Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has pinpointed a series of events that have led to the rest of the world seeing America as “inessential.”

Just weeks after President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term in office, he held a televised Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he and his top administration officials berated the leader fending off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war.

“You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump told Zelenskyy. But according to Krugman, Zelenskyy has “quite a few cards, while Trump has far fewer cards than he imagined.”

Krugman calls that Oval Office dressing-down “a spectacle that shamed America,” with Trump “engaging in petty bullying of the leader of a nation fighting for its life against tyranny.”

The Oval Office attack was just the start of what would make the world start to rethink its relationship to the U.S.

Trump then cut off all financial aid to Ukraine and blocked weapons sales to the battered nation — even when other nations were paying the bill.

Trump later met with Putin, where, “as the Russians see it, he offered to broker a deal that would give Russia control of a crucial fortress belt on Ukrainian soil.”

Krugman calls that “a shocking betrayal of a democracy fighting for its freedom — and, in so doing, fighting for the freedom of Europe as a whole.”

And while 18 GOP senators Thursday voted to restore aid to Ukraine, against the will of their leadership, should that bill come to Trump’s desk, it is doubtful he would sign it.

Despite Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine, Ukraine turned the war in its favor, and by doing so, taught the world a lesson.

“Before Trump, we were also a nation almost universally regarded as essential,” writes Krugman. “Nations believed that they needed access to U.S. banks to do business, access to U.S. markets to prosper, access to U.S. weapons to defend themselves.”

“But by breaking decades’ worth of international agreements — not to mention threatening allies and betraying Ukraine — Trump quickly forfeited the world’s trust.”

Trump “failing so spectacularly against Iran, a far weaker military power,” has also “dispelled much of the world’s fear,” Krugman says.

The world is “managing economically” despite Trump’s tariffs and his abandonment of Ukraine — and Ukraine is “surviving despite Trump’s attempt to cut it off at the knees,” says Krugman, revealing that America is “much less essential than everyone assumed.”

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A House Republican is drafting legislation to try to bypass Senate rules and advance President Donald Trump’s push to require enhanced voter identification. The bill would cost taxpayers $250 million over five years.

According to Politico, U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) is working on the “SAVE America Through REAL ID Act,” which would provide funds for lower-income voters to obtain a REAL ID, while encouraging states to require a REAL ID to vote.

“In order to address that one issue, we’ve created this grant program for states to use to help people who meet the income qualifications … to be able to get a free REAL ID,” Fedorchak told Politico.

Fedorchak hopes the $250 million price tag will make the legislation eligible to pass in the Senate under the reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority — thus likely bypassing the need for any Democratic votes.

Fedorchak’s bill would be “an alternative to the proof-of-citizenship and voter-ID mandates in the original SAVE America Act that would likely be excluded from a party-line bill by the Senate parliamentarian,” Politico reports.

Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill reported that House GOP leaders were “scrambling to find ways to squeeze pieces of the SAVE America Act into their next party-line bill.” That would include “using funding carrots instead of policy mandates to clear the Senate parliamentarian.”

Despite repeated pressure from President Trump, as recently as Thursday afternoon, the SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate. Trump wants that legislation to require all voters to show voter ID and proof of citizenship, while sharply narrowing the use of mail-in ballots. Trump is also pressing for the bill to ban “men in women’s sports,” and “transgender mutilization [sic] surgery for our children.”

Back in February the president vowed the SAVE America Act would pass into law, “one way or another.” Critics see the controversial bill as voter suppression legislation.

Democrats oppose the bill in part because it requires a passport or birth certificate to register to vote — something tens of millions of Americans do not currently have, according to voting rights groups. It also narrows generally accepted forms of photo ID to vote.

Others oppose it because it requires states to run their voter rolls through federal immigration databases, which reportedly have a high error rate. Critics also say that it creates a large unfunded administrative burden for states.

In April, Trump told Republicans that enacting the SAVE Act would “guarantee the midterms” — while claiming that was not the reason he was pushing the bill. “I don’t think you can politically exist if you’re not going to do voter ID and these things.”

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promoting what it calls “President Trump’s 500 Days of Wins” as farm bankruptcies have spiked.

On the social media platform X, a series of seven posts celebrates Trump administration programs such as “Make America Healthy Again” and “Farmers First,” while promoting the USDA’s efforts surrounding national security, rural prosperity, lawfare, forestry, and trade.

“Today we celebrate President Trump’s 500th day in office,” the post reads. “A historic period of progress for American agriculture and rural communities. We shattered export records, slashed burdensome regulations, rebuilt rural infrastructure, and unlocked energy independence so our farmers and ranchers can thrive. The work continues.”

The USDA added: “Delivered historic direct relief to farmers and ranchers through $12 billion in farmer bridge payments $10 billion in emergency economic assistance, $16 billion in supplemental disaster relief, and more than $2+ billion in livestock disaster assistance.”

NPR reported in December that the “Trump administration announced $12 billion in one-time payments to farmers in the wake of this year’s tariff hikes … primarily targeting farmers who grow crops such as soybeans and corn.”

According to the Farm Journal, farm bankruptcies spiked in April, and “recent Chapter 12 bankruptcy data shows a significant uptick in filings.”

Reporting that “there have been 62 Chapter 12 filings in April 2026 alone,” Farm Journal calls it “the highest monthly total since February 2020, and it’s a 130% increase from April 2025.”

President Trump’s Iran war has driven up the prices of diesel and fertilizer that farmers depend on, and his global tariff war has cut into exports to countries like China.

On the Instagram social media platform, some users were less than enthusiastic about the USDA’a post.

“Time to unfollow the USDA since it’s become a propaganda channel for the lunacy happening in the federal government under this administration,” wrote one user. Another wrote: “American agriculture is in shambles.” And a third said, “delete this.”

The Times of London reported that “farmers handed Trump his first loss of the midterms” this week.

“Unrest in America’s heartland over the impact of President Trump’s policies saw him suffer a rare primary setback in Iowa, and is leading Democrats to sense a revival in the former bellwether state,” The Times noted. “The mainly rural central state that voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012 has become reliably Republican since the rise of Trump but analysts say that rising fuel and fertilizer prices and the Iran war make its races for governor, a US Senate seat and two of its four House seats increasingly hard to call.”

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