JOEL KOTKIN: Trump Ends A Corrupt World Order.

In comparison with Barack Obama, who was well regarded in the foreign media, Donald Trump does not come off as a good guy. He is also clearly redefining the country’s identity and global focus. The first American president since the 1920s to walk away from a role as global pooh-bah, Trump instead defines his job as helping the people who elected him. . . .

Yet, as Larry Summers has pointed out, there’s a reason for the rise of “populist authoritarianism.” What he calls “global elites” have been more focused on working with their foreign counterparts than helping their own middle- and working-class populations.

Trump’s presidency is about renegotiating a bunch of post-World War II arrangements that are no longer working well. Understand that, and you’ll understand more than most who are writing on the subject.

Plus: “More than anything else, Trump needs to face the world as someone running not a declining power, but rather a potentially ascendant one.” Oh, I think he knows that.