Somewhere in the 1980s, Soviet propaganda proclaimed with almost religious certainty that the “final collapse of American capitalism” was coming. They cited the Wall Street crash of 1987, the banking scandals, Iran. They saw cracks and presented them as chasms. What they didn’t see was that the Soviet Union itself had already rotted internally . Two years later, it collapsed. Not America. The pattern repeats itself. Anyone who obsessively talks about the downfall of another is often trying to hide their own decline .
Today the word “collapse” is heard again, this time from European lips. “Donald Trump’s America is falling apart.” “The economy is a bubble.” “Tariffs will suffocate it.” The rhetoric is familiar. Only the data says otherwise. The American economy is growing. Inflation is easing. The labor market remains strong. Investment is increasing. Energy production is strengthening. And the stock market, despite the turmoil, is demonstrating a resilience that belies the prophets of doom .
The Trump administration was not — nor is it — an “experiment in chaos,” as Brussels likes to call it. It is a strategy for restoring power . Tax cuts, boosting industry, moving toward energy self-sufficiency, renegotiating trade deals. Not theoretical declarations, but measurable results. In his first term, markets recorded an impressive rise. Even in the midst of the COVID storm, the recovery was rapid. This is not a “bubble.” It is structural dynamics .
And today? Despite tariffs that were presented as “suicidal”, the economy did not derail. On the contrary, the protection of domestic production strengthened the industrial base. The shift to hydrocarbons reduced energy costs. Competitiveness increased. Energy is not an ideological slogan, but a geoeconomic weapon. And America uses it.
At the same time, the European Union is sinking into a peculiar strategic confusion . Marginal growth. Industries migrating due to cost. Energy dependence. “Green policies” that burden production without offering a competitive advantage. Political decay everywhere.
- In Germany , the economy is dragging.
- In France , social tension is a permanent phenomenon.
- In Britain , political instability is constant.
“Anti-systemic” parties are rising because citizens sense that the existing model is not working.
And yet, instead of self-criticism, we hear European elites talking about “America’s decline.” It is a projection of weakness . When Europe sees its industrial base weakening, it blames Washington. When its societies resent it, it seeks external culprits. When its political legitimacy shrinks, it deploys moralistic crowns.
The reality is simpler and harsher. Trump’s America has chosen realism over romanticism , production over bureaucracy , national interest over ideological obsessions . It may be annoying. It may upset convenient balances. But it works. And that is what angers those who are politically invested in its failure.
Empires do not fall because their rivals denounce them. They fall when they lose their self-confidence and their productive base. Today, if anyone is showing signs of self-undermining , it is not Washington. It is Europe, which is hesitant to redefine its role in a world of power.
The question, then, is not whether America will collapse. The question is who has the will to adapt and who insists on hiding behind rhetorical devices. History has already shown who is usually proven wrong. And those who are currently investing in the “fall of America” may soon be forced to look in the mirror.
GEORGE TH. AGRAFIOTIS
