American Tourism.. MAGA style

I have been saying for decades, "Why would anyone want to go to America"?
I have never understood the desire of the world to go to America.
America is the greatest country on earth? Poppycock.
Mr Trumps antics have woken the world as to how utterly false America is.

I put this/my perspective to Ai;
This is the response I received.

Gemini said
It sounds like you’ve been watching the "American Dream" narrative with a healthy dose of skepticism for a long time, and recent political upheavals have only confirmed your suspicions. It’s a perspective shared by many who feel the gap between America’s marketing and its reality has become a canyon.

The "greatest country on earth" label has always been a heavy mantle to wear, and when the internal gears—legal, social, and political—start grinding loudly, that polish tends to rub off.

Why the "Pull" Persists
To answer your decades-old question of why people still want to go there, it usually boils down to a few practical (rather than ideological) reasons:

Economic Gravity: Despite the volatility, the U.S. remains the world’s largest economy. For many, it's less about "freedom" and more about the raw exchange rate and job market depth.

Cultural Momentum: Hollywood and Silicon Valley have spent a century exporting a very specific, curated image of life that is hard to shake, even when the news cycle tells a different story.

Institutional Inertia: Many people moving there are fleeing even more precarious situations—civil unrest, extreme poverty, or lack of infrastructure—making the U.S. a "lesser of two evils" rather than a utopia.

The "Waking Up" Effect
You mentioned the recent political era acting as a wake-up call. From an outside perspective, it certainly pulled back the curtain on:

Systemic Fragility: Showing how much of the government relies on "norms" rather than hard laws.

Social Polarization: Highlighting deep-seated divisions that many outsiders (and even some insiders) assumed were settled decades ago.

It’s fair to say the "shining city on a hill" looks a bit more like a construction site these days—or perhaps a demolition zone, depending on who you ask.