Trump Thought He Could BULLY the World To Be MAGA. He Was Wrong

I truly believe that once Trump learned he’d won the election he assumed he’d bring the free world to heel, and take his place among the world’s Dictatorial “Strongmen.” Perhaps even with the worlds (by far) most powerful military as well as (again, by far) largest economy being the top ‘Dawg’ of Dictators.  Trump might have finally thought he’d have been out from under Putin’s thumb!  Other world leaders, our allies would quickly realize that “Resistance was futile” and bow to him. Or so Trumpy thought.  The series of congratulatory phone calls after the election I’m sure reinforced Trump’s delusions of grandeur. I’m quite sure that by now, a couple of months into his new term Trump figured he’d be Master of the World. As with the Republican Party anyone who disagreed with him on anything would be too scared to stand up to him.  Well, as the title of this fantasy of Trump’s has turned out to be only that – a fantasy.

Let’s start with those phone calls from world leaders after the election. Even before Trump was sworn in the first time the world’s dictators, Putin, Kim, Xi, Orban etc. knew how to deal with him. Lot’s of ‘brotherly’ talk in private about how he’d be one of them, and admired fellow strongman and a little public flattery and Trump was putty in their hands. Providing all manner of PR/diplomatic cover for their brutal excesses.  Our allies in the free world learned the trick themselves. While not the same level of flattery they could and did stroke Trump just enough to keep everything from going to hell in a handbasket.  It was distasteful and even embarrassing at times but they did what they had to do.

I’m sure our allies and even more neutral countries dreaded the thought of having to make one of those “congratulations” calls but they were prepared ahead of time. Just as candidate (except I’ll be Trump) have both victory and concession speeches prepared by election day, world leaders had notes/talking point prepared for the phone call with whomever won last November. Dumbass that he is Trump assumed it was all spontaneous “celebration” of him becoming President again.  Of course a handful of world leaders (I’ve already cited some) were delighted.  But Trumpty is just too stupid to realize all that.

By Inauguration Day Trump was raring to go. HE was going to show the world who was boss. He’d lay down the law and tell everyone jump and they’d ask ‘how high?’ Anyone reading this knows it hasn’t worked out that way. Not even close.  Trump has picked fights both at home and abroad he didn’t have to pick. However he’s a bully at-heart, albeit one of the ones who’d be too cowardly to be a bully without someone (or a set of enablers) willing to do the actual dirty work for him.  This isn’t a place where I want to talk about domestic fights, but rather international ones. Trump has gone out of his way to alienate allies, including and especially some our oldest and/or most important ones.

What Trump did NOT count on was so many, almost all of them in fact pushing back!  Yep, Trump has even turned the once undisputed ‘Most Polite Country In the World’ (Canada) into an ‘in-your-face you a$$hole Americans’ adversary.  Canadian’s booing another country’s National Anthem? (And not just once) Even the top conservative leader up there has 100% backed Canada’s response to Trump’s tariffs and insults.  Greenland has been on Trump’s ‘I want that’ list and like Canada (the whole annexation/51st state nonsense) and said hell no. As has Panama when it comes to giving back the Panama Canal.  Mexico has managed dealing with Trump better than Canada but they are going to kick our butts with retaliatory tariffs.  (Of course, Trump doesn’t want Mexico – it’s full of brown people. Canada and Greenland are WHITE people)

The trade war stuff and countries pushing back has extended to Europe too, and it looks like the Pacific Rim (IOW not just China) is in the mix.  Then we have the issue of Ukraine and the Oval Office mugging of Zelensky. NATO and the EU were already anticipating having to rapidly increase aid and that day Trumpty (and Vance) pushed the whole thing past the boiling point. Not the next day, with within HOURS the condemnations were pouring in. Even military contracts (to buy from the U.S.) are being looked at. Canada wants to bail on theirs! They won’t be the first I’m sure.

I’m not the only one who has written here on Politizoom that the free world no longer trusts us to lead it. Plenty of people on other sites and even some with national outlets have said the same thing. However, what matters is that Trump assumed after the orchestrated, public attack on Zelensky that support for Ukraine and Zelensky would collapse within days. The opposite happened. To add literal insult to Trump’s self-inflicted injury on the way home to Ukraine Zelensky had a day-long visit with King Charles!  Trump was quietly bragging about his ‘exclusive invitation’ to be feted by the King and there’s Zelensky getting the royal treatment!

The world is telling the U.S. to f**k off, backing out of business deals, cooperation in various international programs and imposing tariffs of their  own in response to Trump’s trade war. Instead of abandoning Ukraine they are trying to fill the gap created by Trump’s lack of support. Even Trump realized he needed to make a ‘bigly’ show of some sort so there was yesterday’s call to Putin to discuss a 30 day ceasefire. Putin pretty much nixed the Trump ‘concept of a plan’ well before the call but there was still an attempt to blow sunshine and roses up everyone’s a$$ after. Granted, simply limiting the war to actual military forces/targets, the actual battlefield instead of Russia’s constant attacks on civilian targets, infrastructure and energy production would have been a positive step.

Well, Zelensky said all along that Putin/Russia couldn’t be counted on to honor any deal. And in less than 24 hours was proven correct as this article from NBC News reports:

At a news conference earlier Wednesday, Zelenskyy said, “Putin’s words are very, very different from reality,” adding that around 120 strike drones and six missiles struck Ukraine, including its energy facilities, overnight. These came, he said, after Putin “gave the order” to stop attacking Ukraine’s “energy sector.”

In earlier comments late Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Russia fired dozens of Iranian-made Shahed drones at “civilian infrastructure” in several regions across Ukraine and that one had hit a hospital in the city of Sumy, in the country’s northeast.

“It is precisely such night attacks by Russia that destroy our energy, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said. “And the fact that this night was no exception shows that we must continue to put pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.”

Trump’s actions have strengthened Macron in France. If Trump thought Germany’s new conservative leadership would suck up to him he was wrong about that too. I already mentioned the UK which is our biggest military and economic partner across the pond. Oh, and there hasn’t been a peep of regret from NATO’s two most recent members, Sweden and Finland.  Instead there’s actually discussion of a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine which is what’s probably scaring Putin enough to at least make noises about a ceasefire even if he never intended to honor it. Also, one thing that’s not gotten much discussion but should is that if the U.S. fully pulls back NATO members might greenlight moves that the U.S. has opposed.

Ukraine has already carried out strikes deep in Russia and it seems has Spec Ops  units there carrying out attacks.  What if say the UK or other countries start to loan other assets?  I’ve long said one “tool” that would be a game changed on the front lines would be A-10 Warthogs tearing down Russian trench-lines with their devastating air to ground combat capability. With other NATO aircraft in stand off positions (especially out over the Black Sea) shooting missiles designed to take out anti-aircraft batteries like I said it would unleash a world of hurt on Russian forces.  That’s the point I’m trying to make. The rest of the free world is done deferring to the U.S. on how to deal with global threats from dictators.

The world has realized that every four  years things in this country will be up for grabs. A new set of defense treaties is going to be needed to stop Russian and other aggression. Hell, the U.S. is seriously considering giving up the ability to have a U.S. General in command at NATO!  NBC has an article that digs into what’s being discussed and the ‘reasoning’ behind it all.  According to the article there are potential cost savings from eliminating overlapping roles/commands. $270 million (that’s million with an M) worth, or a whopping .03 percent of the DOD’s budget.  We all know that’s not really the point. Trump, because Putin wants him to is trying to destroy NATO.

However, the administration hasn’t thought all this through. When you look at the Air and Naval bases in Europe that we count on to support say Israel or deal with gomers in Africa Trump’s current “the world can kiss our a$$ and manage without us” schtick will come back to haunt us:

The contemplated moves in Europe may reduce American influence there, as the U.S. could lose some access to key naval and air bases in Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain — bases that benefit the U.S. by putting them closer to potential missions and giving them more influence with and access to regional military officials, not only its allies, Hodges said.

“When you start reducing capabilities of headquarters that do planning and intelligence — that only hurts us,” Hodges told NBC News. “What strategic analysis led them to want to do this? This has happened so early that this clearly smells like a cost-cutting thing than a strategic analysis.”

It’s far easier to destroy than to build. The initial framework for diplomacy and (military) security for both the U.S. and free world formed after WWII succeeded beyond what I’d bet was the wildest hopes of those who conceived and implemented it.  It’s been strengthened over time, and OUR role has been such that we not only led the winning of the Cold War and prompted the collapse of the USSR, we became the only true Superpower in the world.  Bush 43 did some serious damage to that but it got fixed with Obama (and Biden). Then came Trump. Even more damage was done and as I said, well before last year’s election our allies realized Trump could win. Again. Even worse from their point of view American voters were stupid in far greater numbers than they’d feared. So again, everything is up for grabs every four years when it comes to the U.S.

Which brings me back to where I started. Trump assumed he could treat the world like he has the GOP. In these first two months of his second administration he’s finding other countries and their leaders are NOT the spineless Republican COWARDS on Capitol Hill. The rest of the world is standing up to Trump, and frankly to all of us and saying “You can’t be trusted anymore, so don’t go trying to DICTATE to us!”  I’m not sure we’re headed for third world status. I doubt it but at best we will be just another player on the world stage but not have anything close to the influence every adult American has known all their lives.

We’ve pissed all that away. But hey conservatives/MAGAs, at least you “owned the libs!”

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