Donald Trump is too weak and too insecure to understand soft power. He defaults to tantrums, threats, and brute force—because it’s all he knows.

Donald Trump doesn’t understand soft power. He doesn’t trust it, doesn’t believe in it, and certainly doesn’t know how to wield it. To him, power only works when it bruises. If it doesn’t punch, it doesn’t count. As a man, as a leader, as a bully, he is too weak to see the power in speaking softly.

Which is why America under Trump has become smaller, meaner, and less effective than at any point in its global history since the Second World War.