The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

Documenting the chaos since day one — one awful day at a time.

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Category: imperialism

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

imperialism

trump tries regime change with a spreadsheet

Tehran drivers pass a billboard showing Trump with his mouth sewn shut, a bold artistic choice that U.S. foreign policy planners should really consider adopting as an actual strategy.

Tehran drivers pass a billboard showing Trump with his mouth sewn shut, a bold artistic choice that U.S. foreign policy planners should really consider adopting as an actual strategy.

When the U.S. and Israel kicked off their war on Iran in February, Trump promised a quick, decisive win, because nothing says "strategic genius" like assuming a regional power will fold faster than a Trump casino. Six months, a failed 60-day ceasefire, and a wrecked global economy later, the "swift victory" has matured into the usual Republican classic: a grinding, open-ended conflict that drains U.S. weapons stockpiles and credibility at the same time.

Having failed to bomb Iran into submission or negotiate his way out of the mess he created, Trump has now pivoted to his favorite foreign-policy tool: mass economic punishment dressed up as "freedom." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rolled out a new sanctions crusade to "sever every economic lifeline" to Iran until the regime collapses or, more realistically, until ordinary Iranians can't afford bread. Countries that keep trading with Tehran are being threatened with their own isolation, because nothing projects confidence like trying to bully the entire global economy while your own arsenal is running on fumes.

Analysts note that years of "maximum pressure" have mostly produced "maximum resistance" from Iran, which continues to improvise smuggling networks and regional reprisals whenever Washington tightens the screws. So of course Trump's team is doubling down on the exact strategy that’s never worked, while quietly shifting the war’s goalposts from nukes, to regime change, to seizing control of the Strait of Hormuz like it’s just another distressed asset to be flipped. The White House gets to cosplay as Churchill; everyone else gets higher energy prices and a more dangerous Middle East. Truly, the art of the deal.

npr.orgSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy#national-security

Sunday, August 23, 2026

imperialism

economic warfare: now with extra tv graphics

Live look at the White House announcing that it’s totally not war, it’s just ‘economic warfare,’ which is obviously a completely different kind of disaster.

Live look at the White House announcing that it’s totally not war, it’s just ‘economic warfare,’ which is obviously a completely different kind of disaster.

The Trump administration is using a Sunday show hit to tease its latest foreign policy brainstorm: "economic warfare" on Iran, because calling it sanctions apparently didn’t sound tough enough in the focus group. Officials are gearing up to roll out a pressure campaign designed to squeeze Iran’s economy while carefully pretending this won’t also wreck ordinary people’s access to food, medicine, or a functioning currency. Instead of, say, diplomacy or working through existing agreements, Team Stable Genius is once again reaching for the bluntest instrument in the toolbox and hurling it at 80+ million civilians. The White House gets to cosplay Churchill on cable news, Treasury gets to play global debt cop, and anyone who actually lives in Iran gets to find out how many calories a day you can survive on when Washington decides your country needs to be taught a lesson. Foreign policy by TV segment means Congress is reduced to a studio audience and international law is treated as optional fine print. But as long as the chyrons say "tough on Iran" and the base gets its daily dose of chest-thumping, who cares if we’re normalizing economic sieges as a first resort?
today.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: npr.org
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy

Saturday, August 22, 2026

imperialism

trump annexes the strait of hormuz with his mouth

Trump stares at a world map like it’s a mall directory and declares the food court his new territory.

Trump stares at a world map like it’s a mall directory and declares the food court his new territory.

Donald Trump, never one to let international law get in the way of a good war fantasy, told a South Carolina crowd that he now considers the Strait of Hormuz to be "an American territory." The context: the U.S. is enforcing a months-long military blockade on Iran’s shipping and ports, the war is dragging into its sixth month with no peace deal, and the president has apparently decided that if you park enough warships somewhere, it just becomes yours. Somewhere, a fifth-grader’s geography teacher is weeping into a copy of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Campaigning for Darline Graham, who is trying to inherit Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat and his appetite for forever war, Trump bragged that "no ships get through unless we want them to" and said he "likes the idea" of declaring the waterway U.S. territory. He then did what every responsible commander-in-chief does on a Friday night: joked about "go[ing] back and bomb[ing] Iran a little bit more" and followed it up with a dramatic reading of "The Snake" to smear immigrants. Blockading a vital global oil artery, fantasizing about annexation, casually joking about more bombing, and then using a racist poem as a closer – it’s U.S. foreign policy as open-mic night. Centcom helpfully chimed in on social media to note that U.S. forces have already redirected 68 commercial vessels to comply with the blockade, while Trump posted a map labeling the Strait as "new U.S. territory" like a bored child drawing extra states on the globe. Iran’s deputy foreign minister dismissed the whole thing as "delusions," which is polite diplomat-speak for "this guy is trying to LARP as the British Empire." As one-fifth of the world’s seaborne oil flows through a waterway the president thinks he can claim by tweet, the administration continues its experiment in what if gunboat diplomacy, but dumber.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Thursday, August 20, 2026

imperialism

trump cancels war games, auditions for role of kim’s bestie

Trump and Kim at the DMZ in 2019, back when the price of flattering a dictator hadn’t yet been invoiced to South Korea’s security budget.

Trump and Kim at the DMZ in 2019, back when the price of flattering a dictator hadn’t yet been invoiced to South Korea’s security budget.

Trump has decided that 18,000 South Korean troops and a dozen US allies don't need the second half of their annual military exercise, because it’s "inappropriate and hostile" to the guy firing ballistic missiles and threatening nuclear strikes. Ulchi Freedom Shield gets cut in half by presidential tantrum, and Seoul gets the news the same way the rest of us do: from Trump’s mouth, after the fact. The South Korean foreign minister then has to stand there and pretend this was a "mutual" decision, which is a very polite way of saying "we found out when he tweeted it." Allies look at joint drills as the backbone of the US-South Korea security alliance; Trump looks at them as a bad invoice and an obstacle to his next photo-op with Kim Jong Un. Experts now openly worry he might yank some of the 27,000 US troops out of South Korea or casually abandon denuclearisation of the North — you know, minor shifts in decades of policy — again, without telling the country that actually gets shelled first. The administration has stopped even pretending to separate trade and security. Trump is mad that Seoul won’t sign up for his Iran adventure, mad that they only pay about $1bn a year for US troops, mad they haven’t thrown $350bn in investments fast enough, and mad US companies don’t get enough special treatment. So he’s turning alliance commitments into a protection racket: pay up, join our wars, or watch your deterrent walk away. Regional democracies like Japan and Taiwan are quietly panicking, while South Korean analysts are now floating the once-taboo idea of building their own nuclear weapons because Washington under Trump is about as reliable as a crypto exchange audit. Meanwhile, North Korea keeps lobbing missiles toward Japan and reminding everyone it has nukes and "the right" to use them, while Trump’s priority is making sure Kim doesn’t feel "disrespected" by military drills. The US used to reassure allies that it wouldn’t trade their security for a handshake with a dictator. Under Trump, that’s starting to sound less like a promise and more like an expired coupon.
bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: npr.orgAlso: npr.org
#imperialism#national-security
imperialism

operation economic fury: trump declares sanctions on planet earth

Trump announces ‘economic D-Day’ on Iran and, accidentally, the rest of the global economy, live from the Oval Office’s new War Room: the Truth Social app.

Trump announces ‘economic D-Day’ on Iran and, accidentally, the rest of the global economy, live from the Oval Office’s new War Room: the Truth Social app.

Donald Trump has now moved from sanctioning Iran to basically sanction-curious about the entire planet. On Truth Social, he announced "TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences" for any country that dares do business with Tehran, promising "the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!" — which is a bold claim from a guy who can’t explain how tariffs work. No details, no named targets, just all-caps threats and the diplomatic subtlety of a cinder block. The expired 60-day ceasefire with Iran? No talks, no off-ramp, just Trump rolling straight from shooting war to financial carpet bombing under the branding genius of "Operation Economic Fury." Now he’s upgraded to "economic D-Day," because why not casually reference World War II while threatening to cut off airports, banks, and governments worldwide from the dollar system like he’s banning them from Mar-a-Lago. He warned that "ANY country" offering any kind of "lifeline" to Iran — oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, ship registries, you name it — will face those mystical TREMENDOUS consequences. What consequences? Unclear. How will this affect allies, global markets, and the already spiraling conflict he and Israel kicked off in February? Also unclear. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently promised to isolate Iran "like the world has never seen before," and Trump seems to have heard that as: what if we just hold the whole global economy hostage and see who blinks first. The BBC politely notes they’ve asked the White House and Treasury for comment, which is adorable, because the actual policy seems to be: Trump posts some caps-lock fan fiction about economic warfare, and the rest of the government scrambles to pretend there’s a coherent strategy behind it. Killing democracy is so passé; we’ve moved on to destabilizing the entire international financial system by social media post.
bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: thehill.comAlso: today.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Monday, August 17, 2026

imperialism

diplomacy by airstrike threat, very normal country stuff

Trump explaining that his Middle East strategy is basically ‘Shark Tank,’ except the losers get bombed.

Trump explaining that his Middle East strategy is basically ‘Shark Tank,’ except the losers get bombed.

Trump has reportedly decided the best way to handle a delicate international crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is to threaten to bomb Oman if it gets in the way of his latest ‘deal.’ Because nothing projects strength like telling a small, strategically important U.S. partner, "Nice country you’ve got there, shame if a superpower illegally attacked it." The Strait of Hormuz, through which a massive share of the world’s oil flows, is already a geopolitical tinderbox thanks to Trump’s Iran war misadventures. So naturally, instead of coordinated diplomacy with regional allies, he’s out here tossing around threats of bombing a neutral monarchy that’s historically been a quiet go-between for the U.S. and Iran. Why use Oman as a backchannel when you can use it as target practice? While actual foreign policy professionals are clutching their blood pressure meds, Trump is treating the laws of war like optional EULA text. Threatening military strikes as bargaining chips over an economic choke point doesn’t just destabilize the region, it advertises to every autocrat on Earth that U.S. power is now a personal negotiating tool for one guy’s ego and re-election narrative. But sure, tell us again how this is the “peace through strength” administration.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: today.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy

Sunday, August 16, 2026

imperialism

little marco discovers his inner colonial viceroy

Marco Rubio studies Donald Trump at a mining roundtable, perhaps wondering how much further he has to crawl to finally be promoted from "little Marco" to assistant regional viceroy.

Marco Rubio studies Donald Trump at a mining roundtable, perhaps wondering how much further he has to crawl to finally be promoted from "little Marco" to assistant regional viceroy.

From Foggy Bottom, the world is on fire and Marco Rubio’s big idea is to show up with a can of gasoline and a British Empire fan club membership. As Trump’s Secretary of State and national security adviser, Rubio has somehow decided his unique power to promote peace is best used to cheer on an unresolved Iran war, watch Russia escalate attacks on NATO allies, and preside over a Ukraine conflict that Candidate Trump promised to end "in 24 hours" but is now well into year five. Diplomacy, it turns out, is for people who don’t have Jared Kushner and random Trump business buddies on speed dial. Rather than act like a diplomat, Rubio’s auditioning for the role of pith-helmeted colonial viceroy. He’s explicitly lamenting the decline of "the great western empires" and whining about "godless communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings" like it’s 1898 and he just lost his favorite sugar plantation. In Munich, he basically told Europe to stop feeling bad about colonialism and start feeling proud enough to help him defend "civilisation"—a word that, in this administration, mostly means fossil fuel profits and arms deals. Meanwhile, Trump has attacked eight countries in a year, and Rubio’s beloved Cuba is being publicly floated as a potential next target. Nothing says "peace" like lining up your parents’ homeland for a possible bombing run. On the home front of global governance, Rubio is busy taking a wrecking ball to whatever is left of the rules-based order. The one-time foreign aid champion has gutted USAID, turning America’s primary humanitarian arm into a budgetary corpse, and is now trying to dismantle the International Criminal Court—you know, the place that might one day ask awkward questions about war crimes committed by, say, leaders who bomb eight countries in a year. He used to rage against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal; now he backs a Trump-branded version that offers even more concessions, because the only consistent principle in Rubio-world is "Is Donald happy?". What little remains of traditional diplomacy has been outsourced to Jared Kushner and Trump crony Steve Witkoff, while JD Vance is left holding the Iran bag and the political shrapnel that comes with it. Rubio, ever the survivalist chameleon, keeps his distance from actual negotiations like they’re student loan payments, hoping to glide into 2028 as the "serious" statesman who somehow just happened to be national security adviser during a spree of botched wars, imperial nostalgia tours, and systematic attempts to kneecap international law. America’s top diplomat has power to push for peace—and is using it to cosplay empire while the world burns.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Saturday, August 15, 2026

imperialism

when your ‘maximum pressure’ policy ends with iran telling you to log off

Pictured: yet another foreign government explaining U.S. ‘strategy’ like a disappointed teacher going over a failed group project.

Pictured: yet another foreign government explaining U.S. ‘strategy’ like a disappointed teacher going over a failed group project.

Iranian officials are now going on TV to politely suggest that the United States accept the reality of defeat, which is diplomatic code for, “you clowns lost, stop embarrassing yourselves.” This is what’s left after years of Trump shredding the Iran nuclear deal, tweeting threats like a bored Bond villain, and turning U.S. Middle East policy into a Fox News segment with missiles. Washington spent the Trump years doing “maximum pressure” photo-ops while Iran quietly built regional clout, deepened ties with Russia and China, and waited for America’s foreign policy brain to finish melting. Now Tehran gets to lecture the U.S. about failure on international television, and the rest of the world nods along like, “Yeah, that tracks.” The superpower that used to negotiate complex multilateral agreements is now the guy who rage-quit the group chat and is stunned no one begged him to come back. The real achievement here isn’t just that Iran feels confident enough to taunt the U.S. on camera; it’s that after years of Trump’s performative toughness, there’s not much the U.S. can do about it beyond more sanctions press releases and some very stern podium noises. American credibility took a long walk off a short pier, and the countries we were supposedly outsmarting are now writing the post-game commentary.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Friday, August 14, 2026

imperialism

trump discovers map, decides to annex shipping lane

Trump explains to ‘Meet the Press’ that if you squint at the map just right, the Strait of Hormuz clearly spells ‘USA.’

Trump explains to ‘Meet the Press’ that if you squint at the map just right, the Strait of Hormuz clearly spells ‘USA.’

Donald Trump went on national television and announced that he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz — you know, the tiny chokepoint through which a big chunk of the world’s oil moves — to be U.S. territory. Not a treaty, not an alliance, not a UN resolution. Just vibes, a Sharpie, and a fantasy that international law is something you can overwrite like a bad golf scorecard.

Because why stop at dismantling American democracy when you can also light the global order on fire? The president of the United States is now openly talking about annexing a strategic waterway between Iran and Oman as if he’s calling dibs on the last lounge chair at Mar-a-Lago. No Congress, no allies, no legal basis — just the world’s least qualified admiral deciding that centuries of maritime law are for losers who didn’t inherit real estate. If you were wondering how to turn an already volatile region into a live-action risk board, wonder no more.

This isn’t foreign policy, it’s colonial cosplay with nuclear weapons in the background. Declaring an international strait to be American property is the kind of thing that, historically, leads to shooting wars, sanctions spirals, and very nervous oil markets. But sure, let’s hand the guy who thought you could nuke hurricanes the keys to one of the most sensitive shipping lanes on Earth and see what happens. What could possibly go wrong?
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
imperialism

trump liberates venezuela’s oil… straight into his friends’ pockets

Trump-era "nation building": first you topple the government, then you build the offshore gasfield and the Ivanka-adjacent resort portfolio that comes with it.

Trump-era "nation building": first you topple the government, then you build the offshore gasfield and the Ivanka-adjacent resort portfolio that comes with it.

Venezuela, freshly "liberated" by the US after Trump ousted Nicolás Maduro, is now open for business, and by "business" we mean a fire sale run for the benefit of Trump-world and their petro-billionaire friends. BP just scored a juicy licence to develop the second phase of the Loran offshore gasfield, and look who’s standing at the buffet: a Qatari firm owned by the Al-Khayyat brothers, who also happen to be Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s partners on a controversial multibillion-dollar resort in Albania. Totally normal coincidence. Just democracy… but with a loyalty rewards program.

Not to be left out, the overseas investment arm of the UAE’s national oil company — chaired by Sultan Al Jaber, who previously promised Trump $440bn in US energy investment — is also in on the deal. The administration seizes control of Venezuela’s oil industry, then magically the first big foreign projects go to: BP, Ivanka/Jared’s billionaire buddies, and a Gulf partner who pledged hundreds of billions to Trump’s energy agenda. This isn’t foreign policy, it’s a joint venture.

While Meg O’Neill at BP chirps about “progress” and “unlocking Venezuela’s offshore gas potential,” the real progress is in converting a regime change into a portfolio expansion. US oil majors like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are still "scouting opportunities," but Chevron never left and is happily pumping away as a minority partner to the state company the US now effectively controls. Output is ticking up, exports to US refineries are the highest since 2019, and the message is clear: overthrow a government, stabilize production, and funnel the spoils through companies tethered to the president’s family and foreign patrons. Freedom, but make it vertically integrated.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#forever-grifting#oligarchy

Thursday, August 13, 2026

imperialism

youngest gaslighter quits as trump’s war drags on and his oil buddies circle greenland

USS Abraham Lincoln, currently starring in Trump’s nine-month remake of ‘Das Boot,’ brought to you by the Pentagon’s ‘Have You Tried Calling It Fake News?’ mental health initiative.

USS Abraham Lincoln, currently starring in Trump’s nine-month remake of ‘Das Boot,’ brought to you by the Pentagon’s ‘Have You Tried Calling It Fake News?’ mental health initiative.

Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as White House press secretary, citing the radical new parenting philosophy of "not spending every waking hour lying for Donald Trump on live television." Don’t worry, though – Trump says she’ll now be one of his “top outside advisers,” which is Washington-speak for same propaganda, fewer ethics rules. Her legacy: being 27, pregnant, and extremely mad at reporters for the crime of asking why democracy was being held together with duct tape and nondisclosure agreements.

While Leavitt heads off to spend more time not answering questions, 5,000 sailors and marines on the USS Abraham Lincoln are stuck in month nine of Trump’s Iran adventure cruise, with only two days on land and conditions so bad some have reportedly tried to jump overboard. Food is rationed, showers are moldy, water is scarce, and the laundry doesn’t work – so naturally Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has declared all this “fake news,” presumably from the comfort of a studio green room and a fresh-pressed suit.

Back in the Arctic, Greenland has had the audacity to tell a Trump-linked oil company, Greenland Energy, to delay drilling. Local authorities are not super thrilled about becoming the test site for the president’s long-time dream of turning the melting tundra into a MAGA-branded strip mine. After Trump’s imperialist threats about what the US could do there, tensions are rising along Greenland’s coast, where drilling equipment is already onshore and just itching to help finish off the climate. The good news: Trump’s approval is at a historic low. The bad news: he’s still got an oil company, a war, and a Navy carrier to play with.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#forever-grifting

Sunday, August 9, 2026

imperialism

netanyahu rejects trump’s 15-point fantasy fanfic for gaza

Trump unveils his Gaza 'Board of Peace' plan while the actual parties to the conflict quietly mark it "return to sender."

Trump unveils his Gaza 'Board of Peace' plan while the actual parties to the conflict quietly mark it "return to sender."

Donald Trump proudly rolled out a 15-point "monumental" Gaza peace plan featuring his very serious-sounding "Board of Peace" – a sort of HOA for war zones that apparently declared Hamas and other groups "completely disarmed" by sheer power of press release. Hamas, for its part, said it would hand over heavy weapons if Israel stopped bombing Gaza and pulled its forces out, which is a bit of a snag when the bombs are still falling. Benjamin Netanyahu has now formally torched the whole thing, announcing that Israel "rejects the 15-point document" and will not withdraw a single soldier until Hamas is "genuinely" disarmed – not just the imaginary disarmament Trump already took a victory lap for. So Trump’s big foreign policy win lasted about as long as a Truth Social post before the lawyers call, and his closest ally is openly saying, "Yeah, we’re not doing that." While Trump’s team floats ideas and Netanyahu politely explains which ones belong in the shredder, far-right members of Israel’s coalition like Itamar Ben Gvir are demanding the plan be killed outright and sneering that the draft is "not acceptable." So the Trump White House has managed the rare feat of producing a Gaza plan that Hamas says it’s ready to implement, Israel’s far right wants to burn, and Netanyahu is slow-walking into oblivion. Diplomacy, Trump-style: declare peace, invent a board, ignore reality, and then watch your "historic" deal get rejected on live TV by the very government you keep calling your greatest success story.
bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: bbc.co.ukAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#full-stupid

Saturday, August 8, 2026

imperialism

trump state department discovers british politics, starts paying to ruin it

The US embassy in London, pausing briefly from hosting receptions to see how much MAGA you can cram into a Magna Carta anniversary grant.

The US embassy in London, pausing briefly from hosting receptions to see how much MAGA you can cram into a Magna Carta anniversary grant.

The Trump administration has decided that wrecking American democracy just isn’t a big enough canvas, so the US embassy in London is now dangling up to $500,000 a pop for "public education" projects that celebrate "shared civilizational values" like freedom of speech, limited government, and—very specifically—MAGA talking points. The scheme, cutely branded “Liberty Under Law: The Shared Anglo-American Tradition,” is supposedly about the Magna Carta, which famously limited tyrants—something Trump has treated more as a to-do list than a warning label. Even better, the program’s priority is projects that can measurably move "public discourse" and media coverage, i.e. government-funded narrative engineering dressed up as civics class. This new initiative comes on top of a separate $12m pot the State Department is planning to funnel to UK outfits founded by Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young, because if you’re building a transatlantic reactionary alliance, why not go straight to the discount bin of British conservatism. Current and former US diplomats are quietly horrified, noting that it’s not normal for "public diplomacy" to be this openly tailored to America First culture-war obsessions, or for the embassy to brag about creating "UK-originated narratives" to sell MAGA propaganda back home. Meanwhile, the same embassy is also offering grants to "ensure support for Israel’s right to defend itself" and to counter China, with language that skips the usual polite fiction of "understanding US policy" and jumps straight to "persuade them to agree with us." When accused of meddling in British democracy, the embassy helpfully responded that it had shut down all that terrible Biden-era "climate justice" and LGBTQ stuff, which apparently wasn’t meddling, and replaced it with ideologically purified MAGA-flavored influence ops, which somehow is. So yes: the administration being sued by the American Bar Association for lawyer intimidation is now lecturing the UK about the "rule of law" and "ordered liberty," while European legal groups compare Trump’s attacks on attorneys to the road to fascism. Nothing says "shared values" like exporting your creeping authoritarian project as a heritage-themed grant opportunity.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

imperialism

trump unveils gaza peace plan, reality does not get the memo

The Board of Peace, seen here attempting to negotiate with gravity, watches its Gaza plan plummet on contact with reality.

The Board of Peace, seen here attempting to negotiate with gravity, watches its Gaza plan plummet on contact with reality.

Trump’s brand‑new 15‑point Gaza peace plan barely made it out of the press release phase before running into its natural predator: actual events. Within days of the big announcement about “peace and security,” Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people in Gaza, with earlier bombings hitting medical supply warehouses because nothing says “confidence in the process” like cratering health infrastructure. Israel, notably, hasn’t even signed this thing and is already publicly distancing itself from the “version that has been made public,” which is diplomatic code for we’re not owning this mess. The Trump‑created "Board of Peace" — a name that sounds like it was brainstormed by a focus group of branding consultants and defense contractors — is pushing a plan centered on Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal, and a new Gaza administration, but somehow skipped the part where the key military actor agrees to any of it. Even Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza and an actual grown‑up diplomat, is issuing rare criticism of Israel over the attacks. So Trump’s grand design for Gaza is already being shredded by the combination of airstrikes, vague timelines, and zero enforceable commitments. It’s classic Trump foreign policy: slap a triumphant label on an incoherent framework, outsource the hard parts to reality, and hope nobody notices that “peace” is mostly being delivered via explosives.
nytimes.comSource ArticleAlso: nytimes.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

imperialism

israeli envoy promises ‘more power’ for gaza, trump promises more war for everyone else

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon explains how peace works: if bombing doesn’t solve it, clearly you just haven’t bombed hard enough.

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon explains how peace works: if bombing doesn’t solve it, clearly you just haven’t bombed hard enough.

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon went on TV to calmly announce that Israel will "apply more power" in Gaza if Hamas doesn’t disarm — because nothing says "rules-based international order" like threatening to turn a besieged strip of land into a live-fire demonstration if your demands aren’t met. It’s the kind of language that sounds a lot less like diplomacy and a lot more like a protection racket with F-16s. While Danon is promising upgraded destruction in Gaza, the Trump administration is busy on the same broadcast cycle talking about how it’s "our turn to hit" Iran, as if global conflict is a Little League game and not, say, mass death. The White House line remains beautifully consistent: maximum threats, minimum strategy, and international law treated as a sort of optional EULA you scroll past on the way to the bombing. So the U.S. and its favorite client state are now doing a joint PR tour where one threatens to escalate in Gaza and the other threatens to escalate with Iran, all wrapped in the usual "self-defense" branding. The message from Trump’s America to the rest of the world is clear: disarm, surrender, or we’ll help our friends "apply more power" until there’s nothing left to argue about.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
imperialism

missile diplomacy for a country that keeps losing the plot

Pentagon officials bravely stare at a satellite image, hoping this time the map has an 'undo' button for 40 years of foreign policy cosplay.

Pentagon officials bravely stare at a satellite image, hoping this time the map has an 'undo' button for 40 years of foreign policy cosplay.

Iran has launched a surprise missile attack on U.S. forces in the Middle East, because decades of bipartisan foreign policy malpractice apparently weren’t quite combustible enough without Trump’s ‘what if we just blow up the Iran deal and wing it’ legacy marinating in the background. American troops are now literally under fire in a region where Washington has treated bases like Airbnb listings and diplomacy like a Fox News segment. Officials are doing the usual "we’re assessing the situation" routine, which is D.C.-speak for "we have no idea how to unwind the last several administrations’ worth of performative chest-thumping, sanctions cosplay, and photo-op tough talk." The same political class that spent years insisting we were "restoring deterrence" is now shocked that a country repeatedly threatened with regime change and surrounded by U.S. hardware might, at some point, start shooting back. Meanwhile, the media is already lining up the greatest hits: maps with ominous arrows, retired generals who helped create this mess explaining it to us like they just arrived from space, and Very Serious Pundits asking whether we’ve been "tough enough." The only thing we won’t get is accountability for the geniuses who turned the Middle East into a permanent live-fire backdrop for American politics — from Trump ripping up the nuclear deal for applause lines to everyone else pretending that was a cost-free stunt.
today.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

imperialism

ukraine discovers the laura loomer lobby

Laura Loomer surveys a war zone while auditioning to be Secretary of State for People With 3 Million Followers and No Actual Expertise.

Laura Loomer surveys a war zone while auditioning to be Secretary of State for People With 3 Million Followers and No Actual Expertise.

Laura Loomer, professional MAGA fire alarm and Trump’s favorite conspiracy megaphone, just got a guided tour of war-ravaged Ukraine — red carpet, rubble, and all. For years she’s called Ukraine a "Nazi state" and railed against US aid, but after being flown around the destruction like it’s a very bleak influencer collab, she’s now decided she was duped by "Russian propaganda" and is suddenly very sorry to President Zelensky.

The BBC politely calls this a "shift in stance"; the rest of us call it what it is: a test run for the Trump-era foreign policy model, where geopolitics is outsourced to whichever loyalist with a ring light and a Telegram channel can get five minutes with Trump between golf holes. Ukrainian officials clearly see Loomer as a potential backchannel into a future Trump White House, because nothing says "serious ally in a major land war" like courting the woman whose brand is being too unhinged for most right-wing platforms.

So now, instead of dealing with diplomats, policy experts, or people who can find Ukraine on a map without squinting, we’re looking at Zelensky trying to secure his country’s survival by managing the vibes of the MAGA influencer ecosystem. If Trump wins, State Department cables might as well be replaced with DMs to whoever last rage-posted about "globalists" on Truth Social — and Loomer just auditioned for the role.

bbc.co.ukSource Article
#imperialism#forever-grifting

Friday, July 24, 2026

imperialism

trump builds a wall, kills a spring, saves exactly zero americans

The Sonoyta pupfish, whose survival unfortunately depends on winning a policy fight against a guy who thought you could nuke hurricanes.

The Sonoyta pupfish, whose survival unfortunately depends on winning a policy fight against a guy who thought you could nuke hurricanes.

The Sonoran desert has this tiny miracle called Quitobaquito Springs, a sacred oasis to the O’odham people and the only wild home on Earth for the Sonoyta pupfish and springsnails, plus the last US habitat for the Sonoyta mud turtle. So naturally, the Trump administration looked at this irreplaceable biological wonder and said: perfect spot for a 30ft steel tantrum.

Back in 2020, Trump’s crew jammed a border wall through Organ Pipe Cactus national monument, cracked the pond lining, and watched the spring flow crash to an all-time low while the habitat partially dried up. Now a second 30ft wall is planned just 90–150 feet north of the first one, which would likely bulldoze part of the pond and level federally recognized critical habitat for the mud turtle – all to "secure" a stretch of border where crossings are now basically nonexistent.

The punchline: even when crossings were higher in 2023–24, people just went through the wall and turned themselves in to seek asylum, proving the barrier is environmentally catastrophic but functionally useless. Researchers, Indigenous leaders, and environmentalists are warning that this sequel project could wipe out multiple imperiled species so Trump can preserve the one truly thriving organism in his orbit: the border-security grift ecosystem.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#anti-immigration#anti-science

Monday, July 20, 2026

imperialism

president 'retribution' discovers foreign policy

Trump, framed by flags and gravely reading off the teleprompter, preparing to convert other people’s children into his next talking point about being “tough on Iran.”

Trump, framed by flags and gravely reading off the teleprompter, preparing to convert other people’s children into his next talking point about being “tough on Iran.”

Trump is back on TV promising "revenge" on Iran for the killing of U.S. service members, because nothing says sober commander-in-chief like turning global conflict into a live-action sequel to his rally speeches. He’s not talking strategy, alliances, or de-escalation; he’s selling vengeance like it’s campaign merch, while the Pentagon quietly tries to translate "I WILL HIT THEM VERY HARD" into something that won't trigger Article 5 or a global oil shock. The segment notes that the Iran war has already helped push gas prices back over $4 a gallon, which is a neat trick: turn American troops into props, ignite a regional conflict, then hand the bill to everyone filling up a tank. Thoughts and prayers to the stock buybacks. The human cost? Folded into B-roll of flag-draped coffins and emotional funerals, while Trump treats the deaths as fresh justification to flex his "tough" brand for the cameras. This isn’t deterrence; it’s reality TV foreign policy with live ammunition. A president who already built his domestic platform on "retribution" is now exporting that instinct abroad, turning U.S. military power into a personal grievance machine. The troops are doing the dying, families are doing the mourning, and Trump is doing what he always does: using someone else’s tragedy as a backdrop for his next performative threat.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: npr.orgAlso: npr.org
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy

Thursday, July 16, 2026

imperialism

trump thanks iran for hostage release while bombing it

Trump, graciously thanking Iran for its 'gesture of goodwill' while US jets are busy turning that goodwill into rubble.

Trump, graciously thanking Iran for its 'gesture of goodwill' while US jets are busy turning that goodwill into rubble.

Donald Trump took a brief break from bombing Iran to hop on social media and offer Tehran a warm thank you for releasing an American citizen they "wrongfully detained" since 2024. The woman, now identified as dual citizen Dena Karari, had been banned from leaving Iran after visiting family, then charged with espionage after the US joined Israel in bombing the country in 2025. So yes, the administration helped free an American that its own war helped put in even more danger. Mission accomplished. Karari’s lawyer, Jared Genser – a human rights attorney with an actual record of freeing political prisoners – credited the "extraordinary and relentless efforts" of the president. Conveniently, this praise arrives just as Trump is trying to sell the public on his latest round of airstrikes, power plant hits, and general Middle East chaos. Perfect timing: turn a woman who runs a charity for underprivileged kids into a photo-op for the guy dropping bombs on the country that imprisoned her. So we get the full Trump package: a war that manufactures more hostages, a public love note to the regime we’re attacking, and a victory lap built on someone else’s suffering and someone else’s legal work. American foreign policy under Trump continues to resemble a hostage negotiation run by a demolition crew.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy