The New Dark Age

Trump has turned America into a global threat

When Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stepped out for a press conference following the US’ illegal attack on Venezuela, expectations were low. A bully’s bragfest. A stream of military hardware porn. More babble about “narcoterrorism”.

No one was prepared for what came next.

In a few sentences, Trump ruptured recent American history and changed the world in the process. His ambition was nothing less than the creation of a new US empire backed by a policy of widespread aggression against any country — friend or foe.

“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump said.

Across the 20th century, the US has interfered in Central and South American countries, changing regimes, installing puppets, breaking economies. This was different. Trump made it clear that nowhere was safe. Not friends and allies like Canada or Greenland, or countries further afield, in Africa say, or East Asia.

The only deciding factor in any calculation was what a country meant to US interests. America will now take whatever it wants.

“The future will be determined by our ability to protect commerce and territory that is core to our interests,” Trump said.

Nor did it matter how friendly a country was. In an interview with Fox shortly before the press conference, Trump said, “(Mexican President) Claudia Sheinbaum is a good woman, but the cartels are running Mexico. She’s not running Mexico — the cartels are running Mexico. Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.”

Later he set his sights on Cuba, a country long in the crosshairs of MAGA and Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Cuba is a failing nation and we want to help the people. I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll talk about.”

When Hegseth took the microphone he made it very clear that this new doctrine would be brutally enforced by America’s vast military power: “America can express our will anywhere, any time.”

Oppose America’s will and you will be bombed into submission.

Trump underlined that his new aggression policy was based on the Monroe Doctrine, which, with his extreme narcissism, he now calls the Donroe Doctrine. Created by US President James Monroe in 1823, the doctrine defined an American ‘sphere of influence” — the entire Western Hemisphere — and demanded Europe keep out. Because the US lacked a credible navy and army, it was generally ignored at the time.

Now it can’t be ignored

Yet Trump’s version is more in tune with the Technocracy movement of the 1940s which proposed a self-sufficient superstate merging the US, Canada, Greenland and parts of Central America into what was called the Technate of America. Elon Musk’s grandfather was one of the founders.

The US Far Right has already seized on this as an aim. Katie Miller, the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, posted a map of Greenland in the US flag colours immediately after the press conference.

For MAGA, the new empire can’t come soon enough

The world didn’t have to wait long to realise everything was about to be turned on its head. As the press conference opened, Trump said, “We’re going to run Venezuela until a safe transition takes place.”

And shortly after: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies—the biggest anywhere in the world—go in and spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

Run Venezuela.

This had nothing to do with regime change or disrupting what the Trump administration called narcoterrorism. The US had simply invaded a country, taken out the leader and would now be controlling it as a satellite state, taking full ownership of its natural resources and state wealth.

Claims that this would only last until a ‘peaceful transition’ were mealy-mouthed. Rubio later confirmed that the arrangement was open-ended.

America had conquered a neighbour in the full knowledge that no one could stop it.

Everything changed for the world at that moment. From now on, every other country faces a global threat dedicated to expanding its power, one that cannot be trusted.

But it also changed for America too. Trump ensured that the US will no longer be admired or respected around the world as that shining beacon of liberty and law.

America will now be feared and despised.

Trump doesn’t care. Like many in his administration, he’s been shaped by a brutalised childhood, emotionally and/or physically. The bullied have become bullies and the one thing they all learned as children is that the mark of a bully’s success is the fear they create. Fear equals strength.

Trump and the people behind him calculated that no one could stand in their way. And they were right.

The EU and the UK provided a toothless response that underscored their powerlessness. Trapped by trade and US support for their defence, their only options now are supine acceptance or a slow disentangling of connections. Alliances need to be strengthened, not the least with Canada. Defence spending has to be focused on non-American producers.

Beyond that there is little that can be done immediately to combat US military might or its grip on the levers of trade, which, with tariffs, Trump is prepared to use as a bludgeon.

There’s currently little sign of resistance in the US too. Opposition politicians are similarly powerless. The courts could attempt to constrain Trump, but the wheels of the law grind slowly and the Supreme Court remains in Trump’s corner.

US media also showed itself to be toothless. It didn’t know how to react to Trump’s new policy. and still doesn’t. The system is set up for normality and when something completely abnormal comes along the media continues as it always has, trying to force the incredible and outlandish into the normal template. No one questioned that the US had suddenly become a threat to all its neighbours and beyond. The debate was about the management of Venezuela. Colonialism slipped in in the blink of an eye.

A new dark age of Might Makes Right, then, and one that chimes with changes in the US itself: a resurgent anti-science approach that prefers magical thinking over evidence, the elevation of the Christian religion into its most nationalistic form. Enlightenment is in retreat.

It was clear from the press conference that Trump sees himself not as king, but Emperor in the Roman style, creating a new American Empire in the way the Romans did. Conquering countries, installing generals and loyal servants to manage them while letting the people have a degree of independence to go about their daily business. Taxes, of course, have to be paid to the Emperor.

But for all Trump’s megalomania, this feels more like the last days of Rome. He’s an ailing leader who’s surrounded himself with incompetents and lickspittles. There’s simply nobody capable of running an empire. The Trump Administration can’t even manage its own country, never mind Venezuela or any of the others on the shopping list.

It’s a fantasy of the weak who want to be seen as strong. And like all fantasies it will evaporate on the first contact with reality.

But in the meantime, a great deal of damage can be done, things that won’t be repaired for generations. The rest of the world has no choice but to find new ways to protect itself from the predator that has been unleashed.