Trump Has Laid the US Bare

It has been barely nine months since Donald Trump became president of the USA again. But the volley of head-turning decisions he has taken both internationally and on the domestic front make it seem more like nine years. Although it is widely felt that Trump’s policies represent a major reversal of established USA norms, the reality is that Trump is only unmasking the beast that America has always been. The world should be paradoxically thankful to Trump for exposing the façade of an image that the USA has portrayed for itself all along. Trump’s measures are just a desperate attempt in trying to extend the hegemony of an empire that is in an irrevocable decline.

Trump’s unabashed support to Israel’s genocide

Trump has stood solidly behind his ally Benjamin Netanyahu in his murderous assault on innocent Palestinians with the death toll now crossing 65,000 among which more than 20,000 are children. The UN too has now officially termed it a genocide, a truth that has been evident all along for anyone that had the heart to see it for what it has been. Regardless, Trump has publicly stated that he intends to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, uprooting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and permanently erasing their existence. In reality, US support to Israel’s genocide was the same even during the previous administration. Both Biden and Trump used USA’s veto power multiple times (six times now and counting) at the UN security council to block a ceasefire resolution. Trump just makes it more obvious by talking about usurping Palestinian land and making it a “beachfront property”. Even in the past, the US had the dubious history of supporting the apartheid regime of South Africa until the very end in the face of worldwide condemnation. USA’s Vietnam invasion lasted 20 years between 1955 vans 1975 and spanned four presidencies from Dwight D. Eisenhower (the very man who warned the world about military-industrial complex) to Richard Nixon across both ends of the political spectrum. Back then, US presidents felt the need to sugarcoat their actions by using terms such as “just war”, “last resort” or “rightful intention”. Trump, on the other hand, feels no need for such soft rhetoric and openly backs the extermination of Palestinians. In a way, the world has to be content with Trump as we at least know what we are facing with him.

Trump’s war on his own cities

In his second term, Trump is showing no qualms in use of military and excessive force against his own citizens. He has sent armed National guard troops into the national capital of Washington DC in the name of “public safety emergency”. He claims this is being done to curb crime although data indicates a decline in violent crime over the years. He has followed suit by sending troops in to Memphis and threatening to do the same in Chicago. Troops already were used in Los Angeles during protests against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). 

These are all cities and enclaves with predominantly African American and Hispanic populations. The racial undertones behind Trump’s moves can’t be ignored. This type of aggressive militarisation of domestic policing only makes the lives of ordinary people more miserable while achieving little to nothing. So much for being the beacon of Western Democracy.

It is worth noting that use of excessive force against citizens whether it is by military or police is not new to the US. Under George W. Bush’s Presidency, during the Katrina hurricane havoc in 2005, troops opened fire and killed African-American residents and injured others while trying to flee for safety on the infamous Danziger bridge. For decades now, African Americans (including children) and other people of colour are routinely the victims of police violence and lose lives on routine traffic stops, house calls made by cops and even at stores and streets whether it is George Floyd, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland or Tamir Rice to name a few. While previous presidents felt the need to at least pay lip service to the protection of civilians from police brutality, Trump is an open advocate for militarisation of police.

Expansionist agenda

Trump has bragged about his intentions to make Canada the 51st state, take over Greenland and even usurp the Panama Canal. These are certainly outlandish statements seen in the present day context. However, the making of the USA itself is a jaw-dropping history of expansionism and virtual wiping out of Native Americans. The transformation from Pilgrims and traders to 13 colonies and then to 50 states is littered with immoral tactics, violation of norms and utter disregard to many native “nations” along the way. The hostile take-over of far-flung Hawaii and its eventual inclusion as a state happened merely 65 years ago. Establishment of US military bases that operate almost as their own entities has been happening across the world. There are an estimated 750 US military bases in the world spread across 80 countries. No country comes even anywhere close to this. Hence, Trump’s braggadocio is not too far off from USA’s expansionist history that knows no bounds. With Elon Musk and his ilk, it looks like invasion of Mars is going to take this even in to the extra-terrestrial realm. 

Regime change

Trump has shown an insatiable hunger for regime change in Venezuela and Iran in his second term. He has crossed all limits in directly attacking Iranian nuclear plants and murdering Venezuelan citizens on international waters. But this type of egregiousness is not new to the USA. We have seen them take out their own citizens on foreign soil even under the aegis of supposedly more tempered Obama. The invasion of Iraq under false pretexts of “weapons of mass destruction” by George W Bush is fresh in the memory of the world. In Lindsey O’Rourke’s book Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War, at least 64 US operations to dethrone foreign governments have been elaborated on between 1947 and 1989. That is almost a third of the entire world. In Trump’s era, there seems to be no more need to be covert about regime changes. He broadcasts his threats online and on the fly. We don’t need WikiLeaks anymore to uncover diplomatic cables as Trump’s cabinet colleagues are also equally vociferous about their regime change intentions, be it secretary of state Marco Rubio or his vice-president, J.D. Vance. The icing on the cake is Trump’s re-christening of the Department of Defense as Department of War – an honest admission of the real role that the USA has been playing in the name of defence all along. 

In essence, the US empire is already past its zenith. Trump’s desperate attempts with these measures are the reflection of the empire’s inability to adjust to a newly multipolar world in the wake of China’s rise. China’s refusal to cow down to Trump’s tariffs, its recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and the bold display of new found military strength at the Victory Day parade are all a reflection of the changed power dynamic in the world. At this juncture, Trump’s anti-immigration agenda conveniently ignores the fact that the USA has been able to become the world power that it has been only with the sweat and toil of immigrants both legal and illegal over the past 250 years. His openly confrontational style with external and internal “enemies” is not going to bode well. How this will play out over the next three years remains to be seen. It is certainly going to be a roller coaster ride for not just the USA but the entire earth and what would emerge on the other side is increasingly looking like a world with reduced American hegemony.

G. Naveen has been writing articles pertaining to politics with emphasis on social justice for more than 20 years on various platforms. He is a physician by profession.

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