In Today’s America, Cruelty is but a Feeble Disguise for Weakness

The ancient Roman philosopher Seneca once remarked that “all cruelty springs from weakness.” Now picture this: Roughly two thousand years later, a United States president who entered the political fray with a promise to save the “forgotten men and women” of his country, spends more time enacting needless cruelty at home and abroad than elevating precisely those to which he professes devotion. Why? Giving renewed, albeit unwelcome, credence to Seneca’s age-old adage, in today’s America, cruelty is but a feeble disguise for weakness.

Numbers alone suggest underlying precarity. Through August – the most recent month with available data amidst the federal government shutdown that, as of writing, has delayed September’s update – the United States economy added fewer than 600,000 jobs in 2025. Take away the unprecedented woes of the pandemic, and that represents “the fewest for the first eight months of the year since 2009,” according to Nick Timiraos and Jack Pitcher of the Wall Street Journal, far from a “radical left” outlet.

Adding practical insult to policy injury, trade wars ostensibly initiated to revive the sector have produced consecutive months of manufacturing payroll decline, unmatched since 2020. Still worse, expensive groceries – a harbinger of financial strain on working families or, as they are sometimes called, the “forgotten men and women of America” – have not just remained commonplace but become more burdensome, with the prices of eggs, ground beef, and coffee increasing by double-digits under this administration’s watch. 

Alongside the foregoing, the president’s approval rating has steadily declined since taking office in January. Support among Republicans has dropped eight percent, and the same percentage of Democrats as a whole approve of the president’s performance. Concurrently, the administration has begun changing the goalposts. In September, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick predicted “the greatest growth economy…starting six months from today to a year from today,” while the president followed suit by foreshadowing “job numbers like our country has never seen” come 2026.

The sleight of hand is not working. “Democrats,” writes CNN’s Aaron Blake, “are over-performing in special elections more than they ever have in the Trump era — dating back to his first term.” With next November’s midterm elections now in sight, the president’s governing trifecta in Washington – and with it, the president’s agenda – has never hung in the balance so clearly for all to see. 

Just as weakness tends to give way to desperation, desperation absent restraint tends to give way to cruelty. Without any guardrails to rein him in, the president is subjecting the country and the world to unvarnished, unabashed cruelty. 

Begin with the domestic. This administration’s crackdown on immigrants both documented and undocumented is as vicious and vile as it is inept and ineffective. According to Amnesty International, “[i]n August alone, an unprecedented 60,000 people were held in immigration detention on any given day” and many exposed to human rights violations “ranging from physical abuse by guards and the denial of medical care to obstruction of legal access.” Even in the nonexistent alternate reality in which such barbarism – barbarism, it is worth noting, against beloved neighbors and trusted coworkers, among others – were justified as a matter of principle, it certainly cannot be justified as a matter of policy.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants seek refuge in the United States not due to false idealism or romanticism over what awaits them but due to genuine fear over the tangible costs of the wars, persecution, and disasters ravaging their home countries. Apparently unable to craft policies addressing that root problem, profound weakness has succumbed to profound cruelty, as even U.S. citizens face detention. Yet, with a historic “79% of Americans now say[ing] that immigration is good for the country,” one takeaway is unmistakable: this administration’s façade is see-through. 

Make no mistake: the world has borne witness to the nihilism and naivety of an American foreign policy motivated by weakness. In a meandering 58-minute speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, the president accused the organization of complicity, if not leadership, in a “globalist migration agenda,” while going so far as to assert that “[t]he UN is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders.” Such claims not only reek of absurdity but also outright cruelty in the backdrop of this administration’s draconian cuts to the United States Agency for International Development that have left countless countries more – not less – prone to the very mass net-negative migration the president detests.

Beyond rhetoric, though, world leaders were put face-to-face with the sight of a weak administration intent on weakening American democracy and the global order in which it is enveloped. It was an egomaniacal and embarrassing sight that will not easily be forgotten. 

Fundamentally, weakness accompanies those who fan the flames of populist discontent as a self advantageous political strategy rather than a steadfast governing commitment. After all, populist “Trojan horses” thrive so long as their false front never meets the light. In today’s America, faux populism has begun to wilt under scrutiny. Increasingly exposed as a result is weakness disguised as cruelty. Put simply, this is no disguise at all.

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are those of their author alone and should not be interpreted to reflect the views of the United States Department of State, the Fulbright Program, or any of its affiliate/partner organizations.