Let us reject the logic of violence and war, and embrace peace founded on love and justice—an unarmed peace, not based on fear, threats or weapons. This peace is disarming, because it is capable of resolving conflicts, opening hearts, and generating trust, empathy, and hope. I strongly reiterate: The world thirsts for #Peace! Enough of war and all the pain it causes through death, destruction, and exile! #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon
This video should unsettle anyone who takes the United States seriously as a nation.
Because it exposes something dangerous: the trivialization of the world's most consequential office. It shows how carelessly the power, credibility, and accumulated moral authority of a superpower can be squandered for a few seconds of viral attention.
In any other major democracy, this behavior from a head of state would trigger a constitutional crisis. Paris would burn. Berlin would convene emergency sessions. In the Nordic countries, resignation would follow within hours. Across functioning democracies, the public, institutions, and political class would recognize this for what it is: an assault on the dignity of the state itself. Leaders are not free to perform as entertainers without consequence. National honor is not personal property, it's held in trust.
But the United States is not just another country with a provocateur in charge. It is the linchpin of global order. It maintains formal alliances and security guarantees with forty to fifty nations. It underwrites the financial architecture, trade systems, and diplomatic frameworks that billions of people depend on daily. When the American president speaks—or posts—it doesn't land as satire, meme, or personal whim. It reads as a signal about what the country is becoming.
American power has never relied solely on carrier strike groups or economic output. It has rested on something more fragile and more valuable: trust. The belief that beneath domestic turbulence lies institutional seriousness, predictability, and a baseline commitment to dignity. That belief is now disintegrating in real time.
Millions of American companies operate globally. They negotiate multibillion-dollar contracts in environments where reputation is currency. Boardrooms in Frankfurt, Singapore, and Dubai aren't debating whether a post was clever—they're asking whether the United States remains a reliable partner. Whether agreements signed today will be honored tomorrow. Whether American leadership has devolved from institutional to purely theatrical.
Consider tourism, which sustains millions of American jobs—airlines, hotels, restaurants, museums, entire regional economies. Soft power isn't an abstraction. It materializes in flight bookings, conference locations, study-abroad programs, and decades of accumulated goodwill. A quiet, decentralized boycott doesn't require government action—only a collective sense that a nation no longer respects itself.
Now picture this image being studied by foreign ministers, central bank governors, defense strategists, and sovereign wealth fund managers. Picture them asking a coldly rational question: How do we write binding thirty-year agreements with a country whose public face will be this, relentlessly, for years to come? How do we plan for the long term when the tone is impulsive, mocking, and unbound by the gravity of office?
This is where the real calculus begins. Trillions in foreign capital depend on confidence that America is stable, credible, and rule-governed. That confidence is now being traded for what, exactly? Applause from an online mob? A dopamine rush from manufactured outrage? Content designed to dominate the news cycle rather than serve the national interest?
Every serious nation eventually confronts this choice: burn long-term credibility for short-term spectacle, or safeguard the reputation previous generations bled to build. The United States spent eighty years constructing an image of reliability, restraint, and leadership under pressure. That image wasn't born from perfection—it came from a visible commitment to standards that transcended impulse.
This isn't a partisan issue. Europeans who value democratic norms recognize something ominously familiar here. Americans—Democrat and Republican alike—who believe in responsibility and restraint should see it too. Power attracts scrutiny. Leadership demands discipline. A superpower cannot behave like a reality TV contestant without paying a price.
The presidency is not a personal broadcast channel. It's a symbol carried on behalf of 330 million people and countless international partners who never voted but whose lives are shaped by American decisions anyway. Every post either reinforces or erodes the idea that America can be counted on when it matters most.
So the question is no longer whether this is offensive. The question is whether this is who America chooses to be: a nation that trades a century of hard-won reputation for viral moments. A country that replaces statecraft with content creation. A republic governed like a season of reality television.
History offers a harsh lesson here. Great powers don't fall because enemies mock them. They collapse when they begin mocking themselves—publicly, proudly, and without grasping the cost until it's far too late.
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Iraq War veteran Tom Mossey at a No Kings protest today in Washington DC: “I didn’t deploy two times for this bullshit.”
RETWEET if you stand with Mossey today against Donald Trump!
Pope Leo XIV has intervened for the first time in an abortion dispute roiling the U.S. Catholic Church, raising the seeming contradiction over what it really means to be “pro-life.” https://t.co/02MIEAvaJ3
BREAKING: The Catholic Church enrages MAGA world by coming out forcefully against the "big, beautiful bill" as twenty bishops sign an interfaith letter stating that its "passage would be a moral failure for American society as a whole."
There is nothing less Christ-like than cutting healthcare and food stamps or the poor....
"First, it provides tens of billions of dollars to the government to undertake a mass deportation campaign which will separate US families, harm US-citizen and immigrant children, and sow chaos in local communities," the letter reads. "It will spur immigration raids across the nation, harming hard-working immigrant families essential to our economy and causing widespread unrest like we recently witnessed in Los Angeles."
The legislation would funnel over $150 billion towards Trump's border policies and immigration crackdowns, with the ICE budget alone ballooning from $3.4 billion to $45 billion until the end of 2029. It amounts to a 365% increase which Professor Donald Moynihan of the University of Michigan has pointed out is more than the combined funding for all 50 federal prisons.
In addition to being a gross waste of taxpayer money, this funding will create a self-perpetrating deportation industrial machine just like our private prison system and military complex. Just like pouring money into military contractors incentivizes new wars, pouring money into this fledgling deportation industry will incentivize more crackdowns and family separations. The more you feed the monster, the bigger and hungrier it gets.
"This funding also will be used to target faith communities, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has removed places of worship from its sensitive locations list, allowing ICE agents to enter them for enforcement purposes," the letter continues. "We have already witnessed a reduction in attendance at many of our religious services in our denominations, as the threat of enforcement has deterred many families from practicing their faith."
The signatories include numerous prominent bishops such as Cardinal Robert McElroy, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Bishop John Dolan, Archbishop Paul Etienne, Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, and Bishop Jaime Soto.
In addition to the Catholic leaders, the letter was signed by the leaders of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas as well as respected faith leaders of the Episcopalian, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Muslim communities.
"Moreover, the bill provides funding for a border wall along the US-Mexico border which we believe will drive migrants into the most remote regions of the border and lead to an increase in migrant deaths," the letter goes on. "It also would hurt the local environment along the border and force desperate asylum-seekers seeking safety to increasingly rely on human smugglers."
"As you should know, our faith organizations have long favored the creation of legal avenues for migration and a legalization program for immigrants who have lived in the US for years and contributed their hard work to our economy," the signatories wrote. "We believe the adoption of these policies, instead of the implementation of a mass deportation campaign, would not only benefit immigrant workers and their families, but be in the best interest of our nation."
"Second, the legislation makes severe cuts in health-care coverage and food assistance to millions of both low-income citizens and legal residents, including asylum-seekers and refugees, driving them deeper into poverty," the letter adds. "According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill transfers wealth from those in the bottom 10 percent of income to those in the top 10 percent of income in our nation, increasing the already large gap between the rich and the poor."
The bill will slash nearly $1 trillion in funding from Medicaid, a move that will directly result in the death and suffering of countless Americans. People will go blind, see their life expectancies cut in half, and end up bankrupt and homeless. Nursing homes and hospitals will shut down.
It also guts funding for crucial food programs like SNAP by roughly $186 billion by 2034. Americans are literally going to starve to death so that billionaires can afford a few new yachts.
"From our various faith perspectives, the moral test of a nation is how it treats those most in need of support. In our view, this legislation will harm the poor and vulnerable in our nation, to the detriment of the common good. Its passage would be a moral failure for American society as a whole," it concludes.
In a separate statement, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that the bill "takes from the poor to give to the wealthy."
"It provides tax breaks for some while undermining the social safety net for others through major cuts to nutrition assistance and Medicaid," he continued. "It fails to protect families and children by promoting an enforcement-only approach to immigration and eroding access to legal protections. It harms God’s creation and future generations through cuts to clean energy incentives and environmental programs."
"I underscore what my brother bishops said in their recent letter to find a better way forward and urge Senators to think and act with courage and creativity to protect human dignity for all, to uphold the common good, and to change provisions that undermine these fundamental values," he added.
Please retweet and ❤️ to thank these bishops for speaking out!
Mr. President, Ukraine did not “start” this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.🇺🇸🇺🇦
“Russia Invades Ukraine in Largest European Attack Since WWII” @FoxNews (February 24, 2022) https://t.co/ra8R9PI9oj
We are devastated by the passing of Lazar Đukić. Our hearts are with Lazar’s entire family, friends, and fellow athletes.
Out of respect for the family and in cooperation with the Fort Worth Police Department, we will share updates when possible.