Trump’s open embrace of empire has ended any illusion of a rules‑based order. For Britain, clinging to a ‘special relationship’ that looks increasingly like coercion is no longer a strategy – it is a danger, says Roz Foyer.

One can only wonder what he might do next.

In the last four weeks alone, Donald Trump has overseen the kidnapping of a foreign president, bombed ships in international waters, threatened military action against a NATO ally, and threatened tariffs against the UK.

This behaviour is not an aberration, but an escalation. Throughout 2025, Trump threatened and sometimes applied tariffs on most of the world, while raining American bombs down on Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Iran, Syria, and Yemen.

Of course, American imperialism is not new. From Cuba to Chile and from Iran to Iraq, America has a long history of military intervention against its perceived enemies and its perceived economic interests.

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In the 1980’s the US supported Saddam Hussain’s murderous regime before its geo-political volte face which preceded the war in Iraq. As I write a shadow continues to fall over the brave secular women fighters of Kobane and the wider autonomous Kurdish regions in Syria and Iraq as ISIS is emboldened by the US pivoting in its relations with Turkey and the new regime in Syria.

In central and south America it has perfected a grim playbook over decades: demonise a leader, reject the will of their people, allege the cardinal sins of communism or narco-terrorism, and then fund dissidents to cause chaos and enable regime change. Republican and Democratic........

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