Life is full of disappointments. It is in the very nature of existence to have one's expectations dashed in some cruel fashion. Becoming an adult, in large part, is a process of understanding how to come to terms with reality's relentless let-downs.
However, of all the disappointments, President Trump stands poised to be the greatest ever.
In those heady days of just-a-few-months ago, we were promised a slew of sound policies. No doubt there was always going to be some hiccoughs on the way, but a direction of travel was sold by The Donald which promised to rectify much of the malaise affecting the West's key power – America – and by extension, us.
Yet, having not even reached the end of summer, much of it is already undone, reversed and getting worse. Mr ‘No More Wars’ has got a worrying taste for foreign intervention.
Ukraine – the war which Trump would end on day one – carries on apace, with soldiers and civilians alike dying daily. At no point has Trump, or his team, apparently cottoned on to the fact that the Kremlin, comfortably winning the war by now, has no reason to agree to any 'ceasefire' before negotiating.
Putin's Russia has met the match of the West and shown NATO et al wanting. Unable to accept the reality of losing to what it condescendingly refers to as a 'near peer', the perma-hawks of Starmer, Sarkozy, Rutte and their ilk have continued to fund and arm Zelensky's regime to the point of depleting their own military capabilities.
Instead of doing what he should have done the instant Ukraine failed to accept its inevitable defeat and seek terms with Russia – that is, cutting his losses and walking away – Trump has been dragged back into a never-ending, unwinnable proxy war for some unimportant real estate in Eastern Europe – a Slavic border dispute of practically no value to any Western nation whatsoever, unless you believe the childlike proposition that Putin is only weeks away from rolling his tanks down the Champs-Élysées.
Having got so close to stopping, it appears Trump has recommitted to Ukraine for fear of looking weak. In doing so, he plays into wet dreams of Cold War vintage continue to fuel the imaginations of a Western elite who see no problem in driving Russia into the arms of the Chinese behemoth. Deindustrialising and with fracturing social orders, Europe happily cuts itself off from the cheap energy that could flow through Russia's pipelines.
Oh well, better to be 'right' ('Our Democracy' and all that) and rename our garlicky dinner to 'Chicken Kyiv' and to nudge many thousands more in the direction of their inevitable death.
Then there is Iran. Or rather, the 'spectacular success' of joining in Israel's attacks on Iran. The only problem is that we, in fact, do not know how successful they were. Whether they were effective in the short term is, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant anyway.
Having previously known what was going on with Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium – of which, it might be added, there was never proof that Iran was producing a nuclear weapon – we are now in a situation where we have zero knowledge of the country's uranium stockpiles, its whereabouts, the facilities it might be enriched in, or the nation's intentions. Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA altogether, meaning that oversight has completely gone.
As a result, Iran is now unfinished business. Having failed to decapitate its regime and effect regime change, the Israelis and the Americans have created a foe with zero reason to negotiate in good faith. After all, it has become an American modus operandi to enter into negotiations before launching an attack. It, too, seems likely to be pushed into the arms of the rest of BRICS. Should Iran beef up its air defences with the assistance of other nations, the future of its nuclear programme may be entirely outside the purview of any 'Western' nation.
Even more crucially, the inexorable calculus now is that to stay safe from US intervention, you definitely must have some nuclear weapons.
While people may disagree about these foreign policies – the so-called 'Peace Through Strength' mantra – all are seemingly united on the issue of a certain Mr Epstein.
Jeff, who definitely, absolutely committed suicide, had the most inexplicable rags-to-riches story ever conceived. From teacher to owner of international properties and jumbo jets, friend to the rich-and-famous and influencer peddler extraordinaire – who, just somehow, got mixed up with the daughter of a man whose funeral was attended by the Israeli President, Prime Minister and heads of Israeli intelligence – the only explanation is a devious one.
Those around Trump have beat the Epstein Didn't Kill Himself drum for years. Dossiers, lists and names were to be released upon Trump 2.0 taking office: suddenly we'd know all about who was flying on the Lolita Express, and which of the world's elite may – allegedly – have been up to serious no good.
Then, suddenly, it was declared a non-topic. Brushing it aside, Trump seemed amazed that people were 'still talking' about Epstein. He deflected in the largest way possible, refusing to acknowledge that transparency around Epstein has been an issue slowly boiling away for years.
But, just like that, there was nothing to see here – move along! Ghislaine Maxwell sits in prison for twenty years for a crime with no associates, which implicated no other people, and which should definitely not be looked into any further.
Instantly, Trump made himself look dishonest. One can speculate why. Perhaps the truth is too damaging to the Establishment for it ever to come out. The kompromat that was gathered by Epstein – just how does a former teacher end up owning two Caribbean islands? – could be too explosive to see the light of day. Having gone 'all-in' with Netanyahu, perhaps Mossad is too deeply implicated in the whole affair.
These are only three examples of the Trump train wreck. Look at this pitiful, abandoned attempt at cutting government expenditure for a fourth dire failure.
Not that there is an ounce of humility or introspection from The Donald. This is hardly surprising, but the insanity put out by the President begins to beggar belief. His unhinged posts on social media, replete with bizarre messianic language and photoshops of Trump as Superman make me wonder whether he has fully lost his senses.
Once I would have hoped that it's all 4D chess and that I, a mere simpleton, could not comprehend the moves being planned seven steps ahead. Sadly, I no longer think that that is the case. Instead of putting America First and sticking to the sound policies he ran on, he runs deeper into more forever wars, appears to provide cover for the worst excesses of the Establishment and will happily borrow until the US dollar is worth as much as its Zimbabwean namesake.
Which is a shame. I believed Trump was the last good hope of the West sorting itself out before the approaching economic/social disaster which will precipitate a wider collapse.
Based Don, where have you gone?
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