When last did anyone hear America called by its proper name by its own President? Increasingly, the United States seems to have been stripped of its identity and rechristened with a single-letter syllable: “I.”
Donald Trump, from the moment he set foot in the Oval Office, has made America appear less like a nation and more like a projection of his personality. Policies are no longer described as the work of an administration, but as his personal crusades. Achievements, failures, even global crises — everything is framed in the language of the self. America has been compressed into a single ego.
A revealing moment came when Trump addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With cameras rolling, he declared: “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.” Notice the choice of words — not “we,” not “the United States,” not even “my government.” Just “I.” The voice of an entire superpower reduced to the whims of one man.
This is not an isolated pattern. In discussing America’s ties with Turkey, Trump brushed aside decades of delicate diplomacy with the remark: “Erdogan is opinionated, but I like him.” So the relationship between two nations, both bound by NATO obligations and strategic interests, is reduced to the personal comfort level of one man with another. International relations are no longer about shared interests or national security — they are about personal vibes.
The tragedy here is not just political. America was once respected, even envied, for its institutions — for a system that placed the republic above the individual. Its greatness lay in its impersonal strength: the balance of powers, the rule of law, the idea that no single figure could embody or overrun the nation. Today, that hard-earned structure is overshadowed by one man’s need to dominate every conversation.
Some will argue that America is strong enough to withstand this personalization of power. That institutions will reassert themselves when the moment passes. But what we are witnessing is not just a passing quirk of style — it is a fundamental rebranding of democracy itself. When the president speaks as though he is the nation, the distinction between the system and the self is eroded. And once eroded, it is not easily restored.
Perhaps this is just America living through a phase of strongman politics. Or perhaps it is something more ominous: a symptom of a world tilting toward the cult of personality, where nations shrink into the reflections of their leaders. Either way, the fact is undeniable: America, the world’s most celebrated democracy, is now speaking in the first person singular.
In this new era, America is no longer “we the people.” It is “I, the President.”
And that single-letter word may be the smallest in the dictionary — but it could prove to be the most dangerous in history.
