Surely we’ve all been around too long to keep being blindsided by Donald Trump, a character who sets fire to the global trading order one day and heads off for a round of golf the next?
And as the world’s sharemarkets crashed, the White House announced that the US president had “won his second round matchup of the senior club championship” at his Florida golf course and would be “advancing to the championship round”. Then, back at work, the newly crowned club champion relished the economic mayhem he had caused — and threatened more.
None of this is “normal”. But nothing has been “normal” since Trump descended on his golden elevator and announced he was running for president. That was a decade ago. So why are we still bewildered about him? That question matters if we are to understand the historic moment we are witnessing and come to terms with what it means for Australia as a US ally.
The answer is that our bewilderment is due to a failure of knowledge and of imagination — particularly among political insiders who dominate the commentariat.
No rhyme nor reason
The tipping point for the political cognoscenti has been Trump’s “reciprocal tariff” announcements a week ago — most of which, with typical crazy-man impulsiveness, he paused last night, sending the world’s bottomed-out sharemarkets into a stunning bounce-back. George Brandis, a former Australian attorney-general and a conservative political insider, was aghast that Trump had “abandoned the West”. The Australian’s Paul Kelly, a chronicler of political upheaval for the past 50 years, judged that the US had “gone rogue”.
Almost alone among the pundits, the ABC’s Alan Kohler looked the facts in the eye and dispassionately assessed that Australia should move on to something better, because after 80 years — dating to the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 which led to the global system of alliances and co-operation — the American age is coming to an end. That indeed is a historic moment. Kohler suggests America was “having a holiday from reality and reason”. Nice.
But what if the holiday is permanent? What if a substantial chunk of it has constructed a new system of reality and reason, in which Trump’s actions not only make perfect sense but are inevitable, not negotiable and necessary?
MAGA deplorables
Unlike former presidents, Trump doesn’t govern for all America. He doesn’t even try to. He governs for a subsection of America, constituted in part by MAGA America. In 2016, his Democrat presidential opponent Hillary Clinton derided Trump’s slice of America as the “deplorables”, capturing the idea of redneck bigots who drive pickup trucks and sit on the sofa drinking Mountain Dew watching Fox News all day.
That was nearly a decade ago. Since then the Svengalis of Trump world have been at work, fashioning a broader and more connected network united by opposition to the idea of government. It has been a confluence of radical right opinionators and the billionaire libertarian tech class. Their tools of dissemination have been online publishing platforms and social media sites. These have worked as a launching pad to fame in the ideological incubators which have sprouted while no-one normal was looking. We ignore them at our peril.
Rising fast
Take the example of 51-year-old computer engineer, Curtis Yarvin, profiled earlier this year by The New York Times. In years past Yarvin might have been dismissed as a crank, a man prone to dispatch his thoughts in ALL CAPS. Now his extreme views have found favour in high places. As the NYT reports, US Vice-President JD Vance has alluded to Yarvin’s notions of forcibly ridding American institutions of so-called wokeism. According to the NYT, a one-time conservative essayist and now senior State Department official, Michael Anton, had spoken to Yarvin about how an “American Caesar” might be installed into power. The NYT reported:
“Yarvin also has fans in the powerful, and increasingly political, ranks of Silicon Valley … [who have] approvingly cited Yarvin’s anti-democratic thinking.”
Turning right
A key figure in developing far-right networks is tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel who has supported up-and-coming political ideologues. Vance was one of those. Within this system, as Vanity Fair reports, Yarvin is known as Lord Yarvin or Our Prophet.
The biggest name, of course, is Steve Bannon, who acts as Trump’s chief propagandist. In his own way Bannon is a historic figure, a professional agitator with an international profile who has been on the ground floor of far-right information ecosystems. He likes to talk about his military service. He’s gone to prison for his beliefs. He gleefully amplifies Trump’s thinking and explains his motives to the MAGA hordes. He does all this via his podcast, War Room, as well as an online platform called Real America’s Voice, which pulls in more than a million viewers each episode.
That’s my man
Unlike the rest of us, Bannon is never ever blindsided by Trump. Here are some of his takes in the days after Trump’s tariff announcements when world outrage was at its most raw.
- On Trump’s role in saving America: “[He] threw down against the globalist world order and said, ‘I am here as a representative of the sovereign will of the American people to shatter you.’ And they don’t like it. And I understand that and you understand that, [but] it’s not going to change anything.”
- On the world’s reaction: “Liberation Day from the globalists was on Wednesday [last week] and hey, guess what? They’re fighting. They’re throwing the toys out of the pram.”
- On Trump’s reaction to criticism: “He’s not going to agree to the system and he’s not leaving here [the government] unless he brings his political revolution to the economic side because he committed to people to do this. This is a revolution and Trump’s the only person that could do it, the only person with the understanding [and] the knowledge — not just the knowledge of the economics of it, the knowledge of the process and the knowledge of the players … He’s doing a massive restructuring.
“[Trump knows that] you’re not looking for some preferred placement on the top of the food chain. You’re just asking ‘Hey, why don’t we just restructure this thing so it’s not always on our shoulders?’ That’s what Trump is doing, and that’s why they hate Trump.”
- On attempts to stop Trump: “They tried everything. There’s nothing else they could have tried. Hell, they tried to kill him. They tried to put him in prison. They tried to smear him. They tried to bankrupt him. They tried to make out that he’s the worst of people around women. They tried and they failed and he went bigger than ever. They tried all that and he consciously knew they were going to try it but came back [to the presidency] anyway.”
Revenge is sweet
The Bannon-Trump universe is nowhere near normal. Nor is it built on facts or any system of reason we are familiar with. Yet it makes perfect sense as a revenge narrative where Trump is the hero and incapable of putting a foot wrong.
The point of entry is that you must agree that the 2020 election was stolen. It’s hard to know if Bannon or Trump believe that in their heart of hearts, but if you want to be in the game you must at least be able to say the words. After that display of sycophancy, everything else follows.
Should read the Michael West Media article on the story about Peter Navarro and his fictional economist.
Yes, excellent article, showing the true ‘brains’ behind these operations
Can you please post link?
I think Trump is doing a wonderful job…US hegemony has to be destroyed, and nobody could have done it faster or better.
A bit sad for decent Americans, but they have thrived for too long on the misery of others.
Every dog has it’s day. He will self-destruct eventually … if someone doesn’t help him first
No apostrophe required Pam.
I assume that Trump’s big money donors have made a whopping return on their investment overnight.
Given the religious fervour of the MAGA disciples most won’t see any wrong doing
Looks like it pays big time to be a Truth Social follower
The Curtis Yarvin – Peter Thiel – JD Vance brotherhood should be watched closely.
Here’s a starter – https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-plot-against-america
Yes Doug knew about the schadenfreude from 2008 some time ago via another source and who was behind it, we all found that out however who was behind it was rather complex!
Don’t be fooled by the website name, it’s quite in depth and written by a person trained in journalism. Chiron Return and Planet Waves are different companies offering different services in addition to and projects such as the Chronology, the AI investigation and others.
It’s a system that proves what’s happening and follows the process and its extraordinarily accurate; been following this for 20 years.
https://planetwaves.substack.com/p/the-one-thing-that-differentiates?
Given Donny’s history ( even selling Bibles with his name on them ), it is Very Probable that Donny and his sons ( and his BFF Billionaire mates ) made Squillions with Insider Trading on the Tariff Pause. His main motivations though are 1) Revenge 2) Continue to dominate the News Cycle = Look at me, look at me.
Exactly!
Don’t be fooled that all politicians everywhere are also dealing in ‘Insider Trading’. One rule for me, another for thee!
An awful lot of words to describe someone criminally insane,with revenge as his overriding obsession.Those that survive this madness will be chiseling new and unheard of versions of narcissism on their stone tablets,or painting them on their cave walls.And we’ve all seen this movie before.
Alas poor Mother Earth,I knew her well.Lay in as much Scotch as you can afford.
‘…criminally insane, with revenge as his obsession.’
What a perfect diagnosis. Fit for an inmate in an asylum, where he belongs.
Exactly!
Yes, we should not expect anything better from the US. Trump may die (or be kept alive like the dictator’s nose in Bananas) or he may be impeached after the mid-term elections (if they are not cancelled) or he may be booted for senility under the 25th amendment but then we get an equally moronic arsehole like Vance who may well be elected in 2028.
To generalise one can divide society in two parts – oppressed & oppressor; poor & wealthy; peasants & aristocracy; women & men etc let’s simplify it all down to left & right …. For convenience. And throughout history revolutions have invariably been by the left to end the unfair advantage of the right. Sometimes they fail eventually most win. Do we now have a new situation where the right is saying “ enough is not enough – it’s too much”. And for the first time do we have a revolution of the right to take away the “unfair” advantages hard won over many years by the left? Trump & Co; Putin & Co; Xi Jinping & Co – and a host of lesser players – welcome to the new world order!
To carry this on a bit more. Predators and Prey. Grass eaters and Meat eaters.
Trump (and his associated myrmidons, boosters, acolytes, supporters etc) is a meat eater who views the world through a predatory lens. Even how he speaks with use of words like loser, sucker and phrases like grab em by the pussy etc, reveal who he is.
Please do not ignore the insider trading. I know it is not Trump’s primary motivation, but it is happening and benefiting a select few.
Am I alone in thinking that the past month or so has been a carefully planned playbook and Trump (via shells) has bought shares, made pronouncements which see them rise, sold them, then made further announcements that see them crashing so he can once again buy and profit. The seesaw related to his apparent thought bubbles has the capacity to make and break fortunes.
Perish the thought Jan..The Orange Messiah in it for the money? Mind you , he has a lot of bankruptcies to make up for.
Well trump is sitting on $350 million he made from his meme coins around the day he was inaugurated. I’m wondering how those that got burnt there are feeling now – if they realise what has happened.
I must admit I enjoy the comments almost as much as the articles.
Don jnr is working in private equity so don snr can stay at arms length. I’m thinking he has watched his buddy putin and his mates rape and plunder Russia’s wealth and think they can do the same to the US. Pretty typical of autocrats
But those who operate by bluff, bluster and bullshit usually get their comeuppance sooner or later. Haven’t you ever encountered them or watched them operate in the workplace.
One hope I hold to is a flogging for republicans at midterms, losing house and senate and they impeach trump. Maybe it’s wishful thinking but you gotta have something …
But of course! The biggest short in history.
No you’re not Jan, patently obvious to anyone with a pulse and paying attention.
The tribal mind of the destructive and evil who think that there will be no consequences fro them at all.
Oops.
I forgot to add that it is a step up from hawking bottled water, sneakers, bibles, steaks …….
Trump is the latest model mad mad bad world leader.
Same shape different badge.
Bill Strick
“Unlike former presidents, Trump doesn’t govern for all America.”
Are you serious? What former president governed for all America? Yes, a few recognised that there might be trouble if they don’t do anything for those for whom the American dream remained a dream, and so they did something. But most governed for the benefit of those they found deserving/their donors. And that Clinton quote shows that so would she had she won.
“Clinton derided Trump’s slice of America as the “deplorables”, capturing the idea of redneck bigots who drive pickup trucks and sit on the sofa drinking Mountain Dew watching Fox News all day.”
How the mainstream media and politicians don’t get that the contempt they so freely show towards the people they consider inferior to their own precious selves is part of the problem and plays a role in pushing those people towards the likes of Trump…
Btw – the real “Trump’s slice of America” occupied the first row at his inauguration.
His America doesn’t do anything new. America was never benevolent, it was always ‘America first’, no matter how velvet the glove and most of the world only ever experienced the bare fist anyway. Trump has no use for velvet gloves. He’s the tough guy with the big stick, no carrots, that’s how he likes it. He can’t be bothered pretending, has no time for diplomacy, niceties, rules. He says and does openly what should be said and done only quietly, behind closed doors. He’s lazy and too impatient for the long game, he wants it all and he wants it now. He can’t be bothered hiding his contempt for America’s ‘allies’ and he targets them openly, treats them like he does the rest of the world. How awful! How dare he?!? Everybody knows that such treatment is for others, not for us! Everybody is upset. Because the problems only started with Trump?
And funny how it’s the economic bloodbath that has everybody up in arms. How many column inches have been written about it so far, how many words spoken and how many more are coming? And still barely a peep about that other bloodbath.
I guess, it’s the ’Western values’, right?
The simple fact is that the founding document of America was written by the status quo for the status quo, and based on Magna Carta.
Magna Carta took from 1215 to 1297 to be put into place as the Crown needed new taxes and its that version that remains in statute today with a lot of amendments along the way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta#History
He cheats at everything!
And now, for the next snow job, which was and is not a laughing matter either!
https://planetwavesfm.substack.com/p/replay-why-is-robert-f-kennedy-jr?
Do your own reading and research to form your own opinions, that ought to sharpen minds with the current political conundrums.
As Harry Lime says, lay in some good scotch or a decent big red to quaff as you read.
I am confused by democracy. There is so much emphasis on promises yet we all know that 99% of politicians tell us lies lies nd more lies, BUT we are supposed to make decisions based on what flows from their mouths. Democracy is dead. Who ever pays the most gets the pollies that will deliver what they want. Some countries have published 20 year plans and they deliver on time and underbudget. The Aus politician can spend 20 years argueing over who will pay and whether it will meet some artificial cost benefit projection. We buy submarines from a company which doesnt even have the facility in which to build our subs, We buy fighter aircraft that were designed many years ago (20?) WE decide to be a sole operator of a bomber that is so complex we obviously couldnt maintain it. We are promised better health care, education , science and all the rest and they are all lies. Now we are being told that Nuclear power is cheaper than other power sources. Vote for tweedle dum or tweedle dee and you get variations of Bozo the Clown.
I don’t think the US has ever been a true democracy. The electoral college system has proved that. And the American obsession with money making at the expense of the common good has enabled an incredibly unequal but ill-informed society to persist.
Australia, on the other hand, has the opportunity to flourish and to put in place strategies based on a strong sense of community. Whether it will do so remains to be seen.
Well said.