by B. R. GOWANI
Power-intoxicated Trump
Power is a strong intoxicant. Sometimes, the rise in power for individuals, do not follow a linear path but, take the exponential route. That’s where the trouble takes root.
For example, Germany’s Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who rose to Chancellor in 1933, left the League of Nations and the World Disarmament Conference the same year. He kept on increasing his authority and became a feared dictator. Although, Britain, France, and the US had colonies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Hitler’s mistake was to grab white European countries with the aim of turning them into colonies.
Times have changed since the World War II. Colonization, in most instances, has been replaced by Imperialism. Trump doesn’t want to colonize, instead, he wants to impose his rule indirectly in other countries through threats, and by putting his chosen people in power.
He did that with Venezuela, and is now attempting the same in Cuba. He wanted that for Greenland too, but at least for now, he has cooled the idea. Hitler’s adventures began with the merging of Austria and Germany, then invading Poland, and so on. Hitler was intoxicated with power to the extreme, and committed his greatest and deadliest blunder in June 1941.
He invaded the vast Union of Soviet Socialist Republics-USSR. The invasion was named Operation Barbarossa. The operation was code-named after the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (“red beard”). It was the beginning of the end of the The Third Reich. The Battle of Stalingrad, “the most ferocious and lethal battle in human history,” proved a decisive point in WWII.
Historian Tunc Turel points out the immense importance of Soviet victory in that battle and how the Western media and governments have successfully downplayed the Soviet role in the defeat of fascism and have instead elevated themselves as victors:
The year 2026 marks the eighty-third anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle was not merely a decisive military engagement in the Second World War, but a historical rupture that reshaped the trajectory of the 20th century. Fought between August 1942 and February 1943, it marked the first total strategic defeat of Nazi Germany and shattered the myth of fascist invincibility upon which Hitler’s war of conquest depended. Yet in much of today’s dominant historical memory, particularly in the Anglophone world, Stalingrad is reduced to a dramatic episode, abstracted from its political meaning and severed from its consequences. This minimization is not accidental. To acknowledge Stalingrad as the turning point of the war is to acknowledge the centrality of the Soviet Union in the defeat of fascism, and, by extension, to confront the uncomfortable fact that the greatest victory over Nazism was achieved not by liberal capitalism, but by a socialist state fighting for its very survival.
In Western historiography and popular culture, the narrative of the Second World War has been persistently reorganized to center the United States and its allies as the principal agents of fascism’s defeat, while the Soviet contribution is treated as secondary, incidental, or morally compromised. Hollywood’s fixation on the Normandy landings in June 1944, the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, and the Pacific theater stands in stark contrast to the relative silence surrounding the Eastern Front, where the war was decided. This imbalance is not a matter of oversight, but of ideology. From the early Cold War onward, the memory of the war was refashioned to reconcile two incompatible facts: that Nazism was the greatest crime of the 20th century, and that it was defeated primarily by a socialist state. The result has been a systematic downplaying of Soviet military, economic, and human sacrifice, replaced by a depoliticized narrative in which fascism collapses under the abstract weight of “Allied unity,” rather than being crushed through a protracted and devastating class war in the East.
“Super power”
In current times, the US is a lone super power. President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once said:
“What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”
In the first week of 1926, Trump advisor Stephen Miller said something similar:
“The United States is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We’re a superpower and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. It is absurd that we would allow a nation in our backyard [the Latin America] to become the supplier of resources to our adversaries [China and others] but not to us.”
Miller doesn’t have to spell out this universal truth — the United States has been acting in the super power role too well: according to the victims all over the globe (see here and here). Trump is a super president with super powers.
Trump’s power-intoxication is not dissimilar to Hitler’s. He has created his own organization Board of Peace for the reconstruction of Gaza, Palestine — which was destroyed with genocidal killing of Palestinians by Israel.
Trump’s own government and former president Joe Biden’s government had provided total financial and military support. The US also repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions calling for ceasefire. Trump’s motive is to render the United Nations (UN) irrelevant. This is further evident from the report in January 2026, that the Trump government will remove the US from 66 world organizations: 31 UN and 35 non-UN organizations. His frequent Executive Orders exhibit bolder and bolder moves.
Ramzy Baroud points out the absurdity of Trump’s Board of Peace:
The irony is staggering. A body ostensibly meant to guide Gaza through reconstruction after Israel’s devastating genocide does not include Palestinians—let alone Gazans themselves. Even more damning is the fact that the genocide it claims to address was politically backed, militarily financed, and diplomatically shielded by successive US administrations, first under Joe Biden and later under Trump.
It requires no particular insight to conclude that Trump’s Board of Peace is not concerned with peace, nor genuinely with Gaza. So what, then, is this initiative really about?
This initiative is not about reconstruction or justice, but about exploiting Gaza’s suffering to impose a new US-led world order, first in the Middle East and eventually beyond.
Also:
- The US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after bombing the capital Caracas on January 3, 2026. Over 100 people were killed.
- On June 22, 2025, the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, just nine days after Israel had carried out attacks on Iran’s military and nuclear institutes. Israel is a nuclear power; but, neither Israel nor the US wants Iran to be one.
Currently, the US also wanted to bomb Iran in order to overthrow their government but had to forego that for a number of reasons:
- The US aircraft carriers with planes, missiles, etc. which were in the Middle East during Israel’s genocide of Palestinians were removed to the Indo-Pacific and other regions once Israeli goal was achieved.
- Israel showed its inability to defend itself against Iran’s counterattacks because many US forces and assets were not in the region.
- Saudi Arabia requested US to avoid attacking Iran.
- US also was worried about Iranian counter-attacks against US military bases in many Arab countries.
But in January 2026, aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three warships are back in the Middle East. Whether the US bombing of Iran has been called off or has been temporarily postponed, is not clear.
But on February 3, 2026, an Iranian Shahed-139 drone was shot down by the US F-35C fighter plane. US CENTCOM (Central Command) spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins provided the following excuse:
“The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters.”
History of US intervention has always been like this. The US naval vessels go thousands of miles near “enemy” waters, an incident is created, blamed on the other party, and a war is initiated in “self defense.”
Trump’s threat of taking possession of Greenland by any means, with money or military created a dilemma for Western European countries, they had been silent about Israeli genocide of Palestinians and had openly supported Israel financially, with arms and ammunition. However, they have now come to the rescue of Greenland. The US announced 10% tariffs on eight European allies who opposed US takeover of Greenland from February 1, 2026. The tariff will be hiked to 25% by June 1, 2026, if the matter is not resolved by then.
Eight countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland jointly issued a strong statement saying it would “undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.” Even Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, a right winger and Trump friend, and other right wing leaders in other European countries have opposed Trump’s idea.
However, now, Trump changed his mind and is not going to impose tariffs.
Pakistan’s former ambassador to the UK, UN, and the US, Maleeha Lodhi raised an important issue that the super power doesn’t want to think about:
“Trump may be extreme in his imperious, unilateralist ways but there is continuity with past US conduct in an important respect. Throughout its history of dealing with other nations, the US has underestimated the power of nationalism and the resistance it would meet in trying to force its will on others.
“This has been responsible for its military debacles, diplomatic setbacks and strategic failures as exemplified by its experience from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Ironic that a country that is so jingoistic itself is unable to understand nationalist sentiment in other nations.”
Spreading fear through cruelty
Trump is a fair person. He attacks outlands and also assaults the inland, itself. In early February 2025, 104 Indians, including 19 women and 13 children, were shackled and deported to India by Trump administration on a flight that took 40 hours to reach its destination.
On Feb. 20, 2025, the Tren de Aragua gang was declared a foreign terrorist organization by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In March 2025, the Trump government invoked Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Tren de Aragua members, a Venezuelan prison gang. 238 “alleged gang members” were forcefully transported to El Salvador, whose government of Nayib Bukele was paid $6 million. Besides money, Bukele also gains few more things. The 60 Minutes (CBS), after checking the records of the deported individuals, revealed 75% of deportees had no criminal record. The other 22% had criminal record for non-violent offenses except a dozen who were accused of rape, kidnapping, assault, and murder. About the remaining 3% it was not clear if criminal record ever existed for them.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, one of four parts of Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) still in effect, has only been used thrice before: during the 1812 War with Britain, during First World War (1914-1919), and during the Second World War (1939-1945). The act is meant to be used during wartime or invasion but Trump has used it against immigrants.
On September 4, 2025, ICE, Georgia State Patrol, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and FBI raided (Hyundai/LG) HL-GA Battery Company plant and arrested about 475 people, including more than 300 South Koreans. They were put in chains and were taken to buses.
Even 5-Year-Old Liam Conejo Ramos wasn’t spared from ICE wrath. He was arrested but was released twelve days later with his father.
On February 4, 2026, 10-year-old Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano was released after spending almost a month in detention.
Los Angeles, Chicago, and other US cities, mainly Democratic controlled, have seen how ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers rough up people, in some instances injuring or even killing them. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good was shot to death by an ICE officer on January 7, 2026. In the same city, on January 24, ICU nurse Alex Pretti was killed. Six other people have died in detention centers in 2026. In 2025, the deaths in detention centers numbered 32.
Deportations
Total deportations:
- Bill Clinton (1993-2000) 12.9 million or 12,290,905
- George W. Bush (2001-2008) 10.3 million or 10,328,850
- Barack Obama (2009-2016) 5.3 million or 5,281,115
- Donald Trump (2017-2020) 1.5 million
- Joe Biden (2021-2024) 4.4 million (till February 2024)
- Donald Trump (2025-2028) 622,000 (till December 19, 2025)
Can the US downfall be averted?
Maybe, but No.
If the leaders of the Democratic Party, the lesser of two evils, decides to, maybe they can. If they come out on the streets; galvanize supporters; ask businesses, colleges, schools; etc. for a total shutdown, and bring this country to a standstill. It can bring down the government.
No, they’re not going do any such thing because their steak and cake depends on the wealthy donors. People like Ralph Nader and others are doing so much to wake up the Democratic leaders who are waiting for the Republican Party to destroy itself so then they can take over without doing anything, and then, they won’t do anything once in power because they want to maintain the status quo.
Nader, lawyer/activist/environmentalist and a four time presidential candidate, along with others went to DNC (Democratic National Committee) headquarters with materials explaining what strategies to use in winning election. Unsurprisingly, no one was interested. DNC chief who had ordered a report on why the party lost to Trump has himself suppressed that report!
Now what can one say.
The world and the US
The world for a very long time has suffered ignominy, wars, violence, economic exploitation, financial control through institutions such as International Monitory Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. US has maintained control over world institutions such as the United Nations Organization (UNO). Kim Petersen calls the US the United States of Empire.
I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all. You live in the belly of the beast.
— Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara
The American empire has had setbacks – which empire doesn’t? It had setbacks in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s: many thought the defeat it suffered in Vietnam in 1975 was definitive. It wasn’t, and the United States hasn’t suffered another setback on that scale since.
But unless we know and understand how this empire functions globally, it’s very difficult to propose any set of strategies to combat or contain it – or, as the realist theorists like the late Chalmers Johnson and John Mearsheimer demand, to make the United States dismantle its bases, get out of the rest of the world, and operate at a global level only if it is actually threatened as a country.
— Tariq Ali
“All of the US empire’s potential economic competitors or threats were devastated by World War II. The following years found Europe losing its colonies. The unique global position of the United States then, with its disproportional position in world trade and investment, was anomalous and likely unsustainable. An attitude of denial at the time that decline was all but certain morphed only too readily into the attitude of denial now that the decline is well underway.”
— Richard Wolff
Blessing in disguise
Unfortunately, Trump’s political and economic policies are going to hurt hundreds of millions of people worldwide due to deportations, inflation, business closures (within and without the US) and cause wars, migrations, refugees, and so on.
In the long run, Trump’s horrific actions and his opening of all sorts of conflict/war fronts is ultimately going to weaken the US, and may isolate it.
Sometimes, Trump refers to Canada as the 51st US state. Since April 2025, the US State Department officials has had three meetings with the Alberta Prosperity Project leaders from the Canadian province of Alberta, which borders the US state of Montana. The US is encouraging the oil rich province leaders to claim independence.
In an interview to a right-wing broadcaster Real America’s Voice, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent encouraged Alberta’s secession from Canada:
“Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they [the Canadian government] won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific. I think we should let them come down into the US.”
“There’s a rumour they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.”
“People [in Alberta] are talking [about secession]. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got.”
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to lessen Canada’s dependence on the US. At Davos, 2026, Carney said that for long time, Canada thrived due to a “rules-based international order.” It was a beneficial facade but now it “no longer works.” He then came to the main point: “We are in the midst of a rupture not transition.”
(See Ben Norton’s video West’s hypocrisy.)
Now that is a big thing — provided Canada continues to act on it. Canada is trying to put its eggs in different baskets instead of all in the US but it won’t be easy. In 2024, it exported more than 75% of its goods to the US and imported about 50% of its goods from the US.
Keeping that in mind, in January 2026, Carney visited China to improve relations and enhance business. He agreed to permit 49,000 Chinese EVs (electric vehicles) in at 6% tariff rather than the previous 100%, which the Justin Trudeau government had imposed imitating the US government of Joe Biden. China reciprocated.
(In 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had kidnapped Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s chief financial officer (CFO) at Trump’s behest. China countered by arresting two Canadians. Meng was under house arrest for 33 months and was later released on US order.
Britain’s Keir Starmer also visited China with the aim of improving ties under these new circumstances. Many other leaders, including Australia’s Anthony Albanese and France’s Emmanuel Macron, have also visited China recently with the same purpose.
On January 27, 2026, the EU (European Union) and India reached “the “mother of all deals” free trade agreement. The US is not happy.
Meanwhile, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries are trying to gradually reduce use of US dollars in trading.
All these economic and tragic incidents, including the bitterness between the US and its Western allies, will, one hope, prove a blessing in disguise not only for the world but also for US itself as it could then concentrate on its own people rather than bully the world.
Good for the world, at large.
B. R. Gowani an be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com