Feeding the wolves in the backyard by John Reid

While the world watches the familiar geopolitical chessboard shift and tilt under the weight of wars, economic upheaval, and technological transformation, there’s a darker, more insidious trend quietly or sometimes not-so-quietly, growing in the corners of American society. It's fed not by ignorance, but by calculated indulgence; not by the powerless, but by those who command microphones, money, and military arsenals.

Let’s not dance around it. The open support of the American administration, led by the ever-theatrical Donald Trump and his apprentice in populist provocation, JD Vance, for nationalistic, authoritarian, and far-right regimes around the globe has become more than just a diplomatic embarrassment. It's become a strategic encouragement, a green light to bigots with flags and fascists in suits.

And while international observers might clench their teeth at American endorsements of strongmen in Hungary, nodding photo ops with nationalist governments in Israel, Brazil, or even a soft spot for Putin's posturing, the real fire is not abroad. The real combustion is happening right here, inside America’s borders, where far-right extremism is no longer simmering. It’s boiling.

History, unfortunately, has a nasty habit of repeating itself. The support of far-right ideologies abroad has always ricocheted back home. During the Cold War, backing dictators to fight communism led to a generation of disenfranchised, disillusioned youth both in America and in those countries we meddled in. Today, the same principle applies — only this time, the export and import of nationalism are happening in real time, over social media, with emojis, podcasts, and AR-15 memes.

Trump and Vance have not just expressed passive approval of these ideologies, they’ve actively rebranded them for American consumption. Orbán’s Hungary isn’t held up as a warning sign anymore; it’s a blueprint. A “Christian democracy” where the press is tamed, women are told their wombs are patriotic battlegrounds, and “globalist” is a polite code word for every racist’s favorite scapegoat. JD Vance, the so-called hillbilly intellectual turned populist puppet, echoes these sentiments with a Harvard-polished sneer, repackaging fear as realism and intolerance as common sense.

This imported admiration for authoritarianism isn’t just ideological cosplay. It’s fueling a movement, armed, angry, and increasingly unafraid of showing its face. January 6 was not a fluke. It was a test run.

The consequences of legitimizing far-right regimes abroad are felt in Charlottesville torchlight parades and school board meetings turned into shouting matches over books. It’s felt in laws restricting voting access and classrooms purged of critical thinking. This is not fringe anymore. It’s becoming foundation.

And here’s the rub: it’s no longer about policy. It’s about identity, national, racial, cultural, even theological. When a sitting or former president and his Senate sycophants frame autocrats as heroes and cast democratic institutions as enemies, they don't just corrode trust in government. They create martyrs out of monsters and turn everyday grievances into ideological warfare.

The Trump-Vance ideology is not just creating a political movement. It's fostering an ecosystem. Funded by dark money, nourished by conspiracies, and policed by culture warriors, this far-right echo chamber feeds off the very instability it creates. The more chaos, the more they justify their power grab.

And it's not lost on global authoritarians either. Orbán, Netanyahu, Modi, and others understand the game: perform nationalism at home, gain legitimacy abroad. When the United States, once the supposed beacon of democratic ideals, begins to reward authoritarian tendencies, the global standards shift. Suddenly, democracy is optional.

What’s worse is that it works. The playbook is effective because it’s simple: find an enemy (immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, intellectuals), create fear, promise strength, and attack anyone who disagrees as un-American. Wrap it in a flag, quote the Bible, and call it patriotism.

Let’s not act shocked. America has long flirted with the idea that it can be both democratic and exceptional, that its sins can be footnoted if the economy is strong and the missiles are accurate. But this is not about economics or security anymore. It’s about morality. It’s about the soul of a nation, and whether it has the courage to call out fascism even when it wears a red hat and speaks perfect English.

The more the American right idolizes foreign autocrats, the more it reveals what it truly wants at home. The far-right movement isn't inspired by economic anxiety or cultural change. It's inspired by power, absolute, unaccountable, and inherited. And its leaders are not hiding it. They are tweeting it, legislating it, and running on it.

When you feed the wolves abroad, don’t be surprised when they start roaming your backyard. And don’t be surprised when they stop knocking.

The American flirtation with global authoritarianism is not just a foreign policy error. It’s a domestic crisis. A crisis of vision, of values, and of vigilance.

So the next time Donald Trump praises another “strong” leader, or JD Vance defends “Western civilization” from the horrors of diversity, remember this: they’re not talking about diplomacy. They’re talking about you. And they’re betting you won’t notice until it’s too late.