Plans to demand years of social media from visitors are accelerating America’s self-inflicted collapse as an open, admired society
America has every right to police its borders, and notions that it’s racist is dangerous nonsense. No country is obliged to accept unlimited numbers of people who arrive illegally, alter the social fabric, or strain public systems, whether they ultimately cause harm or good. If you want to contribute, the basic premise has always been clear: come legally and understand there are limits, which means you might actually not be wanted and that’s fine.
But that’s not what’s happening right now. Instead, America is just sneering at the world it once sought to lead, as if determined to burn to the ground the brand equity that was created at such sacrifice over the past centure. Trump is making America a banana republic again, and the plan to require many arrivals to hand over five years of social media is the latest excruciating case in point.
I’m writing this from London, where I can assure you that the United States is no longer widely admired. I’ve heard people who were America-lovers say they will never set foot in the country again. And it is not anecdotal: The picture across polling, forecasting, and real-world travel behavior is consistent: in 2025, interest in visiting the US has softened dramatically, with politics cited as a factor.
Travel forecaster Tourism Economics projects an 8.2% drop in international overnight arrivals, and official projections through the end of the year foresee a drop of over 6% in numbers of arrivals. AP similarly notes that expectations for a strong 2025 were revised downward as overseas visitor numbers underperformed (directly due to anger at Trump).
Global survey data aligns with that: Reports in Germany and the UK show the share of travelers saying they are less likely to visit the US because of politics rose from 37% in January 2025 to 54% later in the year. In Canada, an Angus Reid Institute poll found 70% would feel uncomfortable traveling to the US, with many citing border procedures and political climate as deterrents. The list goes on, with data pointing to a measurable dip in US travel demand, driven less by prices or capacity than by how the country is currently perceived.
How bad is that? Well, tourism in normal times accounts for about a fifth of US “exports” in services. Add to that the damage caused by Trump’s tariff tantrum, which will bring in not one dollar but rather taxes Americans – individuals and businesses – to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year, throw in the 300,000 fired by DOGE, and you have a major economic drag on America, all of it self-inflicted by arrogant goons who don’t understand the economy.
As for the newest mistake, the plan to demand up to five years of social media history from foreign tourists arrives wrapped in the same unmistakable tone that now defines nearly everything emanating from this administration: suspicion directed outward, grievance directed everywhere, and crass politicization of life. But here’s why it’s a feed too far.
Yes, background checks have always existed. Anyone who has ever applied for a US visa knows the ritual humiliation: forms, interviews, delays, arbitrary decisions. Digital footprints have been scrutinized before, quietly and imperfectly, and most people accepted that as the cost of entry to a powerful country anxious about security. In that narrow sense, the proposal can be framed as more of the same., an extension of existing practice.
But in reality this is a sweeping demand for political, cultural, and expressive exposure, invasive to the point of being offensive and directly violating the very free-speech principles America once claimed to stand for. Everyone assumes that criticism of Trump on your socials will get you barred from the United States. The tragedy is that I’m not really sure how many people in America remember how antithetical it is to what America was meant to be. The rot has truly set in.
Especially corrosive is the unavoidable subjectivity. This is an administration led by a president who conducts diplomacy as a personal loyalty test, who treats praise as policy and criticism as treason. You need to be quite naive to trust their judgment and assume it will be fair.
For Americans, there is also the question of reciprocity, which America once took seriously. If the United States normalizes this level of digital intrusion for casual visitors, are Americans prepared to hand over years of posts to visit France, Japan or Britain? Are they ready for governments abroad to assess their jokes? You made fun of France? Oublie de Sacre Ceour!
And if this becomes standard practice, what happens to global freedom of speech when everyone knows that every post is potentially a bar to your next vacation? And how do the vacation destinations feel? Before America lost its mind, we used to like people coming over and spending their money?
All of this is happening as part of a pattern. Since Trump’s return to office, America has been poking the world in the eye with remarkable consistency. The tariff war is Exhibit A. It is widely despised, not because foreigners resent paying tariffs — foreigners do not pay them — but because they impede trade, distort markets, and inject politics into every transaction.
They are legally dubious, economically illiterate, and gleefully disruptive, sold to the public as strength while in fact constituting a tax paid by Americans. As we have written here before: Tariffs are set by Congress, Trump’s policy is clearly illegal, and if the Supreme Court refuses to blot it up it will become a joke.
Diplomacy under this administration has become a spectacle of aggression and vanity. Everything is personal and transactional, and a function of Trump’s petulant and corrupt biases and whims. The new National Security Strategy reflects that, throwing values out the window, abandoning promotion of democracy, and arguing for geopolitics based purely on national interest. Allies are treated as irritants, autocrats as confidants, the voters as idiots.
The impact matters of the social media gambit more than Washington appears to understand. We might catch a handful of bad actors, but also deter tourists, scholars, artists, and professionals who have other options and see no reason to submit to suspicion. Tourism is not just an industry; it is a form of soft power. So is international education. So is professional exchange. When students decide it is safer to study in Canada or Europe, when conferences relocate, when entrepreneurs incorporate elsewhere, the loss compounds quietly. The damage is cumulative enough to reshape America’s place in the world.
If the fever lifts, America might recover somewhat — and it also might not. Trust me: There are nice places in the world.
So America may soon find it does not need to work so hard to keep people out. With the possible exception of migrants from Latin America —where the administration’s hardline approach may yet succeed, and should — the rest of the world may simply opt out. Note to the MAGA tough guys: This self-inflicted disaster is not in the national interest.
