I'll say again, it's pure hogwash to call America an "empire" in the same sense that ancient Rome was an empire, or Britain & France had empires.
All that does is distort both the definition of "empire," and the reality today.
Take for example: in the year 1900, both Britain and France proudly proclaimed themselves "empires." Both were then functioning democracies, and France the constitutional Third Republic. In those days, the empires they ruled over were actual empires, and were NEVER confused with their VOLUNTARY ALLIANCES.
So, by 1914, France and Britain were allied with Russia against the German, Austria-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. None of these ALLIANCES among empires were EVER themselves called "EMPIRES." In other words, the Triple Alliance was NEVER called "The German Empire," and the Triple Entente was NEVER called the "Franco-Russian-British Empire."
Do you not understand the point? American today has MANY ALLIANCES. We have no serious EMPIRE.
Yeah, Sort of like Rome before Julius. You are insisting on a technical definition of “empire” as a political statement that does not correlate with the reality of American ascendance.