Hard talk on soft power: Use it, Trump, or well lose it

President Donald Trump has never been a fan of soft power.He much prefers the hard stuff: tough diplomacy, throwing around the weight of American might.In keeping with this ethos, Trump has made deep cuts to America’s soft-power establishment, like the US Agency for International Development and the US Agency for Global Media, which seek to influence other nations with cultural and economic persuasion.The leftist rot ran deep and the waste piled high at USAID and USAGM.

Trump is right to put them through shock therapy.But it will be equally important for his administration to rebuild them, so that the US can re-establish its role as the world’s beacon of freedom.

There’s still a place for American soft power and the exportation of American values — if we know what they are.Soft power is the ultimate strings-attached funding.We dole out cash so people will like us and like what we stand for.The United States used soft power during the Cold War to wield moral authority, but in recent years we’ve wrecked ourselves by giving money to people who hate us.

Trump wants to get back to basics.Kari Lake is Trump’s senior adviser for USAGM, which runs Voice of America and other US-funded news outlets.“Soft power should be used to put out information and a message that reflects America’s values and is in line with our policy,” she told me this week.“Not something that’s in line with our adversaries.” That’s been a good and useful thing over the years — exporting the fight against Nazis, global vaccine roll-outs, blue jeans and rock music.But Americans today are not unified on what it means to be American.We should be.

It hasn’t actually changed.We’ve just buried it under nonsense.Soft power in the 20th century effectively inspired the best and brightest international minds, people keen to jump on the American soul train and ride it to freedom and wealth.What gave us that cultural edge was a set of aspirational values and a die-hard, unflinchi...