Trump Is Destroying a Core American Value. The World Will Notice. [View all]

By Michael Posner

Mr. Posner is a lawyer and human rights advocate who was assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor from 2009-2013.

'In the late 1980s, Joseph Nye, the Harvard political scientist who died this month, developed the concept of “soft power.” His central premise, that the United States enhances its global influence by promoting values like human rights and democracy, has guided U.S. foreign policy for decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Donald Trump has made clear that he fundamentally rejects this vision. As president, he has ordered a sweeping overhaul of the State Department that will cripple its capacity to promote American values abroad. At the center of this effort are drastic cuts to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor — the State Department’s core institution for advancing soft power, which I led under President Barack Obama. Unless Congress intervenes, the debasement of the bureau’s role will impair America’s ability to challenge authoritarianism, support democratic movements and provide independent analysis to inform U.S. foreign policy. The long-term result will be a United States that is weaker, less principled and increasingly sidelined as authoritarian powers like Russia and China offer their own transactional models of global engagement.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor was created with bipartisan congressional support in 1977, a time when lawmakers sought greater influence over foreign policy in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and America’s support for authoritarian regimes in countries like Chile and South Korea. President Jimmy Carter’s religious convictions and deep commitment to human rights gave the fledgling bureau early momentum. Still, its purpose was always practical: to ensure U.S. foreign aid and trade decisions were informed by credible assessments of human rights conditions around the world. That’s why every year, the bureau prepares congressionally mandated human rights reports. . .

In 2020, Joe Nye poignantly wrote, “human rights should not be framed as pitting values against U.S. national interests, because values are part of America’s national interest.”

We may learn more this week about when the administration plans to carry out its overhaul, as Mr. Rubio is slated to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lawmakers from both parties need to stand up to him and demand that the State Department continue to support the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which is an essential engine of soft power in U.S. foreign policy. It is in our long-term national interest that they stop it from burning out.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/opinion/trump-soft-power-state.html