Often coming to mind is the old American wild-west _expression_: "It's time to get the hell out of Dodge." From late-19th century U.S. frontier life, that line again made memorable in mid-20th century cowboy-movies, the saying warned people to avoid a certain place in the center of the U.S. Dodge City, then widely known as lawless, dangerously violent, run by thuggish leaders, gained notoriety as lethally unwelcoming.
All people of a place run by bullies get tarred with the same negative label. It doesn't matter to outsiders that there may be many good people there who oppose the leaders' behavior. In the politics of global images, that's negative branding of people and place. It's hard to repair.
In early 2025, only a month into the current U.S. presidency, I wrote an op-ed warning that the new administration's leadership was already destroying relations with American allies and supporters around the world. "The value of diplomacy is under attack by US senior leaders" was the original headline for my piece. Some friends-pundits disagreed with my concerns, dismissing my predictions as unnecessarily alarmist. Some said those insulted "would get over it," that President Trump's anti-diplomatic actions wouldn't have lasting effects.
Sadly, though, I was right about their threats to diplomacy. Within weeks after publication of my warnings, President Trump's team completed dismantling of USAID with its thousands of skilled staff, and then, on a single day, July 11, 2025, fired without cause (euphemistically called Reductions In Force-RIFs) 1,300 experienced US State Department staff, including hundreds of career diplomats-Foreign Service Officers (FSOs).
"It was a purge of expertise," as correctly stated by the American Foreign Service Association and some members of Congress. Now this Thursday and all month AFSA with retired and still active FSOs and the American Federation of Government Employees have been honoring the ignominious anniversary.
Diplomats are on-the-ground representatives of a nation abroad, its "frontline soft-power defense." U.S. career diplomats represent their country with non-partisan dedication. I know based on my international journalistic coverage of diplomacy and later my own experience serving as a Foreign Service Officer at State and overseas. The FSO swearing-in oath is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any president. Experienced career diplomats work through one presidential administration after another to provide expertise in promoting the ideals and foreign policy of the nation.
Now attacks by this Trump administration have continued unabated in countless ways against long-observed values of diplomacy in our world. Leaders and people worldwide insulted and attacked in worse ways by the U.S. leader understandably haven't forgotten. It's much worse now more than a year later. Fewer potential USA visitors, including world leaders, many longtime allies, want to risk encountering humiliation from insults and uncivil behavior. Trust in the U.S. is being destroyed daily. Politics of global images is working rapidly in negatively changing this country's image.
As with Dodge City's reputation in U.S. frontier days, this is not a new phenomenon of global news media. Other than almost instantaneous speed of negative branding now, it's been so from the beginning of human beings, reputation of a place and people spread by gossip, person to person, village to village, around the world. The ruler is ideally one welcoming visitors to their place as basic hospitality, for friendship, commerce, collaboration. The ideal leader honors their country's diplomats sent abroad as envoys to perpetuate positive images of the place.
In today's world, the leader of a nation represents the people of that country to the rest of the world. Regardless of whether half or more of the country's populace disapproves the leader's behavior, the negative image set by an offensive ruler is also applied to the entire nation. Diplomats then, while representing a country, are affected by behavior of their country's leader.
American citizens must now dare stand up and say to this and any president of USA, "You are representing all American people on the world stage. You must act as our democratic nation's leading diplomat among many diplomats."
Elizabeth "Liz" Colton, an author, educator, Emmy Award winning journalist, diplomat, former Peace Corps Volunteer and later U.S. Foreign Service Officer, teaches diplomacy & strategic communications/media for UNITAR's and international universities' global courses. She is a member of the American Foreign Service Association.