The United States
under President Donald Trump is a five-alarm fire. Fascism is
ascendant. Education, art, culture, science, social welfare,
humanitarian and healthcare systems are being dismantled. An entire
national infrastructure nurtured for 250 years is dissolving before our
eyes.
No one appears capable of stopping it. Resistance, such as it is, seems futile.
Democratic leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer are rolling over and playing dead in the face of Trump’s legislative agenda. University presidents and trustees cower in fear. Major law firms line up to kiss Trump’s ring. Tech bro titans pledge fealty, favouring their bottom line over their own consumers.
Foreign students are detained
and disappeared into concentration camps. The federal judiciary, even
when it issues rulings against the Trump administration, offers no substantive resistance.
Many Americans support Trump’s priorities. His approval ratings have held steady, despite widespread disapproval of the slash-and-burn tactics of his dark prince, Elon Musk. Fifty-four percent of Americans believe Trump has done a better job as president than his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Trump has destroyed relationships with many nations that have long been close allies. He has threatened to invade Greenland and Canada, and to wrest control of one of the world’s most important shipping routes from Panama.
He has tossed historic diplomatic treaties out the window, and attempted to bully foreign companies and academic researchers to drop diversity, equity and inclusion programmes - or face exclusion from American markets and research collaborations.
Liberation Day disaster
Then there are the tariffs. On “Liberation Day”, Trump took the axe
to international trade by levying punitive taxes on foreign imports.
Chinese imports will be heavily punished with a 54-percent tariff. But these are not selective or targeted duties; they will hurt virtually every country exporting to the US.
As a result, markets have crashed, losing $11 trillion
since Trump’s inauguration in January - more than half of it in the
past few days. Traders are calling it “carnage”, a “bloodbath”.
All this in a hopeless attempt
to jumpstart the US manufacturing base. This economic policy will bring
foreign and domestic companies, along with entire economies, to their
knees. Industries could shrivel and die.
Give up on the US. Treat it as the pariah it deserves to be. Make Trump pay for his crimes. Don't let the bully win
The most vulnerable, the working class, will lose jobs both abroad and in the US. Last month, 275,000 people were laid off due to Trump’s chainsaw economics
- a level not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic. The wealthy elites,
Trump’s natural allies, will escape unscathed. In fact, with the
president’s new tax policy, they will reap huge rewards.
Trump has abandoned military alliances that provided critical global
security and stability for generations. He has left Europe alone to face
the Russian threat.
But unlike domestic institutions at the mercy of federal power,
foreign nations are not so easily bullied. They must act. They must
resist. Bullies rely on fear to succeed, and on force to achieve their
interests.
Some countries believe their best recourse is to capitulate and cut a deal, lifting tariffs on US imports. They are purportedly lining up to beg for relief. But trusting Trump to make and keep a deal is a dubious proposition.
Solidarity is one of the best weapons against a bully - concerted,
coordinated resistance. Show the thug that together, you and your allies
have more power than he does, and he will invariably stand down.
Uniting against the bully
This is a complicated process. Europe has never spoken with a unified
voice. It has never been faced with the betrayal of its closest ally
and global power. Can these disparate states with sometimes conflicting
interests unite in common cause? Can they abandon their historical
consensus protocol in regional decision-making, in order to bypass
recalcitrant states like Hungary?
The answers to these questions are crucial to the fate of Europe. If
these states fail, some are in danger of becoming Russian vassals,
facing the same type of threat that Trump is exerting on Greenland,
Mexico and Canada.
The legacy of Hitler’s conquest of Europe and imposition of fascism
overshadows the continent today. What happened once can happen again.
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Europe and other threatened states have several powerful forms of
resistance at their disposal. One is a tool developed by the South
African anti-apartheid movement and the Palestinian resistance: boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). While efforts to boycott South Africa and Israel aimed to overturn unjust national systems, US policies will cause damage globally.
Targets of US sanctions should organise a BDS movement against the
American government, companies and universities. They should also
sanction Trump administration officials individually.
The world must stop importing US products to whatever extent
possible. Other countries must ostracise US political leaders, downgrade
diplomatic relations, end research collaborations and cultural
exchanges, and sever financial networks.
The world must shift away from the dollar
as an international currency. It must develop alternative institutions
and protocols to cut such ties, while minimising disruption. The world
must hold Trump accountable for the carnage he is causing. It must
transform the US into a pariah state, go its own way, and leave
Washington behind.
Global markets bind the world together and make us interdependent.
But globalism has become a curse: when one member of the network decides
to opt out and destroy it, the entire system is threatened with
collapse. The remaining members must determine how to protect themselves
and survive.
If Washington’s former allies do not adapt or resist, then their
adversaries will pick them off one by one, as Trump is doing to his
enemies at home, and as Russia threatens to do. This is an existential
crisis. It requires leadership and resolve. The world cannot wait four
more years for this country to come to its senses. If it does, Russian
tanks could soon be rolling through Poland and the Baltic states.
Give up on the US. Treat it as the pariah it deserves to be. Make Trump pay for his crimes. Don’t let the bully win.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.