zlacker

When it comes to value for money/size, Qatar alone has a lot more influence than the US. Recently it forced the EU to relax its ESG standards in exchange for gas imports.

Sure some people love to live in the past, but it is not the past anymore, of course.

Trump chickening out of every world confrontation is a nice example of the diminishing capability of the US to bend the rest of the world to its will. US can probably keep its influence in Latin America, but in the Old World, the balance of power has shifted.

Is Trump de facto more powerful than Mohammad bin Salman? IDK.