When he had only been in office for a few weeks, the US ambassador in Paris, Charles Kushner, sent a letter to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to reproach him that he was not doing enough to curb antisemitic acts in the country. "Not a day goes by in the country without Jews being attacked in the streets, synagogues and schools being desecrated, and Jewish-owned businesses being vandalized," Kushner stated in the rather undiplomatic letter, sent at the end of August last year. Macron had announced just a few days earlier that France would recognize Palestine.

Trump's order is a return to the past. He sheds the cumbersome constraints of international law to unabashedly embrace the colonization of territories and the appropriation of their natural resources. The Monroe Doctrine, in its Trumpian version, is an imperialist reinterpretation of the US right to control its sphere of influence. The triumphalism at Mar-a-Lago during the announcement of Nicolás Maduro's capture and the takeover of Venezuela through a military intervention without authorization from the US Congress exemplifies this new reality.

US President Donald Trump has demonstrated a complete disregard for the checks and balances that have long protected American democracy. While the self-styled king As the US government emerges with a historic accumulation of power, much of the world watches in fear, aware that its government's growing lawlessness and corruption not only undermine the US Constitution but also what remains of the post-World War II international order. A return to a world divided into spheres of great power interest seems increasingly likely.