TRUMP 2.0 UPDATE #1

 

DOES IT NOT FEEL like a lot more time has passed than two months since Donald Trump regained the presidency of the U.S.? It feels like ages since the “Orange Man” was sworn-in as the 47^th President of the United States inside the Capitol rotunda on a chilly January 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. He and members of his cabinet have been busy ramping up a war on the “Deep State”, with Trump loyalists picked to head agencies such as the FBI, CIA, Department of Justice, the Pentagon, State Department, etc. The newly-created D.O.G.E. (Department of Government Efficiency) is in the public eye these days, what with billionaire Elon Musk and company opening the books on several agencies and government programmes with an eye on trimming budgets and firing grifters.*

Other policies being enacted domestically, such as new immigration and tariff laws are works in progress, and are promising and concerning  in equal measures. 👉However, Trump’s crack-down on campus protests and social-media posts critical of Israel and its genocidal assault on Gaza is downright worrying as it seems to call into question Americans’ right to free speech, something protected in law and articulated in the nation’s constitution. The First Amendment law was seen, at one time, as a robust defense against censorship in all its forms. Now that protection is called into question. For example, criticizing Israel is seen by more and more authorities and special interest groups as synonymous with antisemitism. Which it is not. Nevertheless, crackdowns on social media posts and pro-Palestine campus demonstrations in the United States have begun inhibiting the free expression of citizen's views on the matter.

👉AS FAR AS Trump’s policy toward Israel is concerned, it does not seem notably different from the Biden administration. Trump negotiated, before he was inaugurated, a ceasefire halting Israel’s bloody genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Gaza. It was a welcome repast from the previous fifteen months of Israeli bombardments and siege warfare where tens of thousands of Gazans were killed. [The actual figure may be one-hundred-thousand deaths or more. Ed.] Trump could  have, and should have, reined in Israeli PM Netanyahu and his radical government as soon as he took office. Instead, he’s allowed Israeli bombardments to begin again in Gaza. He could, and can, stop the bloodshed by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel. 

 

SINCE last week, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israel, once more, bombs refugee encampments and IDF troops commence their “pinprick” attacks, ostensibly against Hamas militants but, in reality, two-thirds of the deaths have been women and children. Thus, the Trump administration allows the ethnic cleansing of Gaza to continue. History will record Joe Biden’s shameful legacy as a genocide enabler. And it looks like Donald Trump’s legacy will be the same.

👉That's that, then there’s Syria, Lebanon, Jordon, Egypt, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and of course, Iran. It’s a complex stew that seems increasingly on the boil, while Israel stirs the pot. More on the Middle East (or as some now refer to the region, “West Asia”) later.

 

👉In Eastern Europe, one positive initiative from the Trump administration seems to be it’s willingness to enter into a dialogue with Russia, after four years of reckless and criminally inept diplomacy on the part of Joe Biden and his ‘minders’, that refused to even talk with Moscow.

Last week, ceasefire talks between Trump and Putin resulted in a temporary cessation of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electrical grid¹—really just window dressing and a relatively unimportant concession as winter is over and Ukrainians no longer require grid-electricity to heat their homes. Nevertheless, it’s a beginning, even if this is very early days yet. Folks, Russia is in the driver’s seat. It's winning the war in Ukraine, like it or not. This is something the MSM and those fuktard politicos in Europe and Western capitals (including Canada) can’t seem to wrap their heads around. [Perhaps it’s because they’ve got them up their collective ass. Just sayin’. Ed.] Simply put, Russia wants its legitimate security concerns addressed, namely the existential threat posed by a NATO-armed proxy (Ukraine) on its borders. There are other factors that prompted Putin to launch his “special military operation” in 2022, including the need for a broader security architecture for Europe and Russia that would ensure a secure peace for everybody.

👉IF this is on the agenda, along with nuclear disarmament initiatives—something Trump has mused about publicly—then we might see big changes in international politics.  Stay tuned.  

 

Cheers, Jake. ____________________________________

 

* At first blush it seems like a good thing. For example, D.O.G.E. has closed the books on a program called “USAID” which acted as the soft-power arm of the CIA, funneling billions of dollars globally to promote such things as regime change in places like Ukraine. Recall the Maidan protests there in 2013-14 and the ouster of the democratically  elected president. Billions were slushed from various USAID sub-contractors to achieve what Washington wanted, namely a pro-Western government in Kiev. [Let’s not forget the odious Victoria Nuland—then Deputy US Secretary of State—handing out muffins during the Maidan ‘revolt’, and her later remarks on who to pick for which Ukrainian government post. Election interference? You bet! Ed.] Note that “USAID” does not stand for "United States aid”, as in humanitarian assistance, food programs, etc. Its full name is (or was) the “United States Agency for International Development”. 

A lot of crooked dealings went on under the aegis of the agency. And while Musk may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater in ripping the guts out of the Kennedy-era program—by cancelling some important humanitarian initiatives run by it—the Trump administration’s shuttering the doors on the agency and its many nefarious activities is a win.  I’ll give the Trump/Musk team a tentative A-minus for their efforts.

 

L-R: Zukerberg, Bezos (with babe), Ambani (Google), Musk 

HOWEVER, it is problematic that an unelected individual (Musk) is heading up the operation, with some suggesting it’s akin to having the fox in charge of the hen-house. As Chris Hedges suggests, in his October 24 Sheerpost article, the Trump presidency, by making common cause with the billionaire class, has brought the American body politic to an inflection point whereby elite power is being transferred from corporations to oligarchs. A case in point: The combined net worth of attendees of Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony is more than one-trillion dollars!

 

“The choice in the elections is between corporate and oligarchic power. Corporate power needs stability and a technocratic government. Oligarchic power thrives on chaos and, as Steve Bannon says, the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Neither are democratic. They have each bought up the political class, the academy and the press. Both are forms of exploitation that impoverish and disempower the public. Both funnel money upwards into the hands of the billionaire class. Both dismantle regulations, destroy labor unions, gut government services in the name of austerity, privatize every aspect of American society, from utilities to schools, perpetuate permanent wars, including the genocide in Gaza, and neuter a media that should, if it was not controlled by corporations and the rich, investigate their pillage and corruption. Both forms of capitalism disembowel the country, but they do it with different tools and have different goals.”

(Hedges, “The Choice in this Election is between Corporate and Oligarchic Power”)

 

1. Ukraine almost immediately attacked a Russian oil refinery. Russia replied in kind. So, this month-long “ceasefire” may only exist on paper. We’ll see. But it's a start.