Trump and the End of the Rules-Based Illusion on America’s 250th Birthday

As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, it is confronting a reality that Alexander Hamilton would have recognized immediately: the so-called "rules-based international order" was never a neutral system. It was a political construction, shaped by power, sustained by incentives, and increasingly misaligned with the interests of the country that built it. For three generations, Western policymakers advanced the idea that a dense web of institutions-the IMF, World Bank, UN, GAT