The United States has reactivated attacks against Iran. Since Wednesday morning and in two waves of attacks – one yesterday, and another this Thursday morning – the missiles of the United States army have impacted 170 Iranian targets, with a toll so far of 14 dead and 78 injured, according to data from the Iranian Ministry of Health. In this way, Washington makes effective the announcement that Donald Trump verbalized on Wednesday, who in statements to the press from the NATO summit in Ankara assured that the truce with Iran had "ended"ended". The United States president stated this after the country's army had already attacked Iran hours before, and announced new attacks for this morning. The United States army has fulfilled Trump's threat and has attacked again.

Donald Trump has fulfilled the promise to attack Tehran again after the ceasefire ended. The United States Army Central Command (Centcom) announced this afternoon a new wave of "additional" bombings to "reduce its capacity to threaten navigation through the strait." Iranian state media have also reported new explosions in Sirik and Bandar Abbas, where the US already attacked yesterday.

Narcissism usually operates on a relentless logic. In this sense, it is not at all strange that Donald Trump has juxtaposed, without any complex or sense of ridicule, the celebration of his 80th birthday with the 250th anniversary of the creation of his country. Last July 4th, he made public a brief triumphalist and somewhat delirious speech in which the United States was presented as the culmination of the human race. Two authors came to mind who, as those kind enough to read me know, have helped me understand that nation for very different reasons: Alexis de Tocqueville and Walter Lippmann. If you are not familiar with Democracy in America (1835) or Public Opinion (1922), this is a good time to delve into them. If Tocqueville had contemplated the 250th anniversary of the United States coinciding with a presidency as polarizing as Trump's, it is quite likely that his reading would have been more curious than scandalized: Tocqueville was not exactly a prophet of consensus, but an analyst of the forces that shape democracy. In this sense, he would probably see the Trump phenomenon as an extreme, but at the same time understandable, expression of the tendencies he himself diagnosed 191 years ago. He affirmed that American democracy is capable of generating unexpected leaderships because the system favors the rise of figures who connect with the immediate passions of the people. I imagine he wouldn't celebrate it, although he wouldn't necessarily consider it a catastrophe either: these are things that can happen. Tocqueville also warned of the danger of democratic despotism, a form of power that is not imposed by force, but by the ability of a leader to present himself as the sole interpreter of the “real people”. Here, perhaps, he would make a severe objection: the simplification of conflicts and the disqualification of institutions and counter-powers are the mechanisms that erode freedom without remedy. Modern despotism, he said, "degrades men without tormenting them". That is, it makes them children, feeds them with easy certainties, exempts them from critical effort. Tocqueville admired the solidity of the North American constitutional system, its ability to absorb tensions without breaking. The fact that, despite the intensity of the political conflict, elections continue to be held, courts act, counter-powers function, etc., would confirm the intuition that American democracy has exceptional elasticity. The question is: until when? Before Trump's second term, this suspicion might have seemed an exaggeration. Right now, it is a perfectly real possibility.

Neither Donald Trump's calls nor FIFA's favors have served much. The United States' journey in their World Cup has ended in the round of 16 after deservedly falling to Belgium, who will be Spain's opponent in the quarterfinals. will be Spain's opponent in the quarterfinals. Mauricio Pochettino's team played its worst match at the least opportune moment, likely distracted by all the noise caused by the scandal surrounding Folarin Balogun, the local forward sent off against Bosnia who was pardoned after pressure from the White House. An unprecedented event, where the president of a government boasts about having pulled strings so an expelled player can play the next match. But Balogun, likely overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the previous 24 hours, did very little on the pitch and the Belgian red devils ran over the hosts (1-4).

I remember the last July 4th lived in the United States, in 2022, already returned to a certain normality after the long pandemic. The joy with which the neighbors lived that night of celebration, each in their neighborhood with the people close by, was an act full of citizenship. I celebrated it in the Harlem neighborhood, with neighbors from multiple countries, origins, races, and cultural traditions. From the European perspective, we look at it with some indulgence: as an act of alien ingenuity, revealing of a nation as dominant in the last century as it is young in its historical journey. After all, it is a nation that has just turned a quarter of a millennium since its founding. Thus, while nations with more than a thousand years of life like Catalonia survive being part of a state, a nation in its youth like the American one has enough strength in the year 2026 to threaten a country like Iran – the contemporary political form of a civilization with more than two thousand five hundred years of history like Persia. This arrogance is probably the reason why we have a feeling towards the United States of both fascination and antipathy. What makes a creature relate with such virulence against ancient civilizations of continents like the Asian or the European – China, Iran, Germany, to give the latest examples?Trump's United States is unaware of its original sin: being David in the grand narrative of history, facing Goliath with the weight of tradition. Cycles of domination have their limits, and if the Carolingian Empire did not even last a century and the Roman Empire – the greatest example of European hegemonic domination – lasted five, we can think that the path remaining for the great globalization power will be short, no matter how much Trump said the opposite on Saturday, July 4, from Mount Rushmore. There he announced for the umpteenth time a new "golden age" like the one founded by Presidents Washington and Jefferson or grown by Lincoln and Roosevelt – the four, carved into the background stone of South Dakota. The evolution of economic, demographic, and geopolitical data, however, suggests the end of the first great golden chapter – the one that began with the post-World War II agreements.

Sometimes a single image is capable of condensing the spirit of an era. In this case, the photograph by Cheney Orr, from the Reuters agency, showing a young black girl surrounded by white supremacists with their faces covered in a subway car, perfectly captures what it means to belong to a minority in the midst of Trumpism. Furthermore, the fact that the image was captured during the celebrations in Washington of the 250th anniversary of the United States' independence gives it even more value, because it shows that, a quarter of a millennium later, what was once the world's most advanced democratic experiment has still not resolved what has always been its pending subject: the real equality of all human beings, regardless of their race, gender, or religion.

This Saturday, a handful of masked men from a recognized supremacist group marched through Washington shouting "Reclaim America!". The gathering —held as the US capital prepared for the main events of its 250th anniversary— was brief and, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police Department, they left the city shortly before 11 a.m.

Donald Trump celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States under a light drizzle from the Washington monument with a markedly patriotic speech. Amidst the quagmire of the war in Iran, the rising cost of living, and the isolation of traditional allies, the American president wanted to emphasize the "exceptional" character of the country. "No people have done more good, shown more courage, made more progress, corrected more injustices, or achieved more greatness than you, the American people," he argued, assuring that the country is "a nation of winners."

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Few political formulas have had such a long life and such great force as these words from the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Approved on July 4, 1776, they represent a historical break: power could not derive from blood, from the crown, or from divine will, but from the rights of individuals and the consent of the governed.

The nation and God. God and the nation. The 250 years of history of the United States are characterized by both concepts, sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory.

Under the shadow of the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, Donald Trump recalled the "exceptionalism" of the United States as a project touched by "God". "Americans did not bow before a king or a government, but knelt only before almighty God," stated the US president at the foot of Mount Rushmore on the eve of July 4, when the country turns 250 years old.

The answers we seek in history often speak more about the present than the past. Amidst the summer heatwave of 1776, a group of men gathered in Philadelphia decided to separate from the British Empire. Delegates like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson signed one of the most ambitious documents of the era, which would serve as a beacon for other upcoming revolutions. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," states the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence. The official date is July 4th, although the 56 delegates took almost a month to formalize the signing of the text.

My father had a preference for the Spanish expression "in the small details you see the person". At the G-7 leaders' summit in France, two moments showed two people in two very different lights.

I belong to the generation of the child of Toy Story, that from one day to the next went from playing in the cowboys to be an astronaut. My heroes of Bonanza were sidelined by Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin. The United States had reached the pinnacle of Humanity's technological progress, and they were the best at explaining it. Despite the assassinations of the 60s and the disaster in Vietnam, the feat of Apollo 11 and the lesson of honesty from Watergate still kept the USA on its pedestal.

Days before July 4, 1776, Benjamin Franklin invited twenty-one chiefs of the Iroquois nations to Philadelphia. These leaders represented the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a league of six Indigenous nations whose territories spanned part of what is now New York, Quebec, and Ontario. The Indigenous delegates were lodged on the second floor of the Pennsylvania State House—now known as Independence Hall—directly above the room where the U.S. Declaration of Independence was about to be signed.

Good discoverers of garlic soup, our Mr. Esteve's Trumpists point out very excitedly that the tremendous inoperability shown by Venezuelan public services in facing the tragedy of the double earthquake is a direct consequence of the corruption of the Chavista regime. That Chavismo was, and is, corrupt to the bone is an unquestionable truth; we thank them for their clarity. It is a pity that the sharp analysts of the wretched right-wing forget that Venezuela has been a kind of protectorate of the USA and the Trump administration for half a year, which they usually find so admirable. The incursion of American troops and special forces on January 3 in Caracas was a real coup d'état and a wild and blatant violation of international law, in line with the role of global sheriff that Trump likes to play so much.In these six months, it's not that the Yankee government has done anything to free Venezuelans from the Chavista dictatorship: it's that it has maintained it just as it was, with the only difference being that we have heard nothing more about Nicolás Maduro (he is locked up, awaiting trial, at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, or so they say) and that in his place is now his former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez. She and the rest of Chavismo remain intact in power, only in the role of US puppets, which Delcy Rodríguez and her colleagues do not care about at all because they completely disregard what dignity might be. The other big difference —the only fundamental difference— is that now Venezuela's oil is in the hands of the US: Venezuela has ceded up to about 50 million barrels of crude oil that Washington directly markets, with profits of about 2.8 billion dollars. (Trump must be credited with a funny moment, when he let María Corina Machado, idol of the Spanish and Catalan right, know that he did not count on her as president of the new/old government, a snub to which she responded by offering to share the Nobel Peace Prize, as if it were a hamburger with double bacon.)After being impetuously freed from the dictatorship, the Venezuelan citizenry continues to be as screwed, mocked, and helpless as ever. And when tragedy struck in the form of an earthquake, the US government's aid was crumbs (at least Venezuelans can be grateful they weren't sent J.D. Vance to make things even worse). We have learned —you can read it in this newspaper— that Trump has increased his personal fortune by 1.4 billion dollars during the first year of his return to the presidency, thanks to the cryptocurrency business. His emulator Milei also encouraged Argentinians to invest in a cryptocurrency, and it was a fraud. Since they imitate the MAGA movement down to the pattern on the curtains, it's only a matter of time before some of the brains in Spanish politics, after some economics master's degree, tries a crypto-scam from within the institutions. How bad is Chavismo.

Wednesday's round of 32 of the World Cup saw three new qualifiers for the round of 16. England came from behind against the Democratic Republic of Congo (2-1), Belgium staged an epic comeback against Senegal (3-2 after extra time), and the United States defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-0) despite playing half an hour with one player less.

The presidency has become Donald Trump's most profitable asset, as reflected in his latest financial disclosure. During the first year of his second term, the Republican earned over 1.4 billion dollars thanks to cryptocurrency businesses. In total, Trump has raked in over 2.2 billion dollars since taking office on January 20, 2025. The sum far exceeds the at least 622 million dollars his companies generated during 2024. Currently, the Republican's fortune is estimated at 6.5 billion dollars. Before stepping back into the Oval Office and winning the 2024 election, the figure was more modest: Forbes estimated it at around 2.3 billion dollars.One of the catalysts for the wealth that Trump has accumulated this past year is the World Liberty Financial platform, founded in 2024 by his three sons and the son of special envoy Steve Witkoff, Zach Witkoff. In early January 2025, before the inauguration, an Emirati fund linked to the royal family of Abu Dhabi bought 49% of the business's shares. Shortly after, Trump decided to dedicate his return's first presidential trip to the Gulf petrostates, instead of following the tradition of visiting one of the neighboring countries, Canada or Mexico. Also, shortly after the entry of Emirati capital, the White House reached an agreement with Abu Dhabi to export artificial intelligence-powered chips to them, despite reservations from some national security officials.But this Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly again denied the existence of a conflict of interest following the publication of her boss's financial disclosure. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people, and anyone calling themselves a “reporter” who pushes otherwise is recycling the same tired, false narrative that Democrats and mainstream media have been pushing for a decade,” she assured. GENIUS Act

World Liberty's plans, however, are even more ambitious: the company launched a dollar-pegged stablecoin last March, dubbed USD1, and has the backing of the U.S. Treasury. Although the president always excuses himself by saying he knows nothing about family businesses and that his children manage everything, very conveniently last year he signed the GENIUS Act. This is a law that creates the first legal framework for stablecoins like the USD1 launched by World Liberty. The rule establishes a series of protections for buyers of stablecoins to foster trust and use among consumers. A few months before signing the law, the Department of Justice dismantled the unit dedicated to investigating crypto-scams and crypto-crimes. The man who at the time scorned the cryptocurrency business as a scam, now signs regulations to promote its use while fattening a good part of his fortune thanks to this world. World Liberty Financial does not solely hold the title of the golden goose. The memecoin that the president launched shortly before his inauguration, $TRUMP, has resulted in the president pocketing 635 million dollars during 2025. No one overlooks the exclusive dinner that the president organized when he launched the coin, where the condition for attending was to be one of the main 220 buyers. The opportunity to dine behind closed doors with a President of the United States translated into a collection of 148 million dollars. Cryptocurrencies have transformed the president's fortune in a very short time. While during his first term, a large part of his fortune (then estimated between 2.3 million and 2.5 million dollars) was based on real estate, golf courses, and the classic businesses of the Trump clan. These sources of income continue to generate profits for the president and his family, but not at the same pace as cryptocurrencies.The release of the financial disclosure comes shortly after the Republican managed to get his own administration would reach an out-of-court settlement to grant him tax immunity for himself, his family, and the Trump Organization. In a statement signed by the current acting attorney general and former president's lawyer, Todd Blanche, the U.S. Tax Agency agreed that it was "forever prohibited" examine or prosecute "any" tax claim against Trump, his children and the Trump Organization.

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The Supreme Court of the United States has overturned Donald Trump's attempt to override the limits of presidential power and eliminate the right to birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. By a majority of six judges in favor and three against, the high court has ruled that the executive order with which the American president had sought to revoke one of the fundamental pillars of a country built on immigration is unconstitutional. Unlike other countries, in the United States citizenship is acquired by virtue of being born on American soil, regardless of the nationality or legal status of the parents.

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The war in Iran has led to the global proclamation of Donald Trump's disconnection from reality. Like the murky waters of the Lincoln Memorial pool, turned into a fluorescent ridicule costing $14 million due to unexpected algae, presidential incompetence rapidly moves between farce and tragedy.

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