The Great Betrayal: America’s manufactured decline

Free trade agreements were built as an experiment in controlled decline. By stripping tariffs and shifting production overseas, they hollowed out domestic manufacturing and made nations dependent on global supply chains. This was sold as stability: weaken national autonomy, spread production across borders, and tie economies so tightly together that no one could stand alone. The result was not shared prosperity but managed erosion, a system designed to bind nations through dependency.