The Destructive Mafia-inspired Style of Trump Diplomacy

Right-wing and Evangelical media are already lavishing praise on Trump for the supposed stability that he's bringing to the world order. In the latest episode of delusion, these factions believe that Trump stands for stability and calm and that the US is respected while he stands at the helm.

Those who actually take the time to follow world events know the opposite is true and in a mere four years Trump seriously damaged US standing and worked toward dismantling institutions that had been utilized by the US Empire since the end of World War II and throughout the Cold War.

For my part I do not lament the decline of the American Empire but the false claims of the Right and the Evangelicals do need to be challenged and called out. Trump weakened the US and though it was unnoticed in their quarters, Biden worked to repair these breaches and heal these wounds. He was successful to a point but the Gaza War has further degraded the moral standing of the United States and now with the return of Trump, the fragile scaffolding erected by Biden is once more in danger.

As before, world leaders and corporate executives are rushing to Mar-a-Lago in order to get ahead of the game. They want to know what's coming and in other cases they are there to demonstrate their obeisance - knowing that such submission is important to Trump.

He is an agent of chaos and far from promoting stability, it is Trump's rhetoric and proposed policies that proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the Trudeau administration's back. His fall is in no small part due to Trump - even though the man hasn't taken office yet. I cannot remember a time in which a president-elect has already wielded so much influence even prior to his inauguration. There's more going on in Canada of course, but Trump's agitation destabilised the situation and generated a crisis. Others are vying for power such as Chrystia Freeland who has been the eminence behind Trudeau's 'throne' - and also played a major role in his downfall.

She stands atop the current polls for Liberal leader and yet if they are able to hold office with her as the new PM, she will undoubtedly clash with the American GOP over Ukraine as she is an ardent supporter of the war with roots going back to World War II and Ukraine-Nazi collaboration. She speaks the language and at the time of the NATO-sponsored coup in 2014, she retained an apartment in Kyiv. She has been one of the leading voices arguing for Western support of the Zelenskiy government. You can be sure that the coming election will be in part a referendum over not just Canada-US relations but Ukraine.

Supporters of Trump will look to his recent moves (or rather threats) with regard to Canada, Greenland, and Panama as 'business style negotiating tactics'. He's pushing the envelope as a bargaining technique in order to find a middle ground and get what he wants. They will suggest that he's not really intending to seize the nations and territories and force them into some kind of union with Washington. It's just bluster, a big show - Trump's art of the deal as it were.

Diplomats cringe because they will argue that diplomacy and bilateral relations must be based on things like trust and common ideals or at the very least (in the Realpolitik school) mutual interests. Even the latter involves a degree of trust even if that is established on less than moral grounds.

What Trump is doing has nothing to do with trust. He's relying on threat and intimidation - a shattering of trust and the wielding of fear. Even if a compromise deal is reached in which Canada bends to US economic policy, Denmark opens Greenland up to new NATO military bases and American exploitation of resources, and Panama renegotiates its Canal relationship with Washington - there won't be any trust, rather antagonism and bitterness.

In fact with Trump's statements toward Canada and Denmark, NATO is already being destabilized as Trump moves to undermine and threaten 'allies' - in reality client states within the US orbit. If a mafia don starts threatening one of his underbosses, you can be sure the others sit up and take notice. Some will be cowed and fall into line. Others will be embittered and bear a grudge - that will eventually lead to schemes, betrayals, and overthrow.

Trump who models himself after the likes of a mafia boss or a dictator (though he doesn't know how to rule as one or have the intelligence to do so) will likely be gone from the picture by the time the full implications of his policy come to bear.

Once again the great irony is that his cult is blinded by his sickly aura and in their delusion they see only grandeur. The rest of the world sees folly and a reckless buffoon. He is truly a patent and glaring example of judgment on the American Empire and will be remembered by history as a key stage in its decline and fall. And much more could be said about his role in bringing down judgment on the apostate American Church.

His followers want to make America great again - which is rich given that they know next to nothing about what it has been all along. Regardless, the only thing his policies are doing are paving the way toward an ultimate Chinese victory and Beijing's dominance over the rest of the century. Or the other possibility is global conflagration, and the instability and chaos sown by Trump is just as likely to produce the latter. Strange as it may sound, it might be that by the time the crisis comes he will have so alienated all US allies and so fragmented its empire that it will prove unable and unwilling to wage a global war. It's impossible to say as things could turn out at least a dozen different ways. If that is what's needed to avoid war, then let's hope for it in God's mercy.

But it's safe to say that his 'maverick'-style of diplomacy is not diplomacy but rather an employment of mafia-style tactics. Another thing to remember is that if you're unwilling to stand by your threats and back them up - the end result will be far worse, especially once everyone realizes that in the end it's little more than bullying. And as we all know Trump is little more than that - a bully lacking all spine and substance. Trump's recklessness is already bearing fruit even though he's still more than a week away from taking office.

So it begins....