What you are missing is that it’s globalized. America has an empire on being able to source anything they want from any country, the dollar is the mighty currency and everything is done in favor of keeping the system running. Military bases exist to protect a trade route or a source of a particular raw material. No president is gonna change that but some may run it more poorly than others and not maintain the machine.

But it’s not in service of the people. It’s all in service of the machine. And the people making the most from the machine haven’t been paying attention to the noises it’s making.