The years of Reagan and both Bushes were often rocky, to say the least. But there was a sense of allyhood, much as that was stretched near breaking point at times by those regimes' foreign adventurism and trade practices. Even the Clinton years had shaky moments on the foreign policy front. The Obama years and the too-short Biden term were to some extent a relief and the US's standing improved among many of the European population despite, again, some foreign policies that went against the grain.
Way back, we had the Project for the New American Century, which was in the ascendant for too long before it ran its course and left a hell of a mess in its wake and too few good choices for even well-intentioned administrations.
I'd put this document in the same class as that manifesto.
I've been thinking of the Bond films, where before the cataclysmic climax, the arch-villain inexplicably delays killing Bond when he thinks he has him at his mercy, and instead gleefully reveals in great detail his grand megalomaniac plot. Which, of course, Bond then thwarts in grand style.
There's no prospect of a Bond on the horizon, but we have many cliches about the best-laid plans of men, pride coming before a fall, counting your chickens before they're hatched etc., and for good reason.
I felt in Trump's first term, he and those he'd gathered around him could have done a lot more harm if they'd been more competent and he hadn't been so lazy. He now has more hardline ideologues and far fewer limits on his and their aspirations. It remains to be seen how competent they are. The first part of his term hasn't exactly been plain sailing despite having both Houses and the Supreme Court.
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