By Ramzy Baroud 
Outside of a small number of dissenting voices, there is no sustained institutional effort to check presidential power. Congress has not mobilized in any meaningful way.
This is not US foreign policy as usual.
We may try endlessly to impose a rational explanation on Donald Trump’s behavior—linking it to doctrine, strategy, or even ideology. But that effort collapses under scrutiny. There is no coherent framework that explains what is unfolding.
This is not traditional American imperialism. That system—violent, exploitative, hegemonic—has always been guided by clear interests: control of markets, waterways, and geopolitical space. It is ruthless but rational.
Trump’s conduct is different. It is erratic, self-destructive, and increasingly detached from even the most basic logic of power.
This is not containment either. Containment requires alliances, long-term planning, and a calculated pursuit of stability. What we are witnessing instead—from Iran to Europe to Latin America—is the dismantling of alliances and the erosion of stability itself.
Even capitalism, in its most aggressive form, depends on predictability. It uses war and intervention as instruments—but always toward expansion, profit, and control. Trump’s policies, by contrast, are destabilizing markets in both the short and long term, blockading waterways without a strategy, and dragging allies into conflicts with no defined outcome.
This is not a strategy. It is a disruption without purpose.
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The temptation to search for hidden motives—whether personal scandals or political distractions—misses the point. Trump has never operated from a coherent moral or strategic foundation. His record, including legal controversies and public scandals, has always been visible. Reducing the current crisis to a single explanation misunderstands its scale.
What is different now is the level of risk.
Former CIA Director John Brennan said it plainly: “This person is clearly unhinged.” Brennan’s warning was not casual rhetoric. He went further, invoking the 25th Amendment and stating that Trump’s behavior “merited his removal from the Oval Office.” He rejected the central justification for escalation with Iran, saying unequivocally: “Iran didn’t pose an imminent threat,” and that it “did not have a nuclear weapon.”
Most alarming was his emphasis on presidential power.
“The fact that he is able to continue to be commander in chief and to control the tremendous capabilities of the US military, including our nuclear weapons capability, really puts us in very, very troubling times,” Brennan said.
These are not ordinary political criticisms. They come from a figure deeply embedded in the US intelligence system—a system that rarely speaks in such direct terms.
A day later, Trump escalated again—this time targeting Pope Leo XIV.
In a lengthy statement, Trump described the Pope as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” accusing him of aligning with the “radical left” and even suggesting that his papacy was politically engineered in response to Trump himself. He declared, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
This was not merely offensive. It was strategically reckless. There are over a billion Catholics worldwide, including tens of millions in the United States. The Pope is not simply a religious figure—he is a global moral authority with political weight across continents.
To openly attack him in such terms is to provoke a cultural and political rupture that extends far beyond domestic politics.
When placed alongside Trump’s repeated rhetoric targeting Arabs and Muslims, the pattern becomes clearer. This is not isolated behavior. It is a broad escalation across multiple civilizational, cultural, and political fronts.
New media post from Donald J. Trump
(TS: 12 Apr 21:49 ET) pic.twitter.com/uWUoEG1bSQ
— Commentary: Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) April 13, 2026
It echoes, in its most extreme form, Samuel Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilizations’—but without the analytical framework. What remains is a chaotic attempt to confront multiple worlds simultaneously.
Trump is not managing conflict. He is amplifying it. Even the imagery accompanying his messaging reflects this shift. The projection is not of diplomacy or restraint, but of a militant, nationalistic identity wrapped in religious symbolism—an inversion of the very traditions it claims to defend.
Meanwhile, meaningful political resistance within the United States is largely absent.
What exists instead is a fragmented and ineffective response. Republican leadership has, with few exceptions, aligned itself fully with Trump or chosen silence over confrontation. Within that camp, dissent is not simply rare—it is politically costly.
The Democratic establishment, for its part, has failed to mount a coherent challenge. While it criticizes Trump’s conduct and rhetoric, it does not fundamentally oppose the broader trajectory of escalation. On key issues—particularly Iran—the disagreement is often tactical rather than principled. The result is a form of opposition that registers disapproval without exercising real constraint.
Outside of a small number of dissenting voices, there is no sustained institutional effort to check presidential power. Congress has not mobilized in any meaningful way. Mechanisms that exist precisely for moments of crisis—oversight, legislative pressure, even constitutional provisions—remain largely dormant.
In practice, this means that Trump is operating with minimal internal resistance. Not because opposition is impossible, but because it has not materialized in a way that carries political weight. The absence of meaningful restraint is not incidental. It is the defining condition that allows the current trajectory to continue unchecked.
This paralysis is precisely what Brennan warned about when he described continued political support for Trump as “very concerning.”
A demented Trump 🇺🇸 attacks Pope Leo XIV as “weak” & “terrible”
And claims:
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican”
Before then posting a picture on ‘Truth’ of himself dressed as Jesus healing the ill
This man is unhinged
Impeach this nutjob now. pic.twitter.com/93UzBAdCO1
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) April 13, 2026
The result is a president exercising immense military power with diminishing institutional resistance.
Beyond Washington, the consequences are already visible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are leveraging this moment, pushing forward amid the chaos. For them, Trump’s unpredictability is not a liability—it is an opportunity.
But this alignment is unlikely to produce the outcomes they anticipate. Wars without strategy do not reshape regions in predictable ways. They create new actors, new dynamics, and unintended consequences. The Middle East that emerges from this escalation may not align with any existing agenda—Israeli, American, or otherwise.
For now, however, the trajectory is clear. Trump and Netanyahu are driving a cycle of escalation that risks expanding beyond control.
The question is no longer analytical. It is political—and urgent. Is there enough democracy in the United States to stop this?
Is there enough institutional courage?
Is there enough collective sanity?
Who will stop Donald Trump?
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of eight books. His latest book, ‘Before the Flood,’ was published by Seven Stories Press. His other books include ‘Our Vision for Liberation’, ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
What happens when a drug-addicted pedophile is ” elected ” to be POTUS?
This. This right here…
Look closely at the wording in the post of Dondolf Christ at the top. reading through it you see that it was written by A.I.
look at the misplaced words. ” be morten ” ? ” everybody else for hoter my church services ” simple spelling errors,
” adminstration ”
Why is Trump using A.I.? he’s not smart enough. So, who is ghost-writing for the idiot?
From a psychiatric point of view Mr. Trump should get immediate treatment. No one – except insane leaders and members of an also insane colonial concept – would have any benefit of mad decisions created by a sick brain. Every other people comparing themselves to Jesus Christ, Messias or a similar behavior in the public, would be conduct to a necessary therapy. To prevent harm from other – and indeed from himself- the earlier the better. What a poor man he is at least….