Editorial

16:00 JST, January 3, 2026

The White House in the U.S. capital of Washington has been a pitiful sight since last autumn.

The historic East Wing was completely reduced to rubble to make way for a luxury ballroom under the direction of U.S. President Donald Trump. Calls to halt the construction work were ignored.

The United States is destroying the values and rules that it once prioritized and is forcibly suppressing dissenting opinions. The changes to the White House seem to mirror changes to the world order, which is now on the brink of collapse.

In the first year of his second term, Trump accelerated his “America First” approach. In the National Security Strategy announced late last year, he declared an end to the era in which the United States supported the global order, explicitly stating the country will only engage with other nations when its own interests are threatened.

Trump has said that other countries should put themselves first. However, such an assertion will only benefit authoritarian military powers such as Russia and China, and he should recognize that this will harm the long-term interests of the world and the United States itself.

Particularly concerning is Trump’s apparent push for a Russia-leaning peace proposal over its nearly four years of aggression against Ukraine.

Russia remains unchanged in its stance demanding the cession of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and........

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