Alright, picture this—it’s 1983, the height of the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan steps up to the mic at some big evangelical convention. Now, you gotta understand, this is the era of big speeches, big hair, and even bigger paranoia about the Soviet Union. Reagan gets up there, points at the USSR, and basically goes, “Yeah, those guys? Evil. Like, straight-up movie villain evil. Empire-level evil.”
Boom. Just like that, we got a catchphrase. “Evil empire.” Sounds like the tagline for a new Star Wars flick. But no, this is real life, and Reagan’s out here talking like he’s narrating an action movie. And the crowd? Oh, they eat it up. They LOVE it. He’s not just saying the Soviets are bad—he’s making it biblical. Like, America’s the good guy, they’re the bad guy, and boom, Cold War officially has a hype man.
And hey, for better or worse, it worked! The Berlin Wall comes down, the Soviet Union collapses, and America’s walking around like we just won the biggest game of Risk ever. Reagan’s sitting there, probably thinking, “Yeah, that’s right. Who’s evil now, huh?”
But here’s where it gets funny—flash forward to today, and we got President Trump, who, uh… let’s just say, his version of international diplomacy is a little different.
Because you know what Trump does? Instead of standing up there like Reagan, saying “This country is evil, and we’re gonna stop them”, he’s like, “Ya know, Putin? Pretty strong guy. Xi Jinping? Brilliant. Kim Jong Un? Tough guy, great leader.” What?!
Like, Reagan’s out here picking his enemies and drawing the moral line, and Trump’s over here speed-dating dictators. He’s collecting autocrats like they’re Pokémon cards. “Oh, Kim Jong Un? Love this guy. Very strong. Very smart. Ooh, Putin? One of my favorites, love what he’s doing over there.”
And then—you’re gonna love this—he calls Zelenskyy, the guy literally fighting off a Russian invasion, a ‘dictator.’ What?! That’s like watching a bar fight, seeing the guy getting beat up, and going, “Ugh, what a bully.”
Oh, and the best part? The guy also wants to buy Greenland. Yeah. Greenland. Like it’s an abandoned Blockbuster he’s looking to flip. And when that doesn’t work out, now he’s joking—or not joking?—about taking over Canada. CANADA. What’s the plan there? Storm Toronto with a bunch of guys in MAGA hats and jean shorts? Demand universal healthcare but only for Florida?
It’s like, Reagan was out here trying to defeat the “Evil Empire,” and Trump’s out here trying to start his own. And instead of fighting for democracy, he’s out here slapping tariffs on our allies, picking fights with Canada, and telling NATO, “Eh, maybe we don’t help you if you get invaded.”
So here’s the thing—love Reagan, hate Reagan, whatever—you at least knew where he stood. He pointed at the bad guys and said, “Not on my watch.” Now? We got a guy who thinks ‘evil’ is just whoever didn’t book a room at his hotel.
Forty-two years ago, we had a president saying “This is the fight for freedom.” Now, we got one saying, “This is the fight to see if I can rename Canada ‘Trump North.’”
So the question is, if America’s not standing up to the bad guys anymore… what the hell are we even standing for?
