Donald Trump unleashed

Well, we are roughly a month into the Trump presidency and the character of the new White House is becoming very clear.

Although I have a track record of sounding the alarm regarding Donald J. Trump, in the New Year of 2025 I was trying to be quite balanced on a number of occasions. In one column I pondered whether we would get ‘Trump unleashed’ or ‘Trump lite’? That I even suggested the latter was a sign that I thought it might be possible: lots of aggressive noise but not the political meltdown that many (myself at times) feared. A few weeks in, I would like to amend that brave optimism on my part. It is ‘Trump unleashed.’

We are seeing what Trump supporter Steve Bannon memorably described as 'flooding the zone.' The full phrase is (readers of an easily distressed disposition may wish to briefly glance away at this point): 'Flood the zone with ****' (Steve Bannon interview with writer Michael Lewis in 2018). Now, Bannon is not the force in ‘MAGA world’ that he once was. He’s lost pole position to tech-bro Elon Musk. But he’s still active in the MAGA ecosystem and his philosophy is rampant within it. The phrase basically means to overwhelm the media and political system with masses of – usually extreme – actions, rhetoric, posts, statements, claims and assertions, in order to overwhelm anyone’s ability to keep up with it, assess it, counter it, respond to it. Well, since January 20th the ‘zone’ has certainly been ‘flooded.’

Aggression is the climate of the new Trump ecosystem

We have seen aggressive rhetoric directed at US friends and adversaries alike. Canada, Mexico, even Denmark (what had they done?!) were swiftly on the receiving end of threats and menace. If anyone doubted that the bully was back on the block, reality set that to rights. The problem is, it means that nobody can now view the Trump-USA as a reliable ‘friend’ or ‘ally.’ In such a brutal transactional environment, every nation (friends included) needs to guard its back. This is not a happy situation regarding the nation which was once considered the leader of the West.

If the threatened widespread tariffs occur, we can expect global inflation rising as the trade system reverts to protectionism. Now, there are significant problems with the current system of trade among nations; and China (in particular) poses real challenges. When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, a veritable flood of Chinese imports destroyed over a million manufacturing jobs in the US and this battered communities. This was the so-called ‘China shock.’ However, Trump tariffs – whether used as a blunt instrument to extort things from nations such as Canada and Mexico, or as a way of raising tax revenues, or protecting undercut US industries from foreign competition – are more likely to fuel inflation, without stimulating the US economy. In fact, Trump tariffs in his last presidency did little to stimulate US manufacturing growth. World trade (with its global effects) is in urgent need of review – but the populist, nativist, protectionism that is being trumpeted by Trump is unlikely to reform it or engage with its complexity.

International cooperation is on life support

Leaving the Paris Climate Agreement and the WHO, sanctioning the International Criminal Court, are all signposts to a future in which the USA no longer plays by any international rules. Now, readers may have reservations about some of these institutions – or the actions at times of some of them – but they might want to remind themselves as to why these things were set up in the first place. And that is because global challenges cannot be met by divisive nationalisms. If one is not happy with an international organisation, work to reform it. But, no, the US is now only a member of the team if it is the captain.

The work of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been frozen in an action which will impact on many of the poorest and most vulnerable globally. There were probably issues with some USAID programmes – but the whole massive venture has been thrown under the bus. As well as the matter of social justice, it is a disaster for US ‘soft power.’ However, that latter concept seems alien to the Trump White House. The prevailing dogma is: 'What is the USA getting out of this?' And the balance sheet is assessed in the crudest terms.

The jury is still out on the subject of the US and NATO under Trump. But the signs are not at all encouraging. Regarding Ukraine, it now looks like Trump is set to go over Zelensky’s head and deal directly with Putin (with whom he has always had an affinity). That must be causing understandable anxiety in Kyiv. The Europeans, too, are likely to be left playing catch-up. A US commitment to European security – which has underpinned peace on the continent since 1945 – no longer plays a part in the Trumpian world view.

The Middle East

Palestinian suffering, rights, and aspirations have no voice or value in the Trump White House. The ‘two states solution’ looks dead in the water, in a world where the US president can talk of Gaza as if it was a real-estate opportunity and wishes Palestinians out of it in a way that, in other circumstances, would be described as ethnic cleansing.

Let’s make it clear: Christians must show concern for these people. And concern for lasting justice and protection for Palestinian civilians does not mean denying the right of Israel to exist; it does not mean ignoring terrorist atrocities or fanatical antisemitic ideologies. It is quite possible – indeed necessary – to combine concern for Israel and its security, with concern for the lives and hopes of Palestinians too. But that seems a lost cause among the most extreme in the Trump-supporting US evangelical right, who view everything in the Middle East through a particular end-times lens and consider any criticism of the actions of any Israeli regime, or the extremists in the Israeli settler movement, as going against the providence of God. But then, I have often felt that many Old Testament prophets would have been expelled from ‘Christians United For Israel’ (CUFI) for their perceived lack of loyalty to the Israeli government and its actions. And New Testament compassion for the marginalised and its message of ethnic inclusivity seem to have got lost somewhere!

An ideological purge

Clearly, things have become very complex in US political culture over the last few decades. The federal bureaucracy probably does contain many employees with a view of social justice and state proactivity that is at odds with many in the Republican Party and, especially so, the MAGA-wing of it. Within modern culture wars these differences have sharpened. But an ideological purge is now occurring. Overseen by the unelected Elon Musk, it seems designed to bring every level of US government into line with the new (and extreme) MAGA version of politics and culture. If the promised cuts in staff and budgets occur, we will see chaos in federal agencies which will harm many of the poorest and most vulnerable.

Even as this purge is going on – and tax cuts eventually come into force – the US national debt (already very high) looks set to balloon in a way that would once have shocked traditional Republicans. However, Trump is sanguine about this and it will be a brave Republican law-maker who speaks out on this, due to fear of the MAGA-base (among whom support for Trump is set at almost messianic levels) and with the threat of being victims of doxing and trolling on ‘X’ (other social media is also available).

Whatever happened to the US constitution?

What is occurring is an unprecedented power-grab by the executive branch of the US government. It is a strategy buttressed by the actions of the unelected Musk and his assistants in the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). This plays to a strange aspect of US culture, which tends to assume that mega-wealthy people have a right to decide things, due to their success. That many of those who voted for Trump simultaneously want power returned to the ‘ordinary people,’ and yet also cheer on the inflammatory actions of an unelected tech-bro, is one of the more intriguing aspects of modern cognitive dissonance.

While this occurs, the much-vaunted US separation of powers is withering as we watch. Doge representatives have entered various government departments to monitor spending; millions of federal workers have been offered an exit route, with the threat of future dismissal hanging over them; and Doge has moved to freeze federal funding. The power of the executive is increasing with each action.

When President Roosevelt attempted to extend the remit of executive power to further his ‘New Deal’ policies of combating unemployment and poverty in the 1930s, he faced entrenched opposition from the US Supreme Court. Don’t expect too much of that from the current conservative-dominated Supreme Court as the Trump-led executive power-grab occurs. Nor expect much opposition from conservative members of Congress as they look anxiously over their shoulders at the MAGA-base and the threat of being challenged for their seats by those loyal to the new Trump orthodoxy and its social-media-powered activism.

None of this should come as a surprise. After all, this is the man who refused to accept the result of a presidential election and has since pardoned those who attempted to overthrow the democratic process on January 6th.

What next?

It is less than a month into Trump 2.0. I think there are things occurring that we should be very concerned about. However, among the many uncertainties posed by the Trump administration, one thing is fairly clear: the ‘zone’ will continue to be ‘flooded.’

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