Each new delusion from Trump leads back to the same twofold question: how could a character made of insolence, excess, and a complete lack of awareness of the ridiculous have been led to the presidency of the—until now—world's leading power? He was nominated by the Republican Party, voted for by a majority for the second time—that is, with full knowledge of the man—and has been supported by a large part of the economic and technological elites who, through the digital sphere, shape American society. From day one, Trump has displayed his conviction that he is above national and international laws, and that he has only one guiding principle: to do whatever he pleases. This is not an interpretation; it is how he repeatedly expresses it. And no one has considered a potential impeachmentThe United States, dragged along by the whims of a figure with no sense of limits, convinced that freedom—his own—and democracy are incompatible.
Trump has sought the complicity of another nihilist: Benjamin Netanyahu, who also believes that problems are solved by killing, violating international rules, and displaying impunity. Where will this lead us? With violence, you know where it starts, but not where it ends. If the victorious Trump was already a danger, in his desperation he is a global threat. For now, he has managed to ignite, once again, a region of the planet as sensitive as the one stretching from Israel to Iran. There is no plan, apart from destruction as a means of developing absolute power and the fantasy that, with the assassination of the Grand Ayatollah, the people will rise up and the regime will be overthrown. The problem with nihilists is that they operate with such impunity that having a good understanding of reality seems irrelevant to them: their will is above all else. And for now, what exists is extreme tension in a region where fires could multiply at any moment. It's difficult to imagine the narrative that will emerge from this crisis.
As a consolation, a wishful thought is circulating these days that we are witnessing Trump's latest delusion, trapped between the Epstein case and the weariness of citizens who have seen through him, and that not all those who have protected him are willing to continue supporting him. The Supreme Court has finally given some sign of reining him in, he is plummeting in the polls, and public opinion is no longer laughing at his antics. The countdown has begun, and he, with his primitivism, had no other joke than an exercise in macho apotheosis: the crueler, the more convincing. This demonstrates a considerable lack of understanding of the public, who want solutions, not criminal fabrications. You can scare people with fear, but you can't win them over.
China, an alternative power and the main beneficiary of Trump's delusions, is keeping its distance. Russia, which has been losing its edge for years and is already embroiled in a mess in Ukraine, has opted for silence. And in Europe, Macron, Merz, and Starmer, the usual sycophants, immediately rushed to Trump's beck and call. The fall of the Berlin Wall seemed to open the doors to freedom. The illusion was short-lived, and right now the number of democracies in the world is at an all-time low. It has fallen to Pedro Sánchez to distance himself from the outbursts of the United States and Israel. Trump has already threatened to cut off all trade with Spain.
There is no doubt that the Ayatollahs' regime is one of the most nefarious and criminal in the world, with a citizenry trapped in a religious fanaticism imposed at gunpoint. Many of us would like to see that regime fall. Does Trump really think that with a strategy of mass destruction he will liberate the population? It's a cure on par with the disease: deciding what others should do, all for the greater glory of an ego—Trump's—that feels slighted at home and takes it out on the outside world. The world, though it may not seem so, has certain rules, and it's clear that one of the main ones is that you can't attack a country with impunity, using destruction as the engine of change. If this is the criterion for the international policy of the world's leading power, the only thing that will be achieved is a further reduction in the number of democracies. Trump has pushed his own country's democracy to the brink. Does he really believe that with these displays of war he will regain the trust of his people? Does he think, convinced that force is everything, that this is how he will win over Americans? I may be naive, but I believe that the public doesn't want wars. His warmongering is already backfiring.
