The USAians don’t want people visiting their country. There have been a number of cases recently of Europeans and Canadians being “disappeared” by the US border police. Taken by ICE agents and locked in a cell for a couple of weeks without access to lawyers or the outside world. A French scientist was refused entry to the country because he had been critical of the baby in charge. At least one USAian has also been caught up in the fun.
Presumably this is the new regime sending a message that they’ve been a soft touch for too long and they aren’t going to be nobody’s pussy no more, no sir.
At any rate, this new policy is already having an effect. People are being scared away. Scientists are cancelling their attendance at conferences, for example. That’s the immediate response. It’s likely that some future conferences won’t even be held in the USA because of the paranoia and xenophobia.
So they’ve succeeded in their aims of isolating the USA further. What happens next? Does the USA remain a world leading place for business, science and culture? Does the rest of the world accept this maltreatment and continue to look up to the USA as a role model?
I suspect the USAians think that there will be no negative consequences to their actions at all. I’m sceptical. We’ll have to wait and see if this new approach is a success.