1. Now I attack, now I back down. Trump says the war is ending; the Iranians say they'll decide that. Pathetic spectacle. Timothy Snyder See two reasons Credible justifications for attacking Iran: "Destroy American democracy or enrich oneself." This is the level at which the world is being shaken. How can it be explained that in the world's leading power, no one is putting a stop to these delusions? Paul Ricoeur said that reflecting on politics means being able to operate in two dimensions: "the inexhaustible intertwining of evil and rationality." Is Trump's evil rational? Or is it the expression of a disquiet: is the acceleration of war a way of being in the world? The list includes Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Cuba, and a web of intrigue that only strengthens. Is there no limit?
Going all out to expose the impotence of others. How long can leadership with this logic be sustained? That which is unaware of limits—that which believes it can get away with anything—is also unaware of its own strength, until it is exposed. Can he truly withstand indefinitely the avalanche of mass destruction he has unleashed? The Venezuela operation has been low-risk, with a knack for choosing the right traitors, and the job is already done: the oil is in US hands. But the attack on Iran reveals the degree of Trump's recklessness. Did he really have any reason to think that everything would be as smooth as in Caracas? For now, he doesn't seem to have found the traitorous ayatollah to pave the way for him, unless Khamenei Jr. rebels against his father's legacy. He's just arrived and he's already talking about leaving. It's the delusion of action: waging war as a display of power.
2. Confrontation is Trump's way of being in the world because in his logic there is no respect for anyone but himself. Neither citizens nor potential partners matter. Prudence—which is not surrendering, but knowing how far you can go and not going further until the right conditions are in place—is, for him, a vice of losers. And that's why, if necessary, he turns the page and leaves everything hanging as if nothing happened.
The biggest problem in the US right now is that everything revolves around Trump. The institutional paralysis he has caused has been extremely serious. The Democrats have remained silent since the beginning of his term, and the courts have been slow to react to his insolence. Now everything seems to hinge on the first opportunity: the midterm elections. The citizens have the final say. Will the Democratic Party emerge from its hibernation? The fact is that Trump has dealt a death blow to the system of freedoms in American democracy, with the complicity of much of the economic elite, which helped pave the way for him and ultimately yielded to his demands.
3. China's silence fosters the idea that, while Trump's ostentatious displays discredit American power, the Beijing government is moving toward becoming a leading power. And, coupled with Russia's low profile, it reinforces the feeling that a war between great powers is highly improbable. But it could also be the creation of a disturbing illusion. Everything has its limits: how far can Trump go before others are tempted to react? Nothing is more fallacious than contributing to the belief that there are barriers no one will dare to cross. And Trump, as we all know, is driven by only one motive: his self-satisfaction. This could allow him to suddenly let Iran run rampant, without any explanation, or escalate the situation to the point of losing control and triggering global chaos. And as historian Eugene Rogan says: "Old US allies in the region may lose their trust if they suffer the consequences of a war that is neither desired nor consented to."
Paul Valéry said in 1919: "So many horrors would not have been possible without so many virtues." This is the tragic dimension of the human condition. When a society is unable to stop the delusions of a man with a single attribute—vanity—it is profoundly ill. Trump, it seems, has caught the US with weak antibodies against authoritarianism and impunity. American society cannot ignore what is happening, but neither can European society, and in this chapter of shame, Von der Leyen's umpteenth capitulation deserves special mention: "Europe cannot rely on the rules-based system as the only way to defend its interests." Does she want us to join Trump's wars?
