The reviewing platform at the military parade organised by China’s President Xi in Beijing promises a striking visual image of the utter idiocy of Donald Trump and his sycophantic cronies in Washington. Apart from ludicrous claims that he has a “great relationship” with some of the major dictators there, the Beijing event demonstrates how far Trump has gone in his relentless abasement of America’s prestige and strength in the world today.
In a week in which he publicly lapped up cringe-making praise from his cabinet members, we learn that plans are being hatched in Washington to propose and implement his Gaza riviera scheme in which the US may take control of Gaza, pay the two million Palestinians to depart “voluntarily” for destinations such as Egypt, Indonesia and Ethiopia, and build a real estate tourist megalopolis on the rubble of the US-Israeli sponsored war crimes scene.
Exactly who, apart from Israeli Zionists, are on the side of the US as faithful allies now? Gone are Canada, Mexico, India, Brazil, and most of Europe which no longer trusts or can rely on America for support and protection. South Korea is apparently less important than North Korea – if “great relationships” between heads of state count. Insulting the erstwhile US ally’s President Lee by publicly demanding face-to-face that he surrender the major US base near Seoul as sovereign American territory is as wrong-headed as it is stupid and infantile.
Maybe Trump hopes to add a settlement of the long running India-China Himalayan cold war to his credentials for a Nobel peace prize, now that he has driven India’s prime minister Narendra Modi into the hands of a friendly Vladimir Putin and of President Xi who is feting all the assembled aggressors in the Ukraine war in China at the Shanghai summit.
Trump’s cack-handed attempt to bully India’s Modi with 50% sanctions has backfired spectacularly. He has been talking up Pakistan in recent times, hallucinating about Pakistan’s non-existent huge wealth in oil and gas deposits. Driving India into the arms of China makes no sense in terms of global political, diplomatic or economic strategy. If he wants to sanction Russia, why not unleash the set of far-reaching sanctions suggested on Russia directly.
If Trump seriously believes that his activities will result in a Nobel peace prize, he has another thing coming. The Nobel committee are not going to destroy the prestige of the Scandinavian humanitarian award by rewarding Trump for his threats to take Greenland from Denmark, if necessary, by force, or for his desire to force two million Palestinians to leave Gaza by slaughter, starvation and bribery.
Then there is the utterly shocking attempt by Trump to bully Brazil into pardoning former president and Trump ally, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro faces trial over the next weeks for what appears to be a well-established attempted military coup plot to reverse Brazil’s democratic elections and to instal him as a dictator.
Echoing Trump’s own attempt to have supporters storm the Capitol, Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed their government buildings in the hope that the military would intervene. He fled to Washington to secure Trump’s support which has come thus far in the form of US sanctions on Brazil and on Alexandro de Moraes, the head of Brazil’s supreme court trying Bolsonaro.
Will Trump attempt to extract Bolsonaro from house arrest? Or will he attempt to extract a pardon from President Lula by further economic threats? Or will he stand by passively as democracy is upheld by well-merited imprisonment of Bolsonaro if the case is proven?
The bottom line is that America is hugely diminished in world affairs by reason of Trump’s persistent idiocy. Yes, EU and UK leaders may fawn publicly in the fervent hope that he will pivot towards stronger support for preserving democracy in Europe, including Ukraine. But Trump totally confuses their anxiety with respect.
Their obsequiousness only encourages him and enables him to appear powerful to what is termed his domestic support base. Base, as an adjective, more aptly describes his methods and motives at home and abroad. His idiocy has even resulted in Türkiye’s President Erdogan joining Iran and Belorussia in China.
On show in the Beijing military parade will be a new generation of weapons, including 5000 mph, hypersonic ship-killing missiles designed to prevent any naval protection of Taiwan. Trump somehow believes that he can prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. But the questions remain. Can he? And will he?
How is anything that Trump has done – or proposes to do – in any sense making America great again? His April boast that he would have foreign leaders including China crawl to “kiss my ass” in the tariff war seems utterly hollow now.
He threatens NBC and ABC’s press freedoms at home while lecturing Europe about free speech.
His latest domestic approval ratings have slumped to 37%. No surprise that he now wants Republicans to gerrymander coming mid-term elections. Really shameful.