Even those of us who feared the worst have been astounded by the Trump administration’s attack on the rule of law, democratic principles and even morality – not to mention America’s long-suffering allies, of course.
As brain farts go, Donald Trump’s latest is a room-clearing stinker. “Cleaning out” the Palestinians from Gaza and turning it into the Riviera of the Middle East is not just a potential war crime, but a flight of fancy that is impossible to realise in any foreseeable circumstances, and certainly not within the lifespan of the president himself.
In normal circumstances, whatever they might be these days, serious people with a passing understanding of the Middle East might smile politely and try to move the conversation along to something more “realistic”. But whatever you think of the rather myopic policy wonks who championed the American-led “rules-based international order” in previous administrations, they are in the process of being defenestrated, too.
This means that when the very stable genius in chief has an idea, no matter how stupid, sociopathic or improbable it may be, his courtiers and flunkeys not only take it seriously, but actually go through the motions of doing something about it. Elon Musk’s evisceration of America’s public service is the most consequential example of this – so far.
To be fair to the president, it’s not really his fault he’s as dumb as a brick. He’s too stupid to realise that everything that goes on in what’s left of his brain isn’t dazzlingly brilliant and original, not least because he never gets any pushback, except from the Marxist-controlled media, of course, which he’s also looking to shut down.
In the meantime, some of the most professionally and personally under-qualified people imaginable are taking up positions within the administration that threaten to upend the very foundations of democracy and governance in the US. Some may say it serves Americans right for electing a convicted felon who made little secret of his contempt for established legal and political principles. Unfortunately, it’s not just Trump’s supporters who will suffer.
By definition, whatever “great powers” do matters to the rest of the world; that’s what defines them as great powers, after all. Trump’s equally bizarre ideas about making Canada the 51st state, buying/occupying Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal and using America’s still considerable economic heft to intimidate friend and prospective foe alike, have the capacity to trigger an economic and geopolitical crisis that can only undermine the confidence of allies in their supposed protector.
Or it should do. In Australia’s case, Anthony Albanese has steadfastly refused to offer a “running commentary” on Trump’s plans for America’s international role, much less the anti-democratic, increasingly authoritarian and seemingly unstoppable changes within the US itself. But given Richard Marles’ evident relief about Trump apparently being “aware” of AUKUS, it is clear that nothing that the US does is going to undermine bipartisan support of this monumentally ill-conceived project.
The fact that this news was delivered by Marles’ opposite number, newly installed Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, shouldn’t instill too much confidence in future co-operation either. True, Australia giving the US $500 million to underwrite America’s under-performing submarine-building capacity ought to catch the attention of a president with what’s politely known as a “transactional” approach to relationships of all kinds. Quite what he gets from someone with absolutely no obvious qualifications for the job is an interesting question, though. Perhaps Trump hopes that Hesgeth’s alleged history as a drunk, a rapist and someone who “holds Nazi-like views on Muslims” will fit right in, and help deflect attention from the president’s own unfortunate past.
Speaking of Nazis, Musk not only can’t stop himself from giving the occasional “Roman salute” when he gets a bit over-excited, but he’s also started acting like a Nazi,. How else are we to describe the decimation of USAID he is enthusiastically overseeing? It says a lot that no one in the Trump administration seems at all concerned that the richest man in the world deliberately targeting the poorest and most vulnerable is not a good look. But still, what’s a few thousand more dead children here or there after the slaughter in Gaza?
Perhaps it’s a coincidence that South Africa, where Musk was born during the apartheid era, will be one of the country’s most badly affected by the termination of American aid. Marco Rubio, one of Trump’s less outlandish appointments as secretary of state, has also rejected an invitation to the forthcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, citing “anti-Americanism”. That will teach those uppity blacks a lesson.
Perhaps it’s another coincidence that fellow tech billionaires and enthusiastic Trump supporters, Peter Thiel and David Sacks, also come from South Africa, but given that conspiracy theories are the order of the day in the Trump world, it’s hard to stop yourself. Yes, I am getting a bit paranoid. But when Trump thinks that he “was saved by God to make America great again” and his closest advisers don’t disabuse him of the idea, and may even agree, we could all be in trouble of Biblical proportions.