DONALD TRUMP IS FAILING AS PRESIDENT

As Trump's rhetoric on the Iran war grows increasingly harsh, he recently made two bizarre outbursts that will not please Republicans. In one, he downplayed military families' concerns about the length of deployments overseas. In the other, he scoffed at the idea that anyone would be bothered by the increased costs of his war.

He said, "It's okay for you to pay a little more for gas. We're at four dollars. I'll never apologize. I did the right thing."

Note his sheer, visceral contempt for anyone concerned about the additional costs of his unnecessary war. He fails to understand voters' concerns except in terms of image.

Current situation

Twelve weeks before the midterm elections, polls show that affordability and the cost of living are the top concerns for the vast majority of voters. The leader of the Republican Party, the current American president, shows no empathy or says, "Maybe I can try to help you. Maybe I care about the suffering you're experiencing right now."

Trump, instead, stands before a crowd of supporters, mocks the very idea that they are suffering in any way, and denies any responsibility for the circumstances in which people are suffering.
Many question his fitness for office and warn against concentrating the power to declare war in the hands of the US presidency. The current geopolitical situation is potentially the most dangerous moment in the world since World War II, and Trump's volatile rhetoric, ranging from military escalation to negotiations, highlights deeper problems in the US political system.

Meanwhile, the mainstream US media is normalizing his increasingly erratic political behaviour. Trump's unchecked presidential power and decades of US military intervention have created a dangerous system that, combined with his lack of self-control, could further increase global risks.

Trump's performance

Trump possesses an animalistic instinct that allows him to identify his opponent's weaknesses and attack them. Likewise, his slogan "Make America Great Again" epitomized his appeal: a throwback to an era when America was dominated by white, Christian men, popular culture was benevolent, and neither immigration nor foreign trade were a reality. Now, red MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats are Trump's symbol, and the image of Trump as a national saviour is imprinted in the minds of his supporters.

But Trump is failing miserably in Iran, and the war continues to drag on. Americans were told it would be a quick, easy, and casualty-free war, but none of that has come true. And now, people are speaking up.

And this message is getting through. The war is extremely unpopular among the majority of Americans, almost as unpopular as Trump's economic performance. This lethal combination is absolutely devastating, not only for the White House and its agenda, but for the Republican Party as a whole, especially during this crucial election period.

Everything is propaganda, from morning to night. Furthermore, every statement Trump makes contradicts itself before he even finishes the sentence. So the situation is very strange, very dangerous. Trump is narcissistic, manipulative, untrustworthy, deceitful, and psychopathic: he feels no empathy for the people he kills or the damage he causes.

A man like him should not be president. He is president because of much deeper problems in the American political system. So he is both a symptom and a cause: you don't elect a person like him in a healthy political system.

The American political system is deeply corrupt. The ability of a man like him to have the power to order a war represents a serious flaw in the political order. Only Congress has the power to declare war, but all it does is repeatedly vote against overseeing such a war. It is a complete abdication of responsibility.

Over the last three or four months, Trump has actually gotten worse and has lost all self-control. There's a level of impulsiveness that is absolutely beyond anything we've seen before.

Trump vs Biden

This is the second consecutive time the United States has had a president suffering from imbalance. The interesting thing is that, in the case of Biden, who suffered from imbalance for at least the last two years of his term, everything was kept quiet until he was there, speechless, in front of a camera.

The US political system is pathetic right now. It's a spectacle. You can say anything. There's no planning. There's no systematic review. There are no checks and balances. There's nothing. And this was true with Biden, too, but with Trump, it's much worse.

Take, for example, what happened a few days ago. First, the president said, "I'm going to blow everything up. I'm going to kill everyone." No commentator said it was a bit strange for the president of the United States to speak that way. That he spoke like Adolf Hitler.

Then, two days later, when he decides he won't kill everyone, he says, "We're close to a deal." And obviously, there were no negotiations. Period.

But what is the press saying? "Will Donald Trump be able to reach a deal?" Not "What a fool, what a liar!" Nothing. It's a complete normalization of something completely abnormal. And everything is normalized.

This is the immediate problem, but the system is deeply corrupt. There are no checks on the presidential power to declare war, and there haven't been for decades. In fact, Congress is virtually non-existent in foreign policy matters.

Foreign policy is run by the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the National Security Council. It's not run by anything remotely resembling democratic institutions.

The United States has been at war non-stop since 1999

In 1999, the United States bombed Serbia for 78 days, dismembering the country and creating Kosovo as an independent state, where it then built Camp Bondsteel, NATO's largest base in the Balkans.

Then, in 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan because of al-Qaeda, created by Brzezinski and the CIA starting in 1979, with the aim of dragging the Soviet Union into a war in Afghanistan.

The operation was successful. It destroyed Afghanistan for the next decades. The next step was the Iraq War in 2003: a war based on completely false pretexts.

In 2011, the United States overthrew the government of Libya. And also in 2011, the CIA was tasked with overthrowing the Syrian government. They thought it would be quick. It took 14 years and hundreds of thousands of lives, but this is all normal.

In 2014, the United States overthrew the government of Ukraine. The United States called it a revolution of dignity. Dignity was represented by Victoria Nuland (with her "Fuck the EU") handing out cookies and millions of dollars to organize protests.

So it's ongoing. It's always been this way, but it's getting worse because there's absolutely no self-control right now. Kidnapping presidents, invading, killing everyone.

This isn't normal. This is madness. And if this madness goes on long enough, the United States will blow up the entire world. And Trump is exactly the kind of person who can do that because he has no self-control, and apparently there's no one around him to offer him a cup of hot chamomile tea with a little honey in the evening, put his slippers on, and say, "Everything's going to be okay, Donald. Goodnight. Sleep tight!”

Trump doesn't care if people think he's crazy

Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single vote. He was explaining his theory of power. The theory is simple: the rules don't apply to him because he's convinced everyone - allies and enemies alike - that he doesn't play by any rules.

Trump says things no normal politician would say: normal politicians are held back by the fear of appearing ridiculous. Trump isn't. He's turned absurdity into a weapon.

The message is always the same: I'm not afraid. I don't care what you think. I'll say anything. And you can't stop me. It's a calculated display of fearlessness.

Trump constantly contradicts himself, sometimes in the same sentence. His opponents collect these contradictions like trophies and hold them up as proof of incompetence.

He is the president of a country where half the population has stopped believing in institutions, has stopped trusting the media, and has begun treating politics like a team sport where winning is the only thing that matters.

Conclusion

Trump's most distinctive characteristic today is a frightening, maniacal personality, more detached from reality than ever. Even within the Republican Party, people are beginning to say: "We have an unfit guy in the White House. Totally unfit to be president. ... He's a child, he lies every time he opens his mouth. You can't trust a word he says. He's crazy. He's unpredictable. He's cruel."

You don't need to speculate to see the damage Trump is already causing. His white nationalist language has empowered and invigorated violent white nationalists who quote his slogans and pay homage to him. How many more mass murders will Trump unleash in his culture war, which he uses to galvanize his base?

His escalating trade war, fluctuating tax cuts, and his order for American companies not to operate in China have caused markets to collapse, paralysed corporate decision-making, and increased the risk of a recession. His frenzy is dangerous and destructive.

Trump's madness provokes psychological manipulation and excuses from his allies. His constant lies (claiming victory in the midst of obvious defeat and the rewriting history) infuriates those who know better and suggests to them that his followers are narrow-minded or delusional, or both.