Likewise, "not starting any new wars" can be perceived as bowing to foreign nations by anyone who wants to frame it negatively, or vice versa as an amazing success for diplomacy.
This is an interesting take on peace in the middle east.
I've edited my comment to speak in a more neutral political tone.
In the West everything is a scam. Our health system is a scam, the military industrial complex is a scam, our education system is a scam, our currency is a scam, our media is a scam, the president is a scam. What makes you think that ANYTHING going on in the West ISN'T a scam?
I think you meant USA
How about huge tax on international travel? On the order of say 500%, make it totally unaffordable. A trip to Europe produces far more carbon than a few years worth of trips to the grocery store and isn't at all necessary.
And even if you personally don't drive an idiotically wasteful vehicle, a huge portion of Americans do, and their gas guzzlers drive up demand for the same fuel that you and I want to purchase, causing its price to skyrocket.
We don't all need to be driving something like a Nissan Versa, but a lot of people whose real requirements would be met perfectly by something like that are driving Yukons and whining about gas prices.
It seems like carbon really isn't your issue here.
Just like air travel. If making one unaffordable is positive, why not the other?
First, in 2020 the US told Saudi Arabia that the US might cut weapons sales and military aid if the didn't cut production. In response to that OPEC agreed to a big cut production for 2 years.
Second, Russia invaded Ukraine which led to more disruptions in the global oil market.
Some like to try to blame it on the current US administration cancelling sales of new oil leases on Federal lands, but the oil companies already have a ton of existing oil leases on Federal lands that they can put into production but are choosing not to. They aren't choosing to because they know that the aforementioned reasons for the current high prices are temporary and putting those leases into production would just lead to a glut later and low prices, making it unlikely they would come out net positive on those leases.
I've also heard some try to blame it on cancelling Keystone XL, but Keystone XL would not have increased supply. It would have just made it cheaper for some Canadian producers to get their oil to refineries. Because the oil market is a global market, costs rising or falling for those Canadian produces wouldn't have a measurable affect on the market price of oil. It just would affect how much profit those producers could make on their oil.
To so called "war on oil" that people have been accusing anyone who tries to promote clean energy of since Obama was elected, if it even exists, is about the least effective war in the history of wars on things, as any examination of global oil production by year will show.
I actually don't think the US president has that much power in practice. After considering the constitution, expert studies, standard procedures, state finances, and public opinion, for most decisions, the president doesn't have much choice. He will however choose how it is presented: make a show out of it or do it discreetly, take full credit or present it as somewhat forced, present a different aspect of it, etc...
In big democracies, heads of state are mostly the face of the country, but most work happen behind the scenes. Even in less democratic major countries (Russia, China,...) there is a limit on what the ruler can do. And if you are asking, I don't think that the Ukraine war is Putin's war, he played a role, but I think it is the almost unavoidable result of decades of tension and complex politics between Russia and the West.
Completely agree. As the world gets larger and more interconnected/free, the power any one man can have decreases.
(Point is, most legislation and XOs are largely bipartisan. Policy is driven much more by the machinations of hundreds of thousands of faceless/nameless actors than by the guy at the top. In both good ways and bad. The same is true in companies. The genius of leaders is mostly in their salesmanship.)
The topic of a couple Adam Curtis's documentaries IIRC.
Obama's first presidential campaign won marketing awards: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/29/barack-obama-c...
However, the point of an xyz 'administration' is that they they take credit or blame for the work of faceless bureaucrats.
And the COVID vaccine?
Trump did a lot of good things, but he made everything about himself personally which overshadowed all his actions.
On a personal level Trump did a lot of stupid stuff, but on a policy level he didn't.