The Trump Presidency Timeline
Documenting the chaos since day one. 136 entries and counting.
Category: imperialism
imperialism
trump discovers new foreign conflicts, voters discover they’re still hostages
Stock photo of Trump looking serious at a map he definitely has not read, while poll numbers cower in the corner.
NPR does its polite public-radio best to summarize the week where Donald Trump kept collecting foreign conflicts like they’re NFT drops, while voters quietly told pollsters they’re exhausted, broke, and somehow still being asked whether immigrants are the real problem. The Trump administration’s idea of “engagement” abroad appears to be a mix of impulsive saber-rattling and vibes-based geopolitics, with the rest of the world playing the role of unpaid extra in his never-ending reality show.
The poll, meanwhile, reveals the usual fun-house mirror of American priorities: people are worried about the economy hollowed out by oligarchs, but get handed another round of fearmongering about the border; they want stability, but are offered a president who treats foreign policy like live-tweeting a bar fight. So yes, democracy is technically still here, but it’s mostly being used as a focus group for whichever foreign dust-up Trump wants to wander into next.
Source: npr.org
#imperialism#anti-immigration
imperialism
trump tries to buy greenland again, accidentally creates a nato pop-up mall
Nuuk, Greenland: a colorful Arctic town currently resisting offers from a man who thinks foreign policy is Zillow but with aircraft carriers.
Trump announces the US needs to “own” Greenland for national security, because nothing says strategic genius like colonial cosplay with nukes. After threatening to "take control" of the territory, he now claims he’s just "exploring a deal" with Denmark, European allies, and Canada — which is what you say when everyone tells you to stop trying to put a price tag on other people’s homelands.
Canada and France respond by opening consulates in Nuuk on the same day, like a coordinated "absolutely not" from NATO with diplomatic stationery. Governor General Mary Simon — an Inuk leader who actually understands the Arctic, unlike the guy who thinks it’s a golf course with ice hazards — flies in with a Canadian Coast Guard ship to underscore that Greenlanders get to decide their own future, not some reality TV landlord in Washington.
Inuit leaders are blunt: Trump’s Greenland fantasy sounds a lot like the old colonial project with better branding and worse hair. They’re openly worried the US might revive its "Canada as the 51st state" daydreams, especially since Inuit homelands are central to Arctic militarisation. So while Trump plays Monopoly with the map, actual Arctic communities are scrambling to build alliances to protect themselves from the world’s richest country behaving like it just discovered conquest on a podcast.
The result: what was supposed to be Trump’s big strongman real-estate moment has turned into a NATO group project on how to quietly contain the guy who thinks the Arctic is just beachfront property that hasn’t thawed yet.
Source: bbc.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
imperialism
pentagon plays whack-a-drone with iran
U.S. forces demonstrate their enduring mastery of turning the Middle East into a live-fire notification setting.
The U.S. military reportedly shot down an Iranian drone, because nothing says "stable world order" like perpetual, barely-explained confrontations in the Middle East. Details are thin, but the basic plot is familiar: a drone gets too close to U.S. forces, the Pentagon flexes, and everyone pretends this is just another routine Tuesday instead of one more step in an endless cycle of tit-for-tat brinkmanship.
Instead of Congress debating war powers or anyone asking whether this low-key air war has an endgame, we get a 1:22 highlight reel and move on to the next crisis. The message from Washington remains clear: the Forever War may be background noise now, but it’s still very much on autoplay.
Instead of Congress debating war powers or anyone asking whether this low-key air war has an endgame, we get a 1:22 highlight reel and move on to the next crisis. The message from Washington remains clear: the Forever War may be background noise now, but it’s still very much on autoplay.
Source: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#national-security
imperialism
trump liberates venezuelan oil from the cruel shackles of not being drilled by u.s. companies
Venezuelan oil fields, now auditioning for the role of 'America’s Next Top Extraction Colony.'
The Trump White House is "working around the clock" — their words — to do the one thing they always manage to execute flawlessly: help oil companies. This time, they’re preparing a general license so more U.S. firms can drill in Venezuela without tripping over those pesky U.S. sanctions that supposedly exist for reasons. Chevron is currently the only American company allowed to pump Venezuelan crude, but Trump’s team is racing to make sure that exclusive club looks more like a donor list.
The administration already handed out a license last week so U.S. firms can trade oil produced in Venezuela, and now they’re going full "open bar" with drilling rights. Industry response so far? Tepid. Even oil executives, a group not famous for their ethical queasiness, are apparently looking at Trump’s Venezuela plan and thinking, "Ehh, this seems a little dicey." So naturally, the White House is doubling down, turning sanctions policy into a loyalty rewards program for companies willing to play in an authoritarian petrostate if it props up Trump’s narrative of "energy dominance" and maybe a few balance sheets back home.
While Congress is busy fighting over DHS enforcement and shutdowns, the administration is quietly converting U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela into a fossil-fuel side quest: sanctions for show, licenses for friends. Human rights, democracy, climate concerns, regional stability — all neatly filed under "unserious" next to the recycling bin, so long as American drillers get a shot at another heavy-crude playground.
Source: thehill.com
#imperialism#forever-grifting
imperialism
trump sends an armada, discovers you can’t bomb a country into being fine
US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet launches off the USS Abraham Lincoln, bravely defending America from the grave threat of not starting another Middle East war.
Donald Trump has parked an "armada" off Iran’s doorstep, because nothing says responsible governance like handing a man who rage-tweets at TV segments control of carrier strike groups. The USS Abraham Lincoln, guided-missile destroyers, bombers, and missile defenses are now the backdrop for a choose-your-own-disaster adventure in which Tehran’s options are: 1) accept a US-imposed deal that bails out its own corrupt regime, 2) get hit with "controlled" US strikes that somehow won’t spiral into region-wide chaos (sure), or 3) implode into Libya/Syria-style collapse while the White House pretends it’s all part of a freedom plan.
Internally, Iran is a wreck: years of corruption, economic collapse, and the brutal crushing of the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising have left a regime that’s still killing thousands but no longer scaring people into staying home. Externally, Israel has turned the long-running shadow war into a very loud, very kinetic one, systematically dismantling Iran’s regional network and nudging Tehran straight into Uncle Don’s crosshairs. The same US president who blew up the 2015 nuclear deal and had Qassem Suleimani killed is now back for a sequel, this time selling the fantasy that a bit more pressure, a few more bombs, and some sanctions magic will produce "regime transformation" instead of the usual endless rubble and refugees.
For the Iranian people, every path is terrible; for Trump, every path is a campaign ad. A coerced deal lets him pose as the great dealmaker saving the world from nukes while propping up a weakened theocracy. A "limited" war lets him cosplay wartime leader without ever explaining to Congress what the strategy is or what happens if it all goes sideways. And a chaotic collapse? That’s just another chance to scream about refugees on Fox and demand more emergency powers at home. The only thing actually being stabilized here is the American imperial ego, and it’s getting more dangerous every time a president learns he can freelance foreign wars with nothing more than a press conference and some flag-draped B-roll.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
trump discovers colombia exists, immediately wants to bomb it
Gustavo Petro, seen here shortly before flying to Washington to discuss how many US bombs it takes to qualify as a ‘strategic partnership’.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro is heading to the White House to meet Donald Trump, the man who recently said a military operation in Colombia "sounds good" like he’s ordering the sampler platter at Applebee’s. This follows months of Trump-approved US strikes on "alleged" drug boats, ICE behaving so brutally Petro compared them to "Nazi brigades", and Washington treating half the hemisphere as its personal backyard empire.
Now that the US has seized Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and cleared the way for American oil firms, suddenly there’s a very serious conversation about "stabilising" the Venezuelan-Colombian border — which, shockingly, turns out to mean protecting corporate assets from ELN guerrillas. Petro has already deployed 30,000 Colombian troops to the border, while Trump threatens to expand US strikes to land targets across the region, because nothing says "partnership" like your "ally" reserving the right to bomb your territory.
Enter Rand Paul, who apparently moonlights as the Empire’s marriage counselor, brokering a "cordial" phone call that did a supposed 180 for both sides. Washington calls it diplomacy; everyone else calls it what it is: the US dangling security cooperation and intelligence sharing while Trump keeps the option of regional airstrikes on the table to safeguard oil flows and reenact the Monroe Doctrine in 4K. But sure, we’re told this will be a "constructive conversation" — just ignore the drones, the navy, and the part where Colombia’s sovereignty is treated as a negotiable line item on an ExxonMobil spreadsheet.
Now that the US has seized Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and cleared the way for American oil firms, suddenly there’s a very serious conversation about "stabilising" the Venezuelan-Colombian border — which, shockingly, turns out to mean protecting corporate assets from ELN guerrillas. Petro has already deployed 30,000 Colombian troops to the border, while Trump threatens to expand US strikes to land targets across the region, because nothing says "partnership" like your "ally" reserving the right to bomb your territory.
Enter Rand Paul, who apparently moonlights as the Empire’s marriage counselor, brokering a "cordial" phone call that did a supposed 180 for both sides. Washington calls it diplomacy; everyone else calls it what it is: the US dangling security cooperation and intelligence sharing while Trump keeps the option of regional airstrikes on the table to safeguard oil flows and reenact the Monroe Doctrine in 4K. But sure, we’re told this will be a "constructive conversation" — just ignore the drones, the navy, and the part where Colombia’s sovereignty is treated as a negotiable line item on an ExxonMobil spreadsheet.
Source: bbc.com
#imperialism#national-security
imperialism
kushner launches genocide chic real estate startup: ‘new gaza’
Jared Kushner, freshly promoted from failed peace envoy to genocide-era real estate pitchman, explains to Davos billionaires how you, too, can turn a flattened enclave into a waterfront investment opportunity.
Jared Kushner has emerged from whatever hedge-fund-scented cave he lives in to unveil “New Gaza”, a Trump administration blueprint that turns a devastated, densely packed strip of land into a glossy brochure for lofts, offshore rigs, and “advanced industrial zones.” Two years of war, a UN commission finding that Israel committed genocide, $18 billion in destroyed infrastructure, and 2.2 million displaced Palestinians are recast as a ground-floor investment opportunity. Kushner assures Davos that they’ve already started “removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition,” which is a poetic way of saying: the bombs were phase one of the development plan.
This miracle vision of peace-through-property-flipping rests entirely on Trump’s ceasefire deal: Hamas must fully disarm, Israel withdraws in phases, and reconstruction only happens in areas where Palestinians are either disarmed into submission or already cleared out and under Israeli military control. The plan is almost impressively vague on who actually gets housing, how land deeds work, or what happens to families currently living in the buildings Kushner wants to bulldoze in central and western Gaza City. But it’s crystal clear on one thing: Israeli real estate investor Yakir Gabay helped craft the scheme and sits with Kushner on the White House–appointed Gaza Executive Board, which will report to Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace. So Palestinians may not get property rights, but at least the investor class gets a board seat.
Critics, including people NPR spoke to in Gaza, say the plan effectively erases Gaza and replaces it with a privatized “destination” layered over the ruins of a massacred population. The administration’s answer to a genocide finding isn’t accountability or self-determination; it’s park-lined neighborhoods, floor-to-ceiling windows, and an offshore oil and gas rig slapped on top of a mass grave. Call it the Trump Doctrine: turn every catastrophe into a branding opportunity, outsource justice to developers, and let the people whose lives were destroyed fight over whatever’s left in the footnotes—assuming they were ever consulted at all.
Source: npr.org
#imperialism#forever-grifting
imperialism
fifa hands trump a peace prize for not bombing the stadium (yet)
Gianni Infantino and Arsène Wenger, calmly workshopping new ways to redefine 'peace' until it covers kidnapping presidents and threatening to seize Greenland.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino has finally found a line even Fifa’s corruption-hardened audience thinks is a bit much: he handed Donald Trump the inaugural Fifa peace prize, then went on TV to explain that, no really, the guy who had the Venezuelan president snatched and floated using military force to grab Greenland is actually a great humanitarian. According to Infantino, Trump was "instrumental" in saving "thousands of lives" in an Israel–Hamas ceasefire, so obviously the next step is a trophy from the organization that once made Qatar a feel‑good branding exercise.
After tossing out a lazy crack about British fans and arrests, Infantino mumbled an apology, then moved briskly back to the serious work of reputational laundering for a US administration facing unrest in cities like Minneapolis over its immigration crackdowns and openly musing about annexing chunks of the Arctic. Awarding a peace prize to the guy escalating global tensions is a bold choice; next up, Fifa’s ethics award to a hedge fund.
Because the farce needed a sequel, Infantino also floated that Fifa and Uefa "have to" look at letting Russia back into international football, explaining that banning the country after its invasion of Ukraine "has not achieved anything" except frustration. But don’t worry, he insists there’s no reason for anyone to boycott Trump’s World Cup, since businesses don’t boycott countries over human rights and democracy, so why should football? When your moral compass is pegged to corporate sponsorships and autocrats’ whims, Trump’s America looks like just another lucrative venue, not a warning sign.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
trump celebrates freedom 250 by trying out a real blockade
Drivers in Havana wait in a fuel line so long it might qualify as a new form of US foreign policy: slow-motion regime change by empty gas tank.
Trump signed a shiny new executive order slapping extra tariffs on any country that dares sell oil to Cuba, because nothing says “protecting American citizens” like deliberately collapsing another country’s electricity, hospitals, food supply and transportation system. The White House tossed in some boilerplate about Cuba being a “safe haven” for Hezbollah and Hamas, and then, in a bold move, forgot to provide literally any proof. In other words: we’re doing regime change sanctions again, but this time with even less subtlety.
On the ground, Cubans are queuing for hours at gas stations that only take dollars most people don’t have, watching the clock tick down to the moment the island just runs out of fuel in a few weeks. Mexico backed off a planned oil shipment after US pressure, Venezuela’s oil is gone now that Washington helped boot Maduro, and other allies have gone quiet. Meanwhile, at the US embassy’s Freedom 250 party, chargé d’affaires Mike Hammer helpfully clarified the policy: Cubans have complained about “the blockade” for decades, but now there is going to be a real blockade. Because nothing says “land of the free” like bragging about economically strangling 11 million people.
Washington officials are reportedly shopping around for Cuban insiders “who would cut a deal,” just like they did before toppling Maduro, while floating the idea of a full naval blockade to Politico. A European diplomat points out they don’t even need warships—fear of US punishment is enough to stop tankers on its own. Cuba calls it a “brutal assault against a nation that doesn’t threaten the US,” releases videos of soldiers training for invasion, and prepares for more blackouts. Trump, for his part, says “Cuba will be failing pretty soon,” treating the slow-motion humanitarian disaster as a campaign talking point. But sure, tell us again how this is all about democracy and not 1960s-style imperial cosplay.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
armadas, deadlines, and vibes-based foreign policy
Trump in the Oval Office, confidently explaining that the Navy is basically just really expensive driftwood that he’s decided to park next to Iran.
Donald Trump announced that Iran "wants to make a deal" while simultaneously floating a large US naval "Armada" off its coast, because nothing says good faith diplomacy like parking a war fleet in someone's front yard and then refusing to say when you'll leave. Asked if there was a deadline for Tehran, Trump replied that "only they know for sure" — a strong statement from a man whose entire Iran strategy appears to be vibes, bluster, and whatever Fox was running in the chyron that morning.
In between threatening a sovereign state with war, Trump laid out his two conditions to avoid military action: "no nuclear" and "stop killing protesters" — which would sound less cynical if he weren't simultaneously cozying up to other regimes with body counts and zero democracy. Human rights groups estimate more than 6,300 people have already been killed in Iran's crackdown, with the final toll potentially above 25,000, while Trump treats the whole thing like a reality show cliffhanger: "If we do make a deal, that's good. If we don't make a deal, we'll see what happens."
Meanwhile, Iran repeats that its nuclear program is peaceful and says its missile defense systems will "never" be up for negotiation, Russia is quietly meeting with Iran's security chief, and Trump is out here explaining that the warships "have to float someplace, so they might as well float near Iran." In other words, US foreign policy is now officially "we pointed a gun at your head because we needed somewhere to put it" — a totally normal way to run a nuclear-adjacent standoff in a volatile region.
Source: bbc.com
#imperialism#national-security
imperialism
world's dumbest embargo expansion speedruns a trade war
A container ship bravely attempting to deliver oil without triggering the latest episode of Trump’s Sanctions & Tariffs Extended Universe.
Donald Trump has discovered a bold new use for tariffs: punishing any country that dares sell oil to a nation he doesn’t like. In a fresh executive order—because why involve Congress when you have a Sharpie—Trump threatened new levies on countries that supply fuel to Cuba, offering zero details on rates, targets, or how this isn’t just 1962 cosplay with extra brain damage.
Fresh off literally having US forces snatch Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in a January raid on Caracas—because nothing says "rules-based international order" like abducting foreign leaders—Trump is now tightening the screws on Havana, boasting that Cuba will be "falling pretty soon" as Venezuelan oil dries up. In other words, Washington is openly using the global trading system as a hostage situation: sell fuel to Cuba and we tank your economy too.
Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez had the audacity to point out that the country has "the absolute right to import fuel" from willing exporters "without interference" from the US. Adorable. Meanwhile, the administration is busy rewriting the definition of "free trade" to mean "free to do whatever Washington wants or enjoy your new tariffs." But sure, tell us more about how this isn’t imperialism, just "maximum pressure" with a side of collective punishment.
Fresh off literally having US forces snatch Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in a January raid on Caracas—because nothing says "rules-based international order" like abducting foreign leaders—Trump is now tightening the screws on Havana, boasting that Cuba will be "falling pretty soon" as Venezuelan oil dries up. In other words, Washington is openly using the global trading system as a hostage situation: sell fuel to Cuba and we tank your economy too.
Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez had the audacity to point out that the country has "the absolute right to import fuel" from willing exporters "without interference" from the US. Adorable. Meanwhile, the administration is busy rewriting the definition of "free trade" to mean "free to do whatever Washington wants or enjoy your new tariffs." But sure, tell us more about how this isn’t imperialism, just "maximum pressure" with a side of collective punishment.
Source: bbc.com
#imperialism#trade-war#killing-democracy
imperialism
trump state department plays empire with alberta
Map of North America, with Alberta circled and a giant price tag reading "$500bn – gently used democracy, must go."
In the latest episode of What If Russia Did This, far-right Alberta separatists have been holding covert meetings with Trump’s state department to ask a foreign power to help break up Canada, because nothing says "grassroots sovereignty" like flying south to beg Donald Trump for a $500bn US Treasury credit facility. British Columbia premier David Eby called it what it is: treason – the old-fashioned kind, not the Fox News kind where voting for a Democrat counts.
The Alberta independence crowd, still a minority in the province, is hustling for 178,000 signatures to trigger a referendum while openly fantasizing about US money and US backing. Conveniently, Alberta premier Danielle Smith recently made it easier to force referendums, but now insists she totally supports a "strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada" – in other words, she lit the fuse and is shocked, shocked there are separatist fireworks.
Trump’s treasury secretary Scott Bessent went on Real America’s Voice to praise Alberta’s "independent people" and to muse aloud about them leaving Canada, because when you’re running a barely-functional democracy at home, the obvious next step is destabilizing the neighbor that supplies your oil. Analysts are now openly gaming out a scenario where a separation vote fails, Trump declares it "fake", and the US moves troops up to northern Montana to pressure Canada into letting Alberta become the 51st state. But sure, tell us again how it’s the other countries that run fifth-column ops to fracture democracies.
Indigenous leaders, whose treaty rights actually predate Alberta’s existence, are pointing out that you can’t just redraw borders on their land because some oil guys got mad at equalization payments and found a sympathetic ear in Washington. Elections Alberta, they warn, is not remotely equipped to handle foreign interference in a referendum that the Trump administration seems eager to turn into its own little annexation cosplay. Canada, according to one researcher, is "sleepwalking" into this. The Trump crew, on the other hand, is wide awake and making a shopping list.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
little marco discovers gunboat diplomacy
Marco Rubio practices explaining that a naval blockade, extraterritorial kidnapping, and 126 dead people do not, in fact, count as a "war" if you say "law enforcement" three times into a camera.
Marco Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state and still America’s smallest hawk, is heading to the Senate to calmly explain that the US is "not at war" with Venezuela, it’s just reserving the right to use more military force if the country’s "interim" leaders stop doing what Washington wants. In other words: comply with US demands or we might bomb you again, but don’t worry, this is totally just "law enforcement"—because nothing says due process like cross-border raids and naval blockades.
Rubio is defending Trump’s decision to kidnap Nicolás Maduro, drag him to the US on drug charges, keep a naval blockade in place, continue deadly boat strikes that have killed at least 126 people since September, and seize oil tankers—all while insisting there are "no US troops on the ground" so, technically, no war. Congress, naturally, has mostly rolled over: a war powers resolution to rein in Trump’s Venezuela adventure barely failed, and Republicans are pretending that a massive regional military buildup plus a raid to snatch a sitting leader is just cops and robbers on hard mode.
Meanwhile, the administration is "normalizing" ties with acting president Delcy Rodríguez by making sure she understands that Maduro’s fate is her future if she doesn’t align Venezuela’s "key objectives" with Trump’s wish list: open the energy sector to US companies, give them preferential access, use Venezuelan oil money to buy US goods, and stop subsidized oil exports to Cuba. So it’s not regime change, it’s just a hostile corporate takeover enforced by missiles. But sure, tell us again how this is about democracy and the rule of law, not old-school imperialism in a MAGA hat.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
trump threatens to steal greenland, gets neil young instead
Donald Trump eyes Greenland on a map like a toddler spotting a new toy, while Neil Young frantically tries to smother the fire with free classic rock.
Donald Trump has apparently decided that buying Greenland was too 2019, so now he’s talking about annexing the Danish territory for "national security"—but don’t worry, he says he "won't use force," which is exactly what you say when you’ve been loudly fantasizing about taking someone else’s land. In response to this very normal superpower behavior, Neil Young is giving every Greenlander a year of free access to his music archive to help "ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats" coming from what he politely calls "our unpopular and hopefully temporary government."
Because nothing says 21st century American diplomacy like: the president menacing an autonomous territory while a 79-year-old rock legend steps in as the de facto State Department of Peace and Love. Young—who’s already tried to stop Trump from blasting his songs at rallies—now requires only a Greenland-registered phone number to get free access, effectively turning his back catalog into a humanitarian aid package for people being harassed by a nuclear-armed real estate guy with impulse-control issues.
In other words, the US government is out here LARPing imperial conquest, and the opposition is… classic rock, streaming logins, and a Canadian-American grandpa yelling "wake up people" on his website. But sure, tell us more about how this administration is restoring American greatness, one attempted land grab and celebrity boycott at a time.
Source: bbc.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
trump parks a floating nuke airport off iran ‘just in case’
The USS Abraham Lincoln, bravely defending American freedom by lurking off yet another country we might bomb ‘for stability’.
The US is rolling out a "multi-day readiness exercise" in the Middle East, which is Pentagon-speak for "we moved a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, guided-missile destroyers, and a bunch of strike aircraft right next to Iran and are now doing donuts in the Gulf." Air Forces Central says the drills will "demonstrate the ability to deploy, disperse and sustain combat airpower" across CENTCOM’s turf, because nothing says stability like rehearsing how fast you can light up a region that's already on fire.
This comes as Trump brags to Axios about a "big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela"—in other words, he's now measuring foreign policy in carrier groups per ego unit. Officially, the USS Abraham Lincoln is there to "promote regional security and stability", which is a very poetic way of describing parking several dozen fighter jets and nearly 5,000 sailors within strike distance while Trump alternates between threatening Iran with attacks and insisting, without evidence, that "the killing has stopped" after a crackdown that activists say may have killed more than 30,000 protesters.
The White House keeps hinting that airstrikes are still on the table "just in case", while CENTCOM runs joint drills and practices shooting down drones in anticipation of the counterattacks their hypothetical humanitarian bombing campaign might provoke. Meanwhile, even usually compliant Gulf partners like the UAE are backing away, publicly declaring their airspace and waters are closed for any Iran attack. But not to worry: the US insists all this will be done with "host-nation approval" and "respect for sovereignty"—as long as that sovereignty doesn’t get in the way of the next photo op with a carrier battle group.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#national-security
imperialism
trump launches board of peace, keeps board of bombs fully funded
Trump unveils his 'Board of Peace' in front of a backdrop of places that need rebuilding from all the peace he’s been delivering.
Trump has spent the past year rattling sabers, dropping bombs, and threatening pretty much anyone with a shoreline, so naturally he’s now rolling out a grand new branding exercise called the global "Board of Peace." Because nothing says committed to nonviolence like treating military force as your first draft and a peace board as the marketing copy.
The shiny new plan is being sold as Trump-the-Peacemaker’s big vision for the world, even as the actual work of rebuilding Gaza remains a brutal slog of shattered infrastructure, displaced civilians, and underfunded relief. In other words, the people picking through the rubble get photo ops and vague promises, while Trump gets another podium to brag about his "historic" peace efforts.
So we now have a president who regularly reaches for the military option, then turns around and demands credit for being a statesman because he stapled the word "Peace" onto a board. Gaza’s reality is concrete dust and humanitarian crisis; Trump’s reality is a press release about his soaring ambitions. But sure, let’s all pretend the Board of Peace is going to fix what the bombs broke.
Source: npr.org
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
kidnap first, declare war later
When your foreign policy is just a silhouette of a guy’s head filled with explosions, but somehow the Pentagon still calls it ‘measured’.
Donald Trump has apparently decided that the "America First" foreign policy now includes kidnapping heads of state and threatening to bomb a NATO ally’s territory. In this fun new phase of the regime, he’s abducted Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, is menacing Iran with troops, and is fixated on Greenland like a bored Bond villain with early-onset map addiction. Even his own supporters are confused, which is impressive given what they’ve already swallowed.
Peter Beinhart walks through the depressing American tradition that got us here: presidents start cautious after a disaster like Vietnam or Iraq, then a few "easy" wars go well, and suddenly the White House is drunk on "surgical" violence and medals. Trump, who once ran as the guy who hated pointless wars, has now discovered that nothing says "global domination" like a quick kidnapping, some airstrikes, and a total disregard for international law. Hubris plus unchecked executive power plus a president obsessed with domination – history suggests this story doesn’t end with Greenland turning into a timeshare, it ends with catastrophe.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
trump dumps the kurds for his new jihadist bestie
Donald Trump and Ahmed al‑Sharaa, smiling for the cameras as they jointly announce that everything is under control, especially the parts currently on fire.
Donald Trump has decided that the best way to honor the Kurds who fought and died alongside the US against Islamic State is to… hand their territory to a former jihadist strongman and call it peace. President Ahmed al‑Sharaa, once the proud owner of a $10m US bounty on his head, is now "attractive, tough" in Trump-speak, which is MAGA for "we lifted sanctions because he flatters me and promises to do the dirty work." The Kurdish-led SDF, which held a quarter of Syria and the bulk of the actual anti-ISIS fight, is being shoved toward "dissolution" while Damascus moves in. Because nothing says "loyal ally" like letting your proxy forces get steamrolled the second they become politically inconvenient.
US envoy / walking conflict-of-interest Tom Barrack helpfully announced that the "rationale" for partnering with the SDF has "largely expired" now that Assad 2.0 is ready to take over security. Translation: we found a dictator who’ll run the prisons and the counterinsurgency so we don’t have to pretend to care. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of ISIS suspects and families in sprawling camps like al-Hawl are being left to rot or riot, while Washington ships 7,000 "most hardened" fighters off to Iraq and just sort of hopes nobody notices the words torture, forced confessions, or executions. Years of zero investment in deradicalisation have turned these camps into extremism factories, but Western governments are still playing hot potato with their own citizens stripped of nationality, pretending responsibility can just be deported away.
Back in Europe, the same governments that spent a decade clutching pearls about Syrian refugees are now pushing to deport them back to a shattered country that needs an estimated $200bn to rebuild, is still run by a centralized authoritarian regime, and has "inclusive dialogue" in the same way prisons have "open concept." Austria and friends are suddenly very excited about declaring Syria "safe" now that they don’t want to deal with the people who fled. In other words: Trump hugs a rehabilitated jihadist strongman, throws the Kurds under the tank, outsources ISIS detention to the nearest torture-adjacent jurisdiction, and Europe tries to stuff the survivors back into the warzone — but sure, tell us again how this is all about "stability" and "security."
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism
commander in cosplay sends 'armada' to iran, declares himself savior of 837 people he didn’t actually save
The aftermath of Iran’s economic collapse and protest crackdown, now featuring a bonus U.S. carrier group headed their way because Washington never met a crisis it couldn’t escalate with ships.
Donald Trump, fresh off his Davos ego massage, announced that a U.S. "armada" is steaming toward Iran, because nothing says thoughtful diplomacy like LARPing as a 1940s battleship commander while a brutal regime massacres its own people. With activists saying more than 5,000 protesters have been killed and the U.N. documenting “gross human rights violations,” Trump’s main priority is making sure everyone knows he supposedly stopped "837 hangings" with a single tough-guy line.
Iran, for its part, is busy doing its own authoritarian greatest hits: internet blackouts, mass killings, torture, and forced confessions, while claiming the dead are mostly "terrorists" and blaming the U.S. and Israel. But into this horror show strides Trump, insisting his threats alone halted a wave of executions—claims Iran’s prosecutor general calls "completely false" and "irrational and arrogant." In other words: the guy overseeing a crackdown that’s killed thousands still thinks Trump is too unhinged to take seriously.
Meanwhile, the White House is moving a carrier strike group, extra aircraft, and air defenses into the region, with Trump bragging about a "big force going to Iran" that he just might use if Tehran crosses his ever-shifting red line. So we’ve got a genocidal theocracy on one side and, on the other, a U.S. president treating potential war like a reality show cliffhanger where he’s both the host and the self-declared hero. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "protecting human rights" and not about a flailing authoritarian fantasizing about being the guy who decides when the bombs drop.
Source: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#national-security
imperialism
trump rebrands gaza as beachfront investment opportunity
Marco Rubio watches a slide deck explaining how to turn a bombed-out enclave into a beachfront IPO, while pretending this is foreign policy and not a timeshare presentation over a mass grave.
The Trump administration took a two-year war, 60 million tonnes of rubble, and an 81% destruction rate in Gaza and said: have you considered luxury condos? At Davos, because of course it was Davos, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a "New Gaza" PowerPoint that looks like someone reskinned SimCity over an active crime scene. Skyscrapers, coastal tourism, data centres, and a shiny new seaport are all on the menu—just as long as Israel keeps a nice, empty "security perimeter" wrapped around the whole thing.
Jared Kushner, still LARPing as a Middle East strategist, bragged about "catastrophic success" and explained that they briefly considered a "free zone" and a "Hamas zone" before deciding to just bulldoze their way to utopia. He promised "amazing investment opportunities" for the private sector, because nothing says post-genocidal reconstruction like pitching venture capital on beachfront rubble. Meanwhile, Rafah—once a Palestinian city, now largely leveled and folded into Israeli-controlled territory—is slated to become "New Rafah" with 100,000 housing units and 75 medical facilities, as if you can just slap "New" in front of a name and erase who lived there and how they were removed.
Trump, ever the "real estate person at heart," helpfully clarified that Gaza is actually just a "beautiful piece of property" waiting to be flipped into the "Riviera of the Middle East"—a concept he floated last year alongside the idea of permanently relocating Palestinians to neighboring countries. In other words, the US is openly workshopping ethnic cleansing plus resort development as a peace plan, and calling it the "Board of Peace" because of course they are. But sure, tell us again how this is about security and not about carving up a shattered enclave into a militarized investment park.
Source: bbc.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy#forever-grifting