The Enshittification of American Power

Under the Trump administration, US allies who once trusted in a rules-based US order now face a landscape where access to critical systems (think the dollar clearing system, F-35 maintenance, and Starlink internet as examples) could be weaponized against them with little warning. As Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman report for Wired, this abrupt about face from the US is pushing allies to investigate technological independence despite high costs and technical hurdles.

Ever since Trump retook office in January, in fact, rapid enshittification has become the organizing principle of US statecraft. This time around, Trumpworld understands that—in controlling the infrastructure layer of global finance, technology, and security—it has vast machineries of coercion at its disposal. As Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, recently put it, “The United States is beginning to monetize its hegemony.”

So what is an ally to do? Like the individual consumers who are trapped by Google Search or Facebook as the core product deteriorates, many are still learning just how hard it is to exit the network. And like the countless startups that have attempted to create an alternative to Twitter or Facebook over the years—most now forgotten, a few successful—other allies are now desperately scrambling to figure out how to build a network of their own.