When will Trump stop making a fool of himself?
I start a bit far away, but it's about Trump... Manuel Azaña was the most vilified and hated Spanish political figure by the right during the republican years. He symbolized progressive reforms and anti-clericalism. He was not, by any means, a radical, but they painted him as if he were. As head of government and president, he was the main target of conservative propaganda, which considered him ultimately responsible for the "destruction" of the traditional order, that is, for secular inequality in favor of a few. A few years ago, in a rewriting operation, some fascist ideologues and publicists wanted to appropriate the patriotic Azaña, sidelining the progressivism that his intellectual parents and grandparents had so much denounced. The aim was thus to discredit Zapatero and Sánchez, supposed anti-patriots who sought to resolve the perennial mismatch of Catalonia. Fortunately, the rewriting of history has its limits.
The Azaña of today is Pedro Sánchez, who is concentrating all the poisoned wrath of the propagandists of the PP-Vox universe. But the skillful socialist president dodges the darts and seeks elevated solutions, like the "No to war," a stance that is giving him great prominence abroad and which, of course, has a more than notable reverberation domestically. The popular Catalan, Spanish, and European sentiment is that global warfare is a disaster. With Trump and Netanyahu as Sánchez's rivals, Feijóo certainly comes across as an insignificant dwarf. It is important to know how to choose your enemies. And, of course, to know how to choose your friends, allies, and travel companions. At the same time, it is important to understand that, in politics, naivety is unforgivable (Tarradellas used to say so). But cynicism is too. No country is fixed by permanent confrontation – however difficult dialogue may be – nor is the world fixed by abandoning diplomacy – however many limits it may have.
In times of ideological bubbles and disinformation, we are rediscovering that reality does count. The right-wing can go on proclaiming that Sánchez is the devil, that Spain is sinking, and blah, blah, blah. Facts are facts. Beyond the usual breakdown, nothing is breaking. The same can be said of Trump: every now and then he proclaims that he has won the war in Iran and that the Tehran regime is collapsing. But it turns out that it is he who is offering peace plans to some ayatollahs who do not even listen to him and who continue to defend themselves with teeth, nails, missiles, and drones, checkmating global energy trade. It is Trump who is in a hurry to end a Middle East conflict that is slipping out of his hands, with Israel taking advantage of the opportunity to raze Lebanon. The feeling of lack of control and improvisation from the White House is growing.
Far from deceiving the convinced, Trump is deceiving himself and is losing national and international credibility at breakneck speed. Instead of MAGA, he is doing MASA: Make America small again. Too many erratic mistakes. The most powerful country on the planet in military terms is showing its loose seams, starting with a president with an evident deficit in reading comprehension, that is, in understanding reality. How long will his own people laugh at his jokes? What global economic and political credit does he have left? What new forward flight will he perpetrate? From Iran to Cuba and then some? Will anyone dare to burst the bubble he lives in?
China watches Trump's exhausting hyperactivity from the sidelines. Europe seems to be beginning to understand that it cannot play his game. Sánchez has made a point of distancing himself from it. The Arab sheikhs, out of sorts, are having a fit of nerves. Global instability is no joke, no one wants to be dragged into it. The mother of a friend reportedly often said: "When I am reborn I want to be Chinese so I don't have to protect Catalan culture" (a phrase, incidentally, that remains perfectly valid). With the world as a reference, we could paraphrase it like this: "When I am reborn I want to be Chinese so I don't have to depend on the USA anymore." In short. Catalonia, Spain, Europe and Asia, all waiting for Trump to stop acting like a donkey.
