Trump: Bombs, Bullying, Bluster & BS |
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
Donald Trump is a dangerous president. His rallying slogan, “Make America Great Again,” bespeaks a crisis that not only defines the nation but one he is incapable of honestly – and successfully – addressing.
To celebrate his 79th birthday he squandered upwards of a $45 million on a massive miliary parade which happened to be the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary. It took place while the nation witnessed upwards of 5 million citizens march in “No Kings” parades in 2,100 cities and towns across the country protesting Trump’s authoritarianism.
Trump briefly attended the recent “G-7” gathering but failed to acknowledge the “7” — the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom — is not what it was in 1975 when it was established nor in 1995 when Russia joined let alone in 1945 when WW-II ended. Missing from the gathering were Russia, China, Brazil and India, among other economic players.
Trump, like preceding presidents, has blood on his hands. The U.S. has been Israel’s primary arms supplier for decades and in 2016, under Pres. Obama, agreed to a “Memorandum of Understanding” pledging $38 billion in military aid from 2018 to 2028. More recently, in August 2024, Pres. Biden approved a $20 billion arms sale to Israel, including F-15 fighter jets and tank and mortar shells. In July 2024, Trump approved approximately $3.3 billion a year to Israel and resumed the transfer of 500-pound bombs to Israel.
Trump’s foreign policy of “peace through strength” is failing. As of mid-June 2025, an estimated63,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli force since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, often with U.S. weaponry and intelligence support. More blood is being shed in Iran due to Israel’s ongoing attacks and with Trump’s bombing campaign of its nuclear sites. No one knows how this latest war effort will play out.
Trump promotes the politics of bluster, of contractions. He champions making American “great” by undercutting law and order with his pardons of January 6th insurrectionists. Going further, he wants to make the nation “great” by providing less foreign aid; by cutting scientific and health research; by cutting the income taxes of the rich and super-rich; and by cutting support for social safety programs like Medicare for the nation’s vast majority.
As Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, noted: “Once you undermine consistency, the shared sense of reality, you’re undermining the basis of democracy.” Adding, “If there’s no shared sense of reality, we can’t collectively make decisions. So the only decision maker will be the disrupter in chief.”
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Trump is a child of the postwar “American Dream.” He was born in 1946, and grew up in Jamaica Estates, Queens. It was........