Story highlights Frida Ghitis: In dropping out of Paris climate pact, abdicating US values, Trump has lost his presidency's claim to 'Leader of the Free World' role

Ghitis: Trump moving in one direction, but much of country not following, determined to promote the values that made US a global leader.

Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

(CNN) Is it even possible for the United States to lead the world with Donald Trump as president? We'll know the answer in the coming months, as Trump attempts to discard every ideal and principle that gave the United States a unique place in history, even as others in the country -- including state and corporate leaders -- roll up their sleeves and work to prevent him from dismantling the work of his predecessors.

What we do know is that the time has come to retire the term "leader of the free world" when speaking of President Trump. It was a title once bestowed upon -- and earned -- by the men who held the presidency. Perhaps it will be again under another president.

To be sure, American leadership has never been perfect. The country has long struggled to balance its ideals, its interests, and the realities of a complicated world. It has often made grievous mistakes. But until Donald Trump moved into the White House, American presidents made a genuine effort to lead not only the country but the world in a direction that was generally consistent with its values. No more.

It's not just Trump's latest decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement -- a pact that 194 other nations have signed. That was only the latest in a continuing stream of decisions by Trump and his top deputies to turn aside our nation's place as a beacon of progress, stability, and global stewardship.

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No, besides Trump's move to isolate the United States from the rest of the planet on the climate issue, he has weakened the alliance that was born back in the days when the term "Free World" referred to the part of the planet not under communist rule during the great contest between communism and democracy.