After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made

by Ben Rhodes

War on Terror was fine for business, so long as oil-rich states like Iran and Saudi Arabia fought their wars through proxies instead of directly, so long as the terrorist attacks by radicalized individuals utilized car bombs instead of nuclear ones. The rise of China was good for business, so long as gains from access to Chinese money and markets outweighed losses from Chinese theft of intellectual property. Trump himself could be good for business, doing away with taxes and burdensome regulations. There was a logic, I supposed, to seeing the world through this narrow window; part of it was turning a blind eye to the populist radicalization of the American right that was necessary to elect someone who would continue to do something as unpopular as cutting more regulations and taxes for the wealthy.

War on terrorism