The Erosion of U.S. Power & a Crisis of Leadership | Anchor Watch with Bobby Jones

Trump and Putin are preparing for a “peace summit” in Alaska that leaves Ukraine out of the room entirely — a setup that, in Bobby’s view, makes any agreement there a sham. The same pattern of hollow spectacle runs through the administration’s stalled-then-stalled-again tariffs on China, which have left businesses of every size unable to plan more than a few weeks ahead.

On the home front, Trump’s takeover of D.C. law enforcement comes with falling crime rates and a focus not on safety, but on sweeping unhoused Americans — including veterans — out of sight. The cross-agency power of ICE and billions in available funding make that “cleanup” sound less like policy and more like pretext.

And the DOD expulsion of transgender service members within sight of retirement echoes past betrayals, when Black and gay veterans returned from World War II only to be denied benefits that built the American middle class. That history is part of a larger framework Bobby lays out: The four instruments of national power — diplomatic, informational, military, and economic — and how each one is being dismantled. From undermined alliances and weaponized disinformation to reckless military posturing and economic policy engineered for the top one percent, the core tools that have defined U.S. power since WWII are being hollowed out.

Article II of the Constitution, meant to define and limit the presidency, is being stress-tested in ways the framers feared most. The Senate’s role as a check, the Electoral College’s roots in slavery, and the high bar for impeachment all come into play as the country weighs whether its safeguards are functional or merely decorative. These aren’t abstract civics-class debates — they’re live questions about whether the system can withstand leaders determined to bend it to their will.

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