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Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
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Elsa B. Kania, James Palmer

The United States Can’t Stay a Great Power Without Beating Threats at Home

A large group of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump raise signs and flags on the grounds of the Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 6. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Today, the gravest threats to U.S. national security come not from foreign adversaries and strategic competitors but from extremists and domestic terrorists who are attempting to subvert American democracy in support of President Donald Trump. The United States, once regarded—if sometimes chiefly in its own eyes—as the global champion of democracy, has grossly failed to achieve a peaceful transfer of power.

The invitation and encouragement of such mobs by Trump and his enablers in Congress has provoked violence and sedition in the Capitol in which only America’s adversaries can rejoice. Even in urging violent rioters to “go home in peace,” Trump continued to claim falsely the election had been “stolen” and was “fraudulent.”

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