Many things have been said about Donald Trump. He has been called shallow, ignorant, megalomaniacal, hedonistic, egotistical and narcissistic. He has also been called brilliant, tactical, cunning, tough, creative, sophisticated, daring, revolutionary and conservative.
My acquaintance with Trump is like that of most people: not personal. I have never met him. What I know about the leader of the free world comes from his posts, interviews, statements, videos and the endless material that documents him directly, 24/7.
I do read and listen to some of the commentators who try to interpret his thoughts, intentions, motives and personality structure. But who needs commentators when there is so much raw Trump material available, clear and unfiltered? Then again, in a moment I will be interpreting him myself.
Trump lives inside a bubble. The Trump bubble. An imagined world he built for himself, a world in which he is the main hero, while all other characters exist and behave as supporting players in his story. He is the mover, the cause and the effect, the sun. The people around him are the planets, and the rest of humanity is the audience.
Applause.
In Trump’s world, he is a winner. The connection to reality may be incidental, but in his business life, too, Trump believed he was an excellent businessman despite many failures, debts to banks, bankruptcies and heavy losses. What matters is perceived reality. In the bubble Trump inhabits, he sees himself as someone who has always been successful, handsome, smart and victorious.
Objective truth has no meaning. Subjective truth is all that matters.
Like George Costanza’s worldview, “It’s not a lie if you believe it,” this is exactly how Trump sees himself and manages the world.
The Chamberlain-like surrender to Iran’s terror ayatollahs is perceived by him as a victory. This is not propaganda, nor an attempt to beautify the defeatist reality to which Trump has led the strongest empire in history. It is truly and sincerely the Trumpian way of thinking in the face of a geostrategic loss that humiliates America.
Trump is convinced he won. He is convinced that ballistic missiles in Iran’s hands are a positive thing, that there is no need to destroy the uranium, that unfreezing billions of dollars that will finance murderous terror organizations controlled by Iran is an achievement, and that allowing a terror state to maintain control over the world’s oil artery in the Strait of Hormuz is perfectly acceptable.
The historical consequences of Trump’s surrender to Iran will arrive soon. The whole world has now seen where the real power lies.
The Saudis, with all their oil, understand that Trump sold them out. The Gulf states, with their oil and banking systems, understand that Trump abandoned them.
Nevo CohenSouth Korea and Australia are waking up now, and they will focus on independent capabilities rather than relying on “the ally” that is supposed to come to their rescue when China makes its move. And after China saw how the Iranians played Trump, you can be sure Beijing will make that move. Unlike him, they are looking reality in the eye.
The terror organizations opened champagne. The American lion folded its tail, gave an interview to Fox News and continued living in a movie.
Germany is rearming. Europe’s right is organizing for elections. We are facing a new world order.
The Wikipedia pages that will one day describe this period will mark Trump’s great surrender as the breaking point that pushed the world toward Chinese power, wars and lawlessness.
He will probably post that it was a victory.