Trump’s Violent Threats Can't Hide the Truth: He’s a Humiliated Bully |
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Trump’s Violent Threats Can’t Hide the Truth: He’s a Humiliated Bully
Under Trump, the United States is looking for weaker and weaker victims in order to mask its own fragility.
Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews on May 22, 2026.
Donald Trump is a rotten peacemaker for many reasons—but one of them is that he can’t even remember which enemy he’s fighting. For instance, during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump if the United States would accept a proposal to allow Iran and Oman to jointly administer the Strait of Hormuz. The president responded, “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine.”
Trump’s opposition to any settlement that allows Iran partial control of the Strait is understandable, but his menacing words against Oman are puzzling. The Gulf state has, after all, been an American ally for decades, and the US maintains a strong military presence in the country. One supposed rationale of the current US war in the Middle East is to protect Oman and other Gulf allies against Iran.
Oman isn’t the only ally Trump is seeking to intimidate, or the only country to feel the brunt of Trump’s bloodthirsty rhetoric. The president tried to browbeat Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan into joining the Abraham Accords by saying membership “should be mandatory.” And, as CNN notes, “Oman is at least the 15th country that he has either threatened to attack, left open the possibility of attacking, or actually attacked during his two terms as president.” While some of these countries are long-standing US foes like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea, many are nominally allies of the United States (or at the very least, not hostile to it): Canada, Colombia, Greenland/Denmark, Mexico, Panama, and Oman.
Trump is in effect using the war against Iran in the same way he exploited the Russia/Ukraine conflict: as a means of turning alliances into protection rackets by exhorting concessions from countries depending on the US military. It’s a mafia foreign policy that uses US military dominance as a tool of extortion to intimidate friends and foes alike.
While violent rhetoric, often manifesting itself in violent action, has been endemic to Trump’s presidency, his lashing out at Oman comes at a particularly dangerous moment. The war against Iran has been a disaster, and the only way to end it is to make substantial concessions to the Islamic Republic. And Iran is joining the ranks of nations that have effective deterrence against the United States and therefore deserve conciliation. Trump’s actions suggest that he has come to see China, Russia, and North Korea in those terms as........