A Funny thing happened on the way into 2025. We were promised by candidate and president-elect Trump that he would immediately bring the wars in Gaza and Ukraine to a brisk end. It’s been almost 90 days since the inauguration and whatever ceasefire existed in Gaza has been overtaken by events and resulted in Israel continuing to execute attacks on Gaza’s Palestinian community. As for Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the man who Trump has called a “Dictator” and the supposed initiator of the war, has been all too willing to eschew any pride or sense of his own self-importance and agreed to find a path that Trump is trying desperately to find. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin, Trump’s great and respected strongman pal, easily the most blatant Dictator in today’s world and a man considered by Europe and others as both the instigator of the overreaching aggressions of Russia into Ukraine, but also the perpetrator of numerous human rights transgressions, has largely ignored the peace initiatives being proposed by Trump and his minions.
Well, at least Trump has succeeded in knocking the stuffing out of Iran and its Middle East Muslim manifest destiny with all its outreach through Hamas (in Gaza), Hezbollah (in Lebanon) and the Houthis (from Yemen and into the Straights of Hormuz). But wait a minute…was that trump’s doing, or even the work of the United States? To most informed observers, the decimation of all three fundamentalist groups in addition to the very clandestine and technologically surgical attacks on the leadership of the Revolutionary Guard inside Iran has come mostly from Israel and its profoundly effective Mossad intelligence capabilities.
None of that should surprise anyone. Both Putin and Netanyahu as brilliant and strong men, much smarter and much tougher than Trump has ever been. None of that accrues to any ethical foundation either man has, but as wartime leaders they are quite determined and pretty damn effective. Trump, on the other hand has shown neither smarts nor strength in his prosecution of his agenda, as it were at any minute of the day. He is generally acknowledged to be bumbling around on issues and pulling the trigger prematurely and then trying to self-correct under the guise of any mistake having been a negotiating tactic. I’m reminded of that scene from the movie Tommy Boy where Chris Farley rips the door off David Spade’s “cherry” car, replaces it, and then when Spade opens the door only to have it fall off, says, “What’d you do!?” But again, similar to Tommy Boy, every time Trump smashes into something or rambunctiously flails, he utters beneath his breath, “Now that’s gonna leave a mark?!” Well, Trump’s forehead is full of indelible marks after only a few months in office this go around.
Everything Trump has done in the past 90 days can be characterized as a war of one sort or another. While failing to extinguish the pre-existing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as promised, he has launched multiple other wars, all of which the American people are paying for in one way or another. The tale is told through his executive orders, which, while not unique to his presidency, are more prolific than ever before. His first executive order intended to bring an end to the weaponization of the Justice Department, but in a way that would allow him to continue to use it as a weapon of his choosing while having it dismantled with regard to all things that had been aimed at him or which criticized him. That is very comparable to a disarmament truce where one side disposes of its weapons only to have the instigator keep his and wonder out loud what the problem is. That was followed by his revision of 79 Biden-era executive orders or actions. The third was about free speech, which might seem like a peaceful enough mission, except that it focuses entirely on the belligerent free speech of the outlets (traditional media and social media) that trumpet his own bellicose intentions without regard to any collateral damage. Then there was the realignment of the Department of State to his America First approach, which is nothing more than his preamble to his planned tariff war. That was followed by revoking security clearances and protection for anyone he didn’t like, which is tantamount to putting bullseyes on their backs for any wayward disciples, of which there are many.
The three outright wars he has launched, replete with some combination of military and economic weaponry are the war against illegal immigrants, the war against DEI and the trade war (Liberation Day). The immigration war is an even farther fetched version of the invocation of the Insurrection Act than was portrayed fictionally in the 1998 movie The Siege starring Denzel Washington, Annette Benning and Bruce Willis. Where that was Islamaphobic, the Trump version is even broader with Islamaphobia, Migrant-phobia and outright racism driving mass deportation efforts by Homeland Security supported by the military, the IRS, the Social Security Administration and law enforcement in general. Trump has enlisted allies like the President of San Salvador who finds commercialized high security prison management to be a great business. Based on the battle lines he is drawing with the likes of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, Trump plans to use this immigration war as a means to rid the country of any and all dissidents who don’t like Trump. The constitutional issues are breathtaking.
I have already spent enough storytelling time discussing the trade war brought on by Trump’s blunt tariff weaponry. He has brought all new meaning to the concept of economic global saber-rattling. So, instead, let’s discuss the Trump war on DEI. Doing battle against diversity, equity and inclusion ten years ago would have been something so anathema to Americans, other than the most vile of irredeemable racists, but today it is the basis for the U.S. Government doing battle with institutional America at its core. The combatants are the great Universities of the land, the most prestigious law firms and any and every government agency that exists. There are only two reasons for this war. The first is pure racism and the un-American belief that some people are better than others. It is hard to ignore that such a feeling has not existed since the founding of the country 240 years ago, and of course even before. What is hard to understand is that it still exists despite all that we all learned during WWII about the wrong-mindedness of that sort of thinking. But down deep, that prejudice remains and is perhaps now exacerbated by the competitive rigors of an 8 billion person world.
As bad as racism is, at least we know that this is inherent in the nature of man and has always been so to some degree. What is somehow harder to grasp is the despicable behavior that takes advantage of such a war for political and headline purposes. Trump is all about showmanship, as we know, and showmen need soundbites. DEI is such a soundbite that has the advantage of making people feel that they may be inferior or being left behind by some who they inherently feel are historically of lower castes than themselves.and are therefore unworthy. It plays on fundamental feelings of inferiority and that makes it very powerful as a rallying cry for the people most drawn to Trump and his populist war cry.
We may think we are living in peaceful times, but that is no longer the case. We are at war, thanks to Trump with almost everyone in the world. Without bombs, missiles or even drones (yet). We have gone to war with friends and enemies and are left only with enemies. In this instance, the fog of war is mostly about why we find it necessary to put ourselves in this place.