The major problems we discussed in the previous article, part 1, such as the rise of China and the perceived threat of Islam, are tangible issues reflected in U.S. policies through measures like tariffs, government support for the competitiveness of companies, such as semiconductor manufacturers, as well as the invasion of Afghanistan, the possibility of war with Iran, calls for rulers to normalize relations with the Jewish entity, and many other actions.

However, the fundamental capitalist problem, or the deeper structural dilemma, facing the United States, some aspects of which were previously outlined, is not the subject of serious consideration by any American administration, let alone the Trump administration. Trump himself is a product of American capitalism and has been accused of using political power for personal financial gain. His shifting statements regarding the prospect of war with Iran, alongside their alleged connection to oil futures contracts that could only benefit those with advance knowledge of presidential intentions, are often cited as examples of this.

Nor is this deeper issue meaningfully addressed by the American public, much of which is immersed in misinformation propagated by both the government and large corporations. Although public frustration occasionally erupts into movements resembling political parties, such as Occupy Wall Street, these movements are quickly suppressed by the state and neutralized by corporate influence, extinguishing their momentum.

In other words, the Trump administration came to address America’s problems, without any intention of reforming the capitalist system itself. Nor do its proposals, such as bringing manufacturing back from overseas, constitute genuine reform of that system. Instead, such policies are intended to create domestic jobs, revive local manufacturing, reduce dependence on China, and use these measures as tools to weaken China’s economy by depriving it of profits from the American market.

Accordingly, the Trump administration is pursuing a fundamentally flawed approach to resolving America’s international challenges. In this respect, it resembles an ill and unqualified doctor attempting to treat his family’s various ailments, while failing to recognize that his own illness is more serious than the very diseases he seeks to cure.

If President Trump realizes that America’s problem lies in its dwindling resources, he wants to bring those resources to it through international extortion. He began this in his first administration, when he pushed Saudi Arabia to extort Qatar, so the latter poured its money into the American economy to appease Trump, and ease the Saudi blockade. So, that is what happened. He also wants to bring resources from Saudi Arabia, which promised him weapons contracts worth hundreds of billions during his first term but could not fulfill them due to the enormity of the sums, and then promised him a trillion dollars during his second term. Likewise, the UAE, which announced investments worth 1.4 trillion dollars in artificial intelligence that is, in the American economy while the UAE cannot even make a needle. Instead, its rulers direct their money toward hotel luxury, trivial matters, and purchasing weapons provided to serve British influence in Yemen, Sudan, and elsewhere. That is, this administration, led by President Trump, wants to reap money from the Gulf oil states. He also wants to reap it from international projects by provoking others to invest in them while he pockets the profits. Among them is the project to turn Gaza into a tourist resort, taking control of the management of the Panama Canal, his demands to take over Greenland from Denmark for its Rare Earth Elements (REEs), pushing Saudi Arabia to strike British agents in southern Yemen and take control of Hadhramaut and its REEs, demanding that Ukraine sign contracts under which America would take its mineral ores in exchange for the weapons provided by the Biden administration, demanding the American weapons it was forced to leave behind during its withdrawal from Afghanistan, demanding that Kabul return American control over Bagram Air Base, in which America invested during the occupation, Trump’s demand for joint control with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz and to collect fees from it, igniting a war on Iran to make it a subordinate state like Saudi Arabia and facilitate American oil and gas companies’ control over Iran’s oil and gas, and his attack on Venezuela, the arrest of its president, and his declaration of control over its oil. Before and after that, his demands that the Gulf States and world countries pay money in lieu of American military protection. These are the policies that President Trump is thinking of turning into new tributaries that pour money into the arteries of the American state, so it possesses what it wants and enough to spend on its global role.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration sees that the US must not intervene in every corner of the world, but rather selects the corners where intervention benefits it. For instance, it selects Venezuela and arrests its president, selects Nigeria and bombs it under the pretext of Muslims persecuting Christians, selects partnerships and agreements with the Gulf States, and fights Iran. What unites this group of countries in the mind of the Trump administration is nothing but oil, and control over energy. This control is enshrined in the National Security Strategy adopted by the Trump administration, which understands that control over energy enables it to determine the fates of competing nations and other non-competing nations, thereby subjecting them to the American will.

The United States wants to deprive its adversaries of economic benefits, as tariffs on Chinese and European goods weaken these countries that reap hundreds of billions in profits from the U.S. market, and they are part of America’s efforts to counter China’s rise. The crazy tariffs Trump imposed on most countries around the world have thrown international economies into disarray. To encourage U.S. exports, President Trump demands that the Federal Reserve’s independence be revoked, and he accused its former chairman, Jerome Powell, of stupidity and pushed for his early resignation. This was because he does not align with the president’s direction toward lowering interest rates in a policy of weakening the dollar to encourage U.S. exports abroad, and reduce the attractiveness of the U.S. market for foreign goods.

In Europe, President Trump continued Biden’s policy that cut off Europe’s cheap Russian energy arteries and tied it to expensive U.S. liquefied natural gas, a costly commodity. Europe has repeatedly protested U.S. gas prices but is compelled to buy it, which weakens European economies, that are sliding toward recession amid high energy prices following the Ukraine war. After President Trump ignited war against Iran, he continuously directs reprimands at Europe to push it into joining his war on Iran.

When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, the Trump administration imposed a blockade on Iranian ports to prevent Iran from exporting its oil, exacerbating the global energy crisis. Trump says outright, not implicitly, that America does not import its oil from the Gulf and is unaffected by the strait’s closure, calling on Europe and China to join under his leadership and participate in the war on Iran to open the strait. This means that due to his war on Iran, he has raised global oil and gas prices, while in principle he does not oppose Iran’s demands for tolls in the strait, but wants a major share of these tolls for himself, a matter Iran has not yet agreed to.

With Russia, the U.S. president said he would stop the war in Ukraine within twenty-four hours. He met with the Russian president in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025, and they agreed on matters that President Putin always hints at as the “Anchorage understandings with Trump.” Trump wanted to impose them on Ukraine, including annexing its eastern part to Russia. He demanded that Ukraine grant America all economic privileges, and sent his minister to Kyiv to sign an agreement that Ukraine has not yet studied. He became angry because the Ukrainian president did not sign it immediately. He alternately appeases Russia and imposes more sanctions on it, wanting Russia to respond quickly, so he can give it territorial gains in Ukraine, and he wants it to break away from China and even join him in his anti-China policies.

As for the Muslim region, he deals with the oil rulers to take their money, and demands from them and from others—the rulers of Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, and Azerbaijan—coordination with the Jewish entity to deter Iran until it accepts “unconditional surrender” to American force. He demands that all Muslim countries normalize with the Jewish entity, provide facilities to it, and coordinate with it to strike any Muslim hotspot in the region. He does not want any significant power to remain in the Muslim region that could be toppled by Islamic hands in the future, so he does not want any uranium enrichment in Iran, nor any indigenous missile industry. He wants Lebanon to negotiate with the Jewish entity while it bombs Lebanon and even kills members of the Lebanese army. He demands that Ahmad al-Sharaa's regime in Syria keep his country an open air corridor for the Jewish entity’s warplanes against Iran, and demands his participation in the war on its Lebanese flank, wanting to assign him the task of striking Iran’s Hezb in Lebanon instead of the Jewish entity. He cannot tolerate any Islamic appearance, designation, or Islamic label, and he declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. He wants the armies of Muslims to be at his disposal to fight any Islamic threat. He has abandoned the Kurdish organization SDF, and America declared through its envoy Tom Barrack that this organization’s role has ended and that America assigns the task to Ahmad al-Sharaa himself.

In America itself, the immigration police have been implementing Trump’s policy with extreme harshness, costing the lives of non-immigrant Americans. The new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has dismissed tens of thousands of government directors and employees from their positions because they are not loyal to Trump. He changed the name of the Pentagon from Department of Defense to the Department of War to terrorize and intimidate the world’s states, and demanded a doubled budget for the Department of War. His Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, dismissed nearly 40% of the highest military ranks in America. He fiercely attacks Democrats and seizes every opportunity to attack former presidents from the Democratic Party, especially Presidents Biden and Obama. It can be said that America is in a state of shock due to the depth of internal changes in immigration policy and the policy of opposing Trump’s adversaries, especially Democrats, and even the media, which Trump continues to label as fake news. Moreover, he works to impose personal prestige in governing circles, criticizing any Republican who disagrees with him, branding them as traitors, and dismissing Republican officials he himself appointed. He dismissed the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and Attorney-General Pam Bondi, whilst Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, resigned amid his criticisms, especially after her report that Iran’s nuclear program had not been destroyed. His National Security Advisor Michael Waltz resigned. He attacks any Republican who criticizes him, attacking John Bolton, his National Security Advisor in his first term, and the influential media figure Tucker Carlson, who is influential in Trump’s MAGA or America First movement.

Upon closer examination, we find that the Trump administration has rushed with great momentum to achieve its goals inside America and around the world, although that momentum has begun to decline due to the rising cost of living sweeping America today, and due to the contradictions of the Trump administration. He states something and its opposite in the same hour, and he attacks American presidents who embroiled the country in deep wars in the Muslim region, only to then ignite a war against Iran. Some Americans accuse him of submitting to the Prime Minister of the Jewish entity, who drags him into fighting his wars. Governing circles in America carry out their functions under the fear of dismissal if loyalty to President Trump wavers. His closest officials tell him what he wants to hear for fear of criticism. He makes his position sacred, portrays himself alongside images of Isa (as), bestows upon America the favor of his rule, elevates his self-worth, and declares that he has surpassed America's founding fathers in his achievements, within a short period after his return to power in 2025.

Before moving on to examine the inevitable or likely repercussions of the Trump administration’s policy on the international level, some important points about the reality of American policy must first be confirmed. America dominated all parts of the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although this hegemony is tempting for its holder, it requires enormous resources. America used to boast that it could fight three wars simultaneously, yet it failed to fight even two, in Iraq and Afghanistan. It kept Afghanistan on the back burner for years to focus on Iraq. No sooner had it left Iraq than it was stricken with the “Iraq syndrome,” which renewed the legacy of the “Vietnam syndrome.” The effects of the Iraq syndrome manifested in an aversion to engaging in new large-scale wars. Then, under the weight of this syndrome, it carried out a humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. That is, its military and financial resources did not enable it to fight two wars competently at the same time. No sooner had it exited both wars, as its debts were weighing heavily on it, it rushed to consider alternatives.

When this Trump administration came and announced in its National Security Strategy that it would not intervene in every corner of the world and that it would pick and choose the countries in which it intervenes, this was a clear trend toward abandoning some countries and voluntarily removing them from the American sphere of influence, and even a first step toward withdrawal and isolation. When it launched a swift operation in Venezuela, arrested its president, removed Chinese companies from the administration of the Panama Canal, began threatening to kidnap the president of Cuba, and declared that the Western Hemisphere is at the top of its priorities, its path toward isolation became clearer. That is, it is seeking to fortify its nearby strongholds.

As another note, in the new reality of American politics, the American domestic division hinders the direction of U.S. resources toward achieving success in its foreign policy. President Trump says regarding the war on Iran that Democrats do not wish for America’s victory in the war on Iran for fear that this victory would be credited to Trump. Trump and his faction’s influence over Saudi Arabia had hindered the Biden administration’s policy toward it. This American domestic division has made each side of the American equation obstruct the other through that side’s international influence. Europeans look forward to the return of Democrats to power in America, while Russia is pleased with the arrival of Republicans and the Trump administration. The same applies to America’s agents and followers in the Muslim region. Just as Saudi Arabia today, along with Turkey’s Erdogan and the right-wing parties ruling in the Jewish entity, are thriving under the Trump administration, which openly patronizes them, the Egyptian regime is annoyed by Republican rule that marginalizes its role. This means that America’s international influence has become divided into two influences, Democratic and Republican, which weakens American policy and weakens any achievement the Trump administration dreams of.

As a third note, America’s domestic strength, which manifests abroad through the power of its politicians and generals, is undermined by the Trump administration’s purge campaign to cleanse state institutions of those loyal to Democrats, thereby weakening America’s strength abroad, when it loses the political and military expertise of its senior officials. The dictatorial demeanor of President Trump and his desire that all his followers and employees sing his praises also weaken America’s strength abroad, when Trump demands that everyone be a unified, cohesive bloc behind the president’s statements, many of which are contradictory, to the point that the White House spokesperson is compelled to say that this is the president the American people elected. Trump wants to subject the state and its strategy to his whims and megalomania, and he wants to be above the law. He wants a third term for himself, and he places his relatives, in-laws, and loved ones at the top of the American hierarchy, most notably Kushner, Barrack, and Witkoff, who lack experience in the tasks assigned to them. As a president coming from the business sector, he sees wealth and money as the primary measure for evaluating men inside and outside America, which made him court the super-rich, including Elon Musk, whom he placed at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This man dismissed senior officials and put his own minions in their places. Then Elon Musk began to almost openly attack Trump’s tax policies, and news spoke of a conflict between them before Musk left the agency of his own free will. Trump could not deal with him in this crisis as he dealt with his other critics because Elon Musk is wealthier than Trump, making Trump feel inferior before him. So, he let Musk do as he pleased with the state for nearly a year until he became the richest man in the world with astronomical capital reaching a trillion dollars, registering himself as the world’s first trillionaire.

This new reality in American politics means that the Trump administration sets out to achieve its international goals, while being a weak administration, but the momentum of his moves still covers up this weakness. When that momentum fades, this weakness will be as clear as the sun.

President Trump leads his country’s foreign policy with a recklessness that knows no law and is not bound by any political or diplomatic norms. When he demanded that NATO countries fulfill their financial commitments and increase their military spending, he threatened those that do not meet their obligations in front of Russian President Putin, which is a reckless breach of the principle that the Russian president is an enemy to all NATO countries. He repeatedly rebuked European leaders and opened negotiations with Russia on Ukraine without any regard for Europe, even though America had entered the European issue from the standpoint of supporting its European allies and preventing Russia from nibbling away at Europe from the east. It is as if President Trump’s arrogance leads him to believe that weak Europe, dependent on the American military umbrella, must eventually yield and submit to Washington’s will. However, European countries did not submit to this will and began to openly oppose Washington and reject its efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, and they began pushing the Ukrainian president to oppose Washington. Ultimately, Ukraine, like Europe, was overtaken by much skepticism about the Trump administration’s policy, and Ukraine, like Europe, rejected America’s plans to resolve the Ukrainian problem. Ukraine even emerged as a European country, and Trump attacked it for not acknowledging America’s favor represented by military and financial support. European countries increased their opposition to America after the latter ignited the war with Iran, making the Trump administration appear as if it had caused America to lose traditional allies.

It is true that the Trump administration was offering solutions in Ukraine, solutions that favored Russia because America’s eye was focused on separating Russia from China, and Trump deluded himself that this could be achieved quickly. Yet Russia, which initially hailed the Trump administration’s efforts in Ukraine and hailed the marginalization of European countries, i.e. creating a rift among Western allies, later realized that the American solution in Ukraine was worthless, if European countries continued to support the Ukrainian army against it. So Russia began asking Trump to arrange a comprehensive solution in Ukraine. When the Trump administration wanted to somewhat appease European countries and announced demands on the Russian side including the need for Putin to stop the war, Russia rejected these demands and Trump announced new sanctions on Russia. Thus, the Trump administration has failed to win over Russia, after having lost much in Europe and Ukraine. Although the war in Ukraine has not yet ended, what is certain is that America is losing on both sides: on the European side, European countries declare their urgent need to build a force separate from the American force; and on the Russian side, President Putin visited Beijing days after President Trump left China, indicating that Russia wants to tell China that the era of partnership between the two countries is still ongoing, meaning it has not taken any step toward separation from China.

Added to the above is that the US president pursues a path in which he turns his back on all political norms. In addition to insulting leaders of countries, especially his country’s allies, he wants to detach Greenland from America’s ally Denmark and annex it to America, declares that Canada is the 51st state of America, kidnaps the president of an independent state in Venezuela, supports the Jewish entity in crimes that make humanity’s forehead sweat in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere, withdraws his country from climate agreements and other international organizations, and America imposes sanctions on the International Criminal Court because of its decision to arrest Netanyahu. He does all this with utter brazenness and impudence, causing the so-called international order to be in a state of great upheaval, reminding countries of the law of the jungle where the strong devour the weak, and stripping America of its moral power or so-called soft power, when it used to pretend to be the defender of democracy, human rights, and international law. It is this facade that enabled it to mobilize more than thirty countries behind it to expel Iraq from Kuwait in 1991 and then its war on Islam, which it called the War on Terror.

In conclusion, the result of President Trump’s reckless momentum leads to counterproductive outcomes in which America loses its allies on the international stage, raises many doubts about its policy, and instead of gaining, it loses international influence.

(To be continued ...)

Part One: Where Is the Trump Administration Leading the United States?