional approach to international relations that Trump is using against them.
Ironically, Trump’s blend of hard and soft power policies may be providing advocates of a multipolar global system with the ideological foundation and solidarity necessary for a new international order to emerge more quickly
and strongly.
Lim Teck Ghee’s Another Take is aimed at demystifying social orthodoxy. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
