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

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

imperialism

trump slow-walks iran peace, fast-tracks $4.56 gas

Trump at Joint Base Andrews, explaining that he’s in “no hurry” to stop the war that just turned your gas tank into a luxury item.

Trump at Joint Base Andrews, explaining that he’s in “no hurry” to stop the war that just turned your gas tank into a luxury item.

Trump’s foreign policy team — i.e., the voices in his head and whoever called last from Riyadh — has announced that the United States is in “no hurry” to make a deal with Iran, even as his three-month-old war shreds global energy markets and torches Americans’ paychecks at the pump. Standing at Joint Base Andrews, Trump bragged, “We’re going to give this one shot… I’m in no hurry,” casually treating a major shooting war like a reality show renewal decision. This came one day after he told lawmakers at the White House picnic that “we’re going to end the war very quickly,” proving that the administration’s strategic doctrine is whatever nonsense he said most recently into a microphone. The president also claimed he delayed an attack on Iran at the request of leaders from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — a helpful reminder that U.S. war-and-peace decisions are now apparently made by the same Gulf monarchies that have Trump properties on speed dial. While he dithers, the Pentagon is boarding Iranian-flagged oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman to enforce a U.S. naval blockade, energy prices are detonating, and the national average for gas is about $4.56 a gallon headed into Memorial Day. But Trump insists he’s “in no hurry,” unless you count the hurry to use the war as a midterm prop while everyone else pays for his tough-guy cosplay. Meanwhile, every state in the country is now over $4 a gallon, voters are furious, and Republicans are frantically trying to spin this as 4D chess rather than a one-man demolition derby of U.S. foreign policy and household budgets. Polls show Americans increasingly hate how he’s handling the conflict, which is inconvenient for a party that signed up for the full “strongman” package and instead got a guy treating a deadly international crisis like a gas-price-themed campaign rally. End the war quickly, don’t end the war, maybe end it later — who can say? Certainly not the commander in chief.
thehill.comSource ArticleAlso: npr.orgAlso: nytimes.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism

little marco does big-boy imperialism

Marco Rubio, fresh from overthrowing Venezuela by remote control, practices his 'trust me while I starve you' face for the Cuban audience.

Marco Rubio, fresh from overthrowing Venezuela by remote control, practices his 'trust me while I starve you' face for the Cuban audience.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated Cuba’s independence from Spain and U.S. military occupation by… urging Cubans to get right back under Washington’s thumb, this time under the benevolent guidance of Donald J. Trump. In a slick State Department video, Rubio tells the Cuban people that Trump is offering them a "new path" — which, coincidentally, begins right after the part where the U.S. topples Venezuela’s government, seizes its oil industry, and cuts off Cuba’s fuel like a landlord turning off the heat to win an argument.

Rubio gravely explains that Cuba’s 22-hour blackouts have nothing to do with an American-enforced oil blockade and everything to do with Raúl Castro and GAESA plundering the country. The fact that Washington just took control of the region’s gas pump and slapped a "no oil for Havana" sign on it is, apparently, a minor footnote. While the Trump administration slaps new sanctions on top Cuban officials and tightens the economic screws, Rubio beams in Spanish subtitles about freedom and a "new Cuba" — the kind of freedom that arrives packaged with U.S. indictments, embargoes, and strategic starvation.

So on the anniversary of Cuba’s independence from foreign rule, the top U.S. diplomat appears on YouTube to say: your government is corrupt, your lights are out because of them, and your best bet is to side with the people blockading your oil. It’s less diplomacy and more protection racket: nice little island you’ve got there — shame if anything else happened to your fuel supply.

nytimes.comSource ArticleAlso: nytimes.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Sunday, May 17, 2026

imperialism

trump discovers cuba is not one of his golf courses

Donald Trump eyes a map of the Caribbean like a bored landlord deciding which property to evict next.

Donald Trump eyes a map of the Caribbean like a bored landlord deciding which property to evict next.

While Trump is in Beijing playing dress‑up as a global statesman, his administration is busy strangling Cuba’s power grid like it’s a reality show elimination challenge. A US-imposed fuel blockade has helped trigger nationwide blackouts, shuttered schools and universities, and left hospitals scrambling to keep patients alive. UN experts are politely calling this "unlawful" and "collective punishment" instead of the more accurate term: sanctions cosplay with 11 million hostages. Back in Washington, the regime-change fan fiction is going great. Trump brags about the kidnapping of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and announces that "Cuba is next," like he’s picking his next property acquisition. Federal prosecutors are reportedly cooking up an indictment for 94-year-old Raúl Castro, because nothing screams "serious rule of law" like weaponizing the DOJ against foreign leaders while you’re openly musing about "taking" their country. CIA director John Ratcliffe has already flown in to deliver the mob-style demands: economic restructuring, closing Chinese and Russian intel posts, and, oh yes, removing President Miguel Díaz‑Canel. Totally normal diplomacy, definitely not a protection racket with better stationary. Marco Rubio, now secretary of state and still America’s most humorless Florida man, is there to provide the ethnic cover for this reheated Bay of Pigs fan service. Cuban migration has surged, so the administration’s brilliant solution is to make the island unlivable and then brag when fewer people can afford to flee. Meanwhile, US officials sniff that limited Cuban economic openings aren’t enough, because what they really want is a big-bang "reform" package that just happens to shower benefits on US corporations and a handful of well-connected figures inside Cuba’s military conglomerate Gaesa. You know, freedom. The punchline: Trump once wanted to build hotels and golf courses in Havana, and now he talks casually of "taking" Cuba, as if it were an underperforming resort he can just rebrand. The Cuban people, stuck choosing between ongoing collapse, a sordid U.S.-dictated carve-up, or the nightmare of a military attack, are once again treated as background extras in Washington’s imperial nostalgia project. Trump may think he can do "anything" he wants to the island, but despite his best efforts, the Western Hemisphere is not Mar-a-Lago with better cigars.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism

trump promised cheaper prices, delivered $4.52 gas and vibes

President Trump explains that he does not, in fact, think about Americans’ financial situation, while standing behind a lectern paid for by Americans’ financial situation.

President Trump explains that he does not, in fact, think about Americans’ financial situation, while standing behind a lectern paid for by Americans’ financial situation.

Trump rode back into office promising to "bring prices down" and instead managed to speedrun the economy straight into a 1970s nostalgia night. After launching and escalating a war with Iran, gas is now averaging about $4.52 a gallon nationwide, up more than 40 percent from a year ago, and dragging the cost of basically everything else along for the ride. Inflation is rising faster than wages, business costs are spiking like it’s 2022 again, household debt is climbing, savings are shrinking, and consumer confidence just face-planted to an all-time low.

Confronted with this mess, the president offered the sort of empathetic leadership you’d expect from a guy who puts his name on gold toilets: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.” That’s not a gaffe, that’s the mission statement. The war he chose is shredding family budgets, but the White House is too busy cosplaying tough-guy geopolitics to notice the grocery bill. The voters who bought "cheap gas" and "great deals" are now discovering that the Trump discount economy comes with a 40 percent markup and a side of "you’re on your own."
nytimes.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: nytimes.com
#imperialism#forever-grifting#leopards-ate-my-face
imperialism

strongmen are suddenly looking… weak?

Trump, Netanyahu and Putin gaze into the middle distance, apparently searching for their lost approval ratings and any remaining shred of competence.

Trump, Netanyahu and Putin gaze into the middle distance, apparently searching for their lost approval ratings and any remaining shred of competence.

Global strongman cosplay seems to be hitting its sell-by date. Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine adventure has turned into a years-long meat grinder with an estimated 350,000 Russian soldiers dead, sanctions chewing through the economy, and so much paranoia in Moscow that the guy who poisons people for a living is now reportedly worried about being poisoned or couped himself. When your Victory Day parade gets downsized because you’re scared of Ukrainian drones, the whole ‘new Russian empire’ thing starts to look less like Stalin and more like a failing MLM scheme.

Over in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is discovering that running a permanent war state while under corruption indictment has some minor downsides. He failed to stop the 7 October 2023 attacks, refused a real inquiry, promised to ‘destroy’ Hamas and didn’t, helped launch a catastrophic US–Israel war in Iran with Trump, choked off the Strait of Hormuz, and is still clinging to an illegal occupation in Lebanon. Now he’s limping toward an election where the ballot question is basically: ‘Would you like to keep the indicted warmonger who broke the judiciary and tanked the economy, or try literally anything else?’

And then there’s Donald Trump, the discount autocrat in a gold-plated suit, who managed to turn America’s Iran misadventure into a domestic inflation machine and then pretended the people paying $7 for eggs don’t exist. His greatest hits: trade wars that punch Americans in the face, climate denial while the planet cooks, open contempt for NATO, and a never-ending crush on fellow authoritarians, most recently on display as he swooned over Xi in Beijing like a reality TV fan at a meet-and-greet. Foreign policy disaster, economic pain, creeping imperial fantasies – it’s all there, and yet his big political problem might simply be that voters notice their wallets are empty.

The hopeful twist, if you squint, is that all three of these guys – Putin, Netanyahu, Trump – are finally bleeding political capital. Their approval ratings are sliding, their wars are unpopular, their economies are wobbling, and their once-inevitable strongman narratives are starting to look more like a bunch of aging bullies who stayed too long at the party. The bar for ‘hope’ is now so low that merely watching would-be autocrats trip over their own disasters counts as optimism.

theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Saturday, May 16, 2026

imperialism

truth social naval command reports another very presidential kill

Trump strides to Marine One, presumably to personally direct global counterterrorism from 30,000 feet and a phone full of draft Truth Social posts.

Trump strides to Marine One, presumably to personally direct global counterterrorism from 30,000 feet and a phone full of draft Truth Social posts.

Donald Trump took a brief break from posting in all caps to announce that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, described as ISIS’ second-in-command, was killed in Africa in a joint U.S.–Nigeria operation. The statement, naturally, came not from the Pentagon briefing room or a sober national security address, but from Trump’s favorite war diary, Truth Social, where he declared that “at my direction” American and Nigerian forces “flawlessly” carried out a “very complex mission.” Subtle hint: if you can’t hear the campaign ad voiceover when you read it, you’re not trying. The actual counterterrorism details are thin, but the self-congratulation is doing just fine. A globally designated terrorist is dead, ISIS remains the “world’s largest Islamic terrorist organization,” and Trump is out here narrating covert operations like they’re a branded product launch. The military handles the risk, the partners do the on-the-ground work, and the guy who discovered executive power as a personal PR agency grabs the headline and slaps his name on the operation like it’s another golf course.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#imperialism#national-security

Friday, May 15, 2026

imperialism

little marco, big empire energy

Secretary of State Marco Rubio carefully explaining that when the U.S. targets foreign leaders and ramps up great‑power brinkmanship, it’s not imperial overreach, it’s just "freedom" with better lighting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio carefully explaining that when the U.S. targets foreign leaders and ramps up great‑power brinkmanship, it’s not imperial overreach, it’s just "freedom" with better lighting.

Marco Rubio, now apparently Secretary of State in the same way Elon Musk was apparently a serious policymaker, sits down with Tom Llamas for a 22‑minute audition tape for Most Responsible Adult in the Room. NBC packages it with segments on Trump’s "high-stakes" China summit, a U.S. bid to indict Raúl Castro, and an Iran-linked terror suspect, so the vibe is less "diplomacy" and more "Rubio tours the empire and explains why everything is totally normal."

While Trump tries to cosplay Kissinger in Beijing, Rubio dutifully sells the administration line: pressure China, threaten Cuba, flex on Iran, and hope no one notices that Congress has been reduced to a studio audience. It’s the familiar Trump-era formula — executive power doing donuts in the parking lot of international law — with Rubio playing the role of the soft-spoken guy who explains why permanent crisis is actually very responsible foreign policy.

The segment list reads like a State Department mood board: indict a foreign leader, hype a terror threat, and then cut to pandas and robots because nothing says "stable democracy" like whiplash between authoritarian legal experiments and feel‑good B‑roll. Rubio’s job here isn’t diplomacy; it’s marketing. He’s the clean-cut sales rep for a White House that treats geopolitics as a TV season arc, complete with a China summit cliffhanger and a Cuba subplot where U.S. indictments double as campaign ads in Miami.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism

trump’s war on boats racks up a body count, still loses to fentanyl

According to the Trump doctrine, these men were retroactively promoted from ‘fishermen and laborers’ to ‘narco-terrorists’ the moment a US missile hit their boat.

According to the Trump doctrine, these men were retroactively promoted from ‘fishermen and laborers’ to ‘narco-terrorists’ the moment a US missile hit their boat.

The Trump administration’s big, tough-on-crime innovation turns out to be blowing up fishing boats full of poor people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific and then not bothering to learn their names. A five‑month investigation by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) has now identified 13 of the 194 victims of these US military strikes – almost all young men from desperately poor communities, some with no sign of involvement in drug trafficking at all. The White House line is that they were all "narco-terrorists"; the evidence suggests they were just expendable brown bodies in Trump’s re-election cosplay of Narcos meets Call of Duty. Instead of dismantling cartels or slowing the drug flow, the strikes have accomplished something else entirely: terrorizing coastal communities into hunger. People stopped fishing for weeks out of fear the US might bomb them next, because nothing says "defending American freedom" like making Venezuelan and Caribbean families starve so Trump can brag about "taking the fight to the traffickers" at a rally. Local officials and prosecutors won’t talk, terrified of crossing Washington, so journalists and NGOs had to do the work of basic human identification while the Pentagon treats 194 deaths like a clerical rounding error. The most damning part? Investigations show these strikes have not reduced the drug supply to the US. What they have reduced is the number of poor Latin Americans still alive to be accused of narco-terrorism from beyond the grave. Trump gets his macho talking points, the military gets a blank check to bomb whoever looks suspicious from 10,000 feet, and the only people held accountable are the families who dare file lawsuits against the White House for killing their relatives. American justice abroad: judge, jury, and Hellfire missile, with the paperwork left blank.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy#lawlessness

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

imperialism

trump discovers genocide is negotiable

Protesters wave East Turkestan and U.S. flags outside the White House, still under the quaint illusion that Washington’s moral outrage lasts longer than one election cycle and a trade negotiation.

Protesters wave East Turkestan and U.S. flags outside the White House, still under the quaint illusion that Washington’s moral outrage lasts longer than one election cycle and a trade negotiation.

During Trump’s first term, the State Department officially labeled China’s mass detention and surveillance of Uyghurs a genocide, slapped sanctions on Chinese officials, and blocked imports tied to forced labor. On his last full day in office, they rushed out a genocide determination like a farewell press release to moral clarity.

Fast-forward to the Trump sequel: Uyghurs and Xinjiang have effectively vanished from the script. At Trump’s big Beijing summit with Xi Jinping, the agenda is trade, the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and Taiwan — you know, issues you can monetize — while the ongoing mass repression of Uyghurs gets demoted to "maybe he’ll mention a couple prisoners if there’s time between photo ops." Human rights advocates and Uyghur diaspora communities are reduced to hoping the guy who once praised Xi’s "strong" leadership remembers that genocide isn’t a scheduling conflict.

The article notes that attention to Uyghur abuses has been fading, "especially now under Trump," as his administration’s interest in human rights craters in favor of transactional deal-making. So the country that once "led the way" on calling out Beijing’s crimes is now treating a genocide designation like a coupon code you can quietly stop honoring when it gets in the way of the merch line.
nytimes.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
imperialism

trump threatens to 'liberate' cuba, sends refugees to the gulag annex

Guantánamo Bay, the Trump administration’s idea of a welcome center: now serving torture nostalgia and fresh refugees from US-made crises.

Guantánamo Bay, the Trump administration’s idea of a welcome center: now serving torture nostalgia and fresh refugees from US-made crises.

The Trump administration is workshopping a new foreign policy doctrine: create the crisis, then detain the survivors. After slapping Cuba with a fuel blockade that helped trigger a grave humanitarian crisis, Trump keeps publicly musing about just taking over the island and doing a little regime change cosplay. He’s already bragged that “Cuba is next” after his Delta Force kidnapping attempt on Maduro, because nothing says "respect for sovereignty" like treating Latin America as a live-action Call of Duty map. While Trump dreams of annexing other people’s countries, more than 30 members of Congress are reduced to sending strongly worded letters begging his cabinet to rule out unlawful military action and to stop using Guantánamo Bay as a handy off-shore storage unit for desperate migrants fleeing the very chaos US policy helped create. The Pentagon helpfully testified that, in case of a "humanitarian crisis" in Cuba, they’d set up a migrant "camp" at Gitmo to "deal with" people. Translation: expand the war-on-terror black site into a Caribbean refugee warehouse, because if there’s one place with a "well-documented record of abuse" you definitely want to recycle, it’s Guantánamo. Lawmakers point out the obvious: US policies are deliberately hammering Cuban civilians, displacing them, and then Trump’s team wants to lock those same people up at a military base famous for torture and indefinite detention. That’s not migration policy, it’s containment of your own man-made disaster. The administration, naturally, did not respond to requests for comment—probably too busy checking which countries still have oil and insufficient air defenses.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#anti-immigration#killing-democracy

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

imperialism

europe discovers it doesn’t actually have to simp for trump

Donald Trump staring at a map of Europe like it’s a real estate brochure, wondering which NATO member comes with a golf course.

Donald Trump staring at a map of Europe like it’s a real estate brochure, wondering which NATO member comes with a golf course.

Europe has finally clocked that Donald Trump is less all-powerful God-Emperor and more loud landlord with a foreclosure notice. German chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly says Trump’s Iran war has no exit strategy and that Tehran has "humiliated" the US, which is diplomatic code for "this guy has no idea what he’s doing." Macron, Starmer, and even Giorgia Meloni are now treating Trump like what he is: a security risk with nuclear codes.

Trump and JD Vance tried to rig vibes in Hungary for Viktor Orbán and face-planted, then floated the idea of buying Greenland again, because why stop at bankrupt casinos when you can move on to NATO allies. Europe noticed that the US actually needs European bases for its Iran misadventure, that Ukraine is now mostly funded and armed by Europe and Ukraine itself, and that a lot of Trump’s chest-thumping gets kneecapped by courts, Congress, and his own Maga clown car. Translation: the leverage isn’t what it used to be.

So the EU is sharpening the knives. If Trump slaps higher tariffs on European cars, Brussels has a €93bn retaliation package ready to go, plus an "anti-coercion instrument" aimed at US hi-tech companies for when the Greenland land-grab fantasy inevitably returns. Europe is pouring more money into its own arms industry, "de-risking" from US defense and digital services, and discovering that standing up to Trump actually boosts their poll numbers. Turns out the aura of invincibility fades once everyone realizes the strongman can’t even successfully bully Hungary.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: today.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Monday, May 11, 2026

imperialism

trump threatens to invade nato ally, gets… three bases and a cookie

Vice-President JD Vance inspects Greenland, presumably checking how hard it would be to "own" it without calling it an invasion on the paperwork.

Vice-President JD Vance inspects Greenland, presumably checking how hard it would be to "own" it without calling it an invasion on the paperwork.

Trump announced in January that the US should "own" Greenland and that it could happen the "easy way" or the "hard way"—which is a charming way to describe threatening a NATO ally with invasion like it’s a mob shakedown for an ice-covered protection racket. Months later, the administration is now in "professional" closed-door talks with Denmark and Greenland to open up to three new US bases in southern Greenland, some of which Washington wants designated as US sovereign territory. Colonialism is back, and this time it’s wearing a red hat and asking nicely only because the lawyers got nervous. Negotiations are being run by State Department official Michael Needham, whose job description appears to be: "convert the president’s televised war fantasies into something that doesn’t trigger Article 5." Denmark and Greenland are trying to frame this as normal alliance cooperation, while everyone quietly pretends the whole "we could just seize it" thing never happened. Meanwhile, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Governor Jeff Landry, has been completely sidelined, because apparently even this White House has some threshold for useless cosplay tough guys. All this is supposedly about countering Russia and China in the GIUK Gap, which is a real strategic concern, but US officials themselves admit they could have gotten a base deal without threatening an invasion. Instead, the administration went with the "hostile takeover" pitch first, then circled back to diplomacy when that proved unpopular with, you know, every other democracy involved. The end result: a NATO ally gets bullied, US militarization in the Arctic quietly expands, and Trump still gets to brag that he "won" Greenland without technically annexing it—yet.
bbc.comSource Article
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy

Sunday, May 10, 2026

imperialism

putin says his war is ‘coming to an end,’ maga hears ‘mission accomplished’

Putin calmly explaining his war is almost over, presumably because his favorite Western politicians are working hard to make sure Ukraine runs out of ammo first.

Putin calmly explaining his war is almost over, presumably because his favorite Western politicians are working hard to make sure Ukraine runs out of ammo first.

Vladimir Putin popped up on U.S. morning TV to announce that he believes the Ukraine war is "coming to an end," which is a bold statement from the guy who started it and keeps shoveling bodies into the furnace. Somewhere in Mar-a-Lago, the guy who tried to extort Ukraine for dirt and spent four years slobbering over Putin is almost certainly nodding along like this is a statesman delivering peace, not a war criminal trying to spin a stalemate.

American media dutifully airs the soundbite while the U.S. right keeps asking why we should help Ukraine at all, as if Trump didn’t already spend an entire presidency weakening NATO, echoing Kremlin talking points, and treating Zelensky like a customer service rep he could bully. Now Putin gets to float the idea that the war is wrapping up just as MAGA Republicans push to cut aid, giving him exactly what he wants: fewer weapons for Ukraine and more time for him to declare whatever shredded line on the map he holds as "victory."

So yes, the man who invaded a sovereign democracy says the war is nearly over, and the American authoritarian fan club—Trump, Vance, Rubio when the wind’s blowing that way—are all too happy to help him get there by kneecapping support for Kyiv. Ending a war is easy when your friends in U.S. politics keep turning off the lights for the people you invaded.
today.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Saturday, May 9, 2026

imperialism

state department waits for iran’s email while pentagon hits ‘reply all’ with missiles

Nothing like a sunrise over the Gulf to really set the mood for some totally-not-a-war freedom missiles.

Nothing like a sunrise over the Gulf to really set the mood for some totally-not-a-war freedom missiles.

The U.S. is apparently testing a bold new diplomatic strategy: send Iran a proposal, then start shooting at Iranian tankers while you wait for them to open their inbox. According to the report, American forces have fired on multiple Iranian-linked ships even as Washington insists it’s still seeking a diplomatic off-ramp. Because nothing says "good faith negotiations" like backing up your peace offer with live ammunition. This is the same old bipartisan imperial muscle memory: presidents talk about "de-escalation" while the military quietly escalates, Congress takes a long nap on its war powers, and cable news anchors ask whether the strikes were "tough enough" instead of "legal". We’re now at the phase of U.S. foreign policy where the State Department drafts careful talking points and the Pentagon just speed-runs a Tom Clancy novel in the background. While officials coyly describe these as "targeted defensive actions," the reality is the U.S. is once again playing demolition derby in international waters without anything resembling a declared war or meaningful oversight. It’s a great arrangement if you’re a defense contractor or an aspiring strongman president who likes the optics of "decisive action" and none of the hassle of constitutional constraints. For everyone else, it’s just another reminder that the Forever War never actually ended; it just got rebranded as "force protection" and moved to a different map tile on the globe.
today.comSource ArticleAlso: today.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy

Thursday, May 7, 2026

imperialism

saudi arabia discovers it’s actually the commander-in-chief

Trump’s Middle East strategy team, pictured here: one map, zero spine, and a speakerphone permanently set to Riyadh.

Trump’s Middle East strategy team, pictured here: one map, zero spine, and a speakerphone permanently set to Riyadh.

American foreign policy continues its exciting new pilot program: outsourcing decisions to whichever oil monarchy yells loudest. Trump reportedly had a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz – a crucial global shipping artery and not, as one might assume from this administration, a new Trump-branded golf water hazard – but then Saudi Arabia weighed in and suddenly the plan went the way of his oath of office. So instead of a coherent U.S. strategy in the Gulf, we get the Crown Prince Customer Rewards Program, where Riyadh calls, Trump folds, and the Pentagon pretends this is all part of some 4‑D chess “maximum pressure” scheme. Meanwhile, global energy markets hang on the whims of a guy who once held up U.S. weapons sales charts on live TV like a QVC host for cluster bombs. Diplomacy, in theory, is about balancing American interests, allies, and stability. Under Trump, it’s about checking which autocrat last rented an entire hotel floor, then reverse‑engineering national security to match the receipt. The Strait of Hormuz may be narrow, but the gap between U.S. sovereignty and Saudi leverage is getting impressively wide.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#oligarchy#national-security

Monday, May 4, 2026

imperialism

project freedom: now with extra mines and no war (trump swears)

Artist’s impression of ‘Project Freedom’: a minefield, three navies, 20,000 trapped sailors, and one guy on Truth Social insisting this is not a war.

Artist’s impression of ‘Project Freedom’: a minefield, three navies, 20,000 trapped sailors, and one guy on Truth Social insisting this is not a war.

The Trump administration has proudly unveiled “Project Freedom”, a plan to "guide" hundreds of ships trapped in the Gulf through a new route in the Strait of Hormuz — a route so safe that the Joint Maritime Information Center is frantically warning everyone to avoid the usual lanes because of all the mines. Trump pitched this on Truth Social as a humanitarian operation “on behalf of” Iran, which is a bold framing choice for a guy who just helped bomb them and then slapped a counter-blockade on their ports. Iran, for its part, has responded with the diplomatic equivalent of “touch that water and we shoot you,” insisting no ship moves without coordinating with its armed forces and warning it will attack any foreign military force approaching the strait, “especially the aggressive US army.” Meanwhile, US Central Command swears this is not an escort mission, just “support” with guided-missile destroyers, 100+ aircraft, drones, and 15,000 troops. You know, normal background scenery for a strictly-not-a-war operation. Over 850 ships and about 20,000 sailors are stuck in this floating monument to strategic genius, with Iran calling unapproved transits a ceasefire violation and Trump threatening to respond “forcefully” to any interference in his humanitarian stunt. Macron is politely backing away from the whole thing, saying Europe won’t join an operation whose framework “seems unclear,” which is a very French way of saying “this is insane.” Trump, who just told Congress the US is not at war, is simultaneously telling Florida retirees “you know we’re in a war,” while dangling the possibility of “very positive” talks with Iran as markets prepare to open. So everything’s fine, unless you’re a sailor, an Iranian, an Israeli, or anyone who thought Congress still had a say in when the US goes to war.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#lawlessness#national-security

Sunday, May 3, 2026

imperialism

trump bombs the gulf, accidentally invents a climate policy

Donald Trump, seen here explaining that windmills cause cancer while his Iran war accidentally turbocharges global demand for them.

Donald Trump, seen here explaining that windmills cause cancer while his Iran war accidentally turbocharges global demand for them.

Operation Epic Fury is off to a roaring success if the goal was not winning a war but triggering a global energy panic and forcing the world to finally break up with oil. Trump is bragging that Iran is “choking like a stuffed pig” under a US-led blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran’s supreme leader is basically promising that foreign navies can enjoy the strait from the bottom of the ocean. Everyone else is just watching their fuel bills explode.

As oil and gas prices go vertical, governments from Laos to Nepal are rationing energy like it’s a dystopian game show: three-day school weeks, half-filled cooking gas cylinders, and a lot of people wondering why their food and fertilizer now cost the same as a used car. High-income countries get “painful”; poorer ones get “catastrophic”. But there’s a plot twist: this fossil-fuel crisis is shoving the world faster toward clean energy — the thing Trump treats like it personally insulted his golf courses. EV sales are surging, renewables projects are replacing gas terminals, and even leaders like South Korea’s president are publicly admitting that betting on fossil fuels is a great way to lose your future.

While Trump works overtime to slow clean energy at home, other countries are looking at Hormuz, deciding they’d rather not have their economies held hostage by a shipping lane, and sprinting toward solar, wind, batteries, and nuclear. The UAE is bailing on Opec to dump as much oil as possible before the party ends, analysts are openly talking about “energy reserve accumulation” like it’s the new foreign policy religion, and India is quietly leapfrogging the old coal-heavy model with cheap solar. So yes, Trump is sabotaging climate progress in the US — but his little Gulf crisis is helping convince the rest of the planet that the age of oil is a rigged casino run by unstable arsonists, and it’s time to cash out.

Turns out the most effective climate policy of the Trump era may be his own spectacular incompetence at fossil-fuel geopolitics. Truly, a stable genius move: weaponize oil so hard that everyone else decides to stop using it.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: today.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#anti-science#forever-grifting
imperialism

trump discovers peace talks work better with a little extra war

Trump, bravely reviewing a "peace" proposal while explaining that peace is only acceptable once the enemy has been sufficiently pulverized for the cameras.

Trump, bravely reviewing a "peace" proposal while explaining that peace is only acceptable once the enemy has been sufficiently pulverized for the cameras.

Trump is "reviewing" a new 14-point peace proposal from Tehran the way a loan shark reviews your kneecaps, announcing Iran hasn't yet "paid a big enough price" for the last 47 years of existing in a way Washington doesn't like. The war that the US and Israel helpfully kicked off in late February is under a shaky ceasefire, but the guy who launched strikes during nuclear talks now insists he just can't imagine accepting any deal where Iran doesn't suffer more first. Nothing says "we're the good guys" like demanding additional pain as a precondition for stopping the war you started.

Iran's offer reportedly includes US withdrawal from areas around Iran, lifting the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, releasing frozen assets, lifting sanctions, compensation, ending the war on all fronts (including Lebanon), and creating a new control mechanism for the strait. Washington's counteroffer? Threaten more military action if Iran "misbehaves" and warn global shipping companies they'll be sanctioned for paying Iran to pass safely through a waterway Iran physically controls. The US has already slapped on a naval blockade of Iranian ports while Iran chokes traffic through Hormuz, driving oil prices 50% above prewar levels so everyone can enjoy the fun.

Having detonated the old nuclear deal years ago, Trump is now demanding a new arrangement that "prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon" as the price for ending the war he chose to start in the middle of nuclear negotiations. Iran insists its program is peaceful; Trump insists he'll consider peace right after Tehran bleeds enough to satisfy his sense of cosmic justice. It's less diplomacy and more a hostage negotiation where the arsonist keeps explaining that the fire just hasn't learned its lesson yet. Humanity and the World are apparently very important to him — just not quite as important as the ratings bump from another war scare.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: today.comAlso: bbc.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy#national-security

Friday, May 1, 2026

imperialism

trump turns nato into his own personal protection racket

Trump studies a map of Europe while asking which bases he’s allowed to repossess if the allies won’t join his unauthorized war-of-the-month club.

Trump studies a map of Europe while asking which bases he’s allowed to repossess if the allies won’t join his unauthorized war-of-the-month club.

Donald Trump, now fully committed to speed‑running the collapse of the postwar order, is threatening to yank U.S. troops out of Italy and Spain because they won’t let him use their bases as a drive‑thru for his “illegal war” on Iran. Italy refused to turn its Sicily bases into a weapons transit lounge, Spain said no to using its joint bases for strikes, and suddenly 60+ years of alliance cooperation is reduced to, “Italy has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.” Foreign policy by Yelp review.

Italy’s defence minister patiently explained that no, Italian-linked ships weren’t sneaking through the Strait of Hormuz, and yes, they’ve actually offered to help protect shipping. The U.S. military even appreciated it, which is awkward for Trump’s narrative that everyone is mean to him. Relations with Rome are so bad that even Giorgia Meloni, far-right bestie and Pope-insulter in training, got blasted by Trump for not joining his war, prompting him to rage‑post that “Italy wasn’t there for us, we won’t be there for them!” on Truth Social like a teenager subtweeting their ex.

Spain, meanwhile, is being punished for the high crime of insisting on “international law” and refusing to be complicit in a war its prime minister calls bad for the world and contrary to Spain’s values. Trump has already threatened a full trade embargo and is now flirting with pulling troops from Rota and Morón, two bases that just happen to be central to U.S. power projection in Europe, Africa, and the Med. He’s also "absolutely without question" considering pulling the U.S. out of NATO, a move blocked only by a 2024 law that assumed, correctly, that one day a president would try to blow up the alliance out of spite.

So NATO’s founding principle has evolved from collective defense to: join Trump’s illegal war, hand over your bases, and pretend his Hormuz fan fiction is real, or he’ll threaten to dismantle the security architecture of Europe on live TV. The alliance used to deter Russia; now it’s mostly trying to deter the guy in the Oval Office.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Thursday, April 30, 2026

imperialism

trump names iraq’s prime minister, pretends it’s democracy

Trump, on the phone with Baghdad, explaining that Iraq is fully sovereign and free to choose any prime minister he personally approves of.

Trump, on the phone with Baghdad, explaining that Iraq is fully sovereign and free to choose any prime minister he personally approves of.

Donald Trump got on the phone with Iraq’s new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi to offer congratulations, an invitation to Washington, and the diplomatic equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. He then rushed to Truth Social to proclaim the start of a “tremendous new chapter” of prosperity and stability, because nothing says respect for sovereignty like the U.S. president publicly blessing a foreign leader’s appointment like he’s handing out rose ceremonies on reality TV.

None of this is subtle. Iraq’s dominant Shiite bloc originally wanted Nouri al-Maliki, but Trump loudly threatened to cut off aid to Iraq if they picked the guy he didn’t like. After some posturing, they magically “compromised” on al-Zaidi, a businessman who conveniently chairs a bank that was previously barred from dollar transactions under U.S. pressure, but somehow never quite made it to the sanctions list. Now that he’s the chosen one, Trump is eager to reboot relations with a man whose business and investment ties might prove highly productive in all the ways that never quite make it into official readouts.

Iraq’s constitution says parliament gets to confirm the new prime minister, but Trump has already pre-graded the exam and posted the answer key online. While Iraq tries to navigate the fallout from the Iran war and an oil-choked economy, the U.S. is busy turning its aid spigot into a remote-control governance device. Call it “democracy assistance”: you get the democracy, Trump gets the assistance.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy