Trump Just Sabotaged The US
Trump's delirious greed has kickstarted a new world order without him.
Have you ever heard of the chicken game? It’s when two cars drive at each other as fast as possible, and the first to swerve out of the way loses. How do you win such a moronic game? One famous idea is to rip your steering wheel off and wave it out the window so your opponent sees that you physically can’t avoid them. This brazen act of self-sabotage is, theoretically, the best way to win. Trump attempted to do just this last week when he kicked the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy out of the White House to strong-arm Ukraine into a horrific peace deal. However, it has backfired, as Trump “forgot” the rest of the Western world was in the passenger seat. And after seeing him destroy the car they are in, they are all rapidly leaving the vehicle in pursuit of something better. As such, the US’s position as leader of the Western world has evaporated in only a weekend.
But how?
Well, let’s start at the beginning. During a press conference last week, Zelenskyy had an altercation with Trump and JD Vance. Essentially, Zelenskyy wouldn’t kowtow to Trump and Vance’s blatant misinformation. He also wouldn’t sign the $500 billion mineral deal or peace deal unless the US gave them security backing. This is entirely understandable; Putin has violated every diplomatic peace agreement he has ever signed with Ukraine. Putin’s word doesn’t mean shit, and without security backing for a larger power, there is no peace in Ukraine, no security for Europe, and Russian aggression can spread further and further west, risking World War III.
It’s obvious Trump desperately wants his “peace” deal signed ASAP — possibly to win a Nobel Peace Prize and bolster his failing media image. However, it’s also apparent that Trump can’t get Putin to sign a peace deal if the US gives Ukraine security backing, as that would actually be a peace deal, stopping Putin’s imperial march westward to unite old USSR territory under his rule. But Trump also desperately wants to exploit as much wealth from Ukraine as possible for his oligarchs and is happy to do that in “partnership” with Putin, even if Putin is likely to just rob them of this wealth.
In other words, Trump’s hand is deplorably weak in this situation. Maybe that explains the petulant anger and fragile masculine bullying towards Zelenskyy? Either way, it has shown the entire world that Trump is the one willing to gamble on WW3 for very, very little reward, all while Zelenskyy just wants assurances his people aren’t going to be murdered in droves and buried in unmarked mass graves.
In retaliation for Zelenskyy not breaking, Trump kicked him out of the White House. Since then, Trump has halted military aid to Ukraine, something he legally can’t do, and is now in the process of lifting the very sanctions on Russia that forced Putin to the negotiating table in the first place. In our chicken analogy, he has locked the car doors, forcing everyone to go his way or no way at all.
Unfortunately for Trump, he has forgotten that the EU can smash the windows and leg it away from his suicidal plan, and they are doing exactly that.
Europe can’t risk more Russian aggression. So, over the weekend, Keir Starmer announced a “coalition of the willing” (a temporary international partnership created for the purpose of achieving a particular objective) of EU states and their partners to draw up a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine and present it to United States President Donald Trump for his support. But, unlike Trump, Starmer and this coalition recognise that peace must uphold and protect Ukraine’s sovereignty, improve Ukraine’s defence capabilities, and ensure Ukraine is present at the negotiating table. Moreover, this coalition has widespread support, with distant parties like Canada and Turkey appearing to support it.
In our analogy, this is the car the passengers who fled Trump’s car have piled into, locked the doors, and pasted a “No Trump allowed” sign on the window.
But, for Ukraine to have peace and for WW3 to be averted, Ukraine needs security assurances, which means military aid and defence bolstering that only America can provide. Right?
Guess again!
Almost all of Europe is rapidly increasing its defence spending. Over the weekend, Starmer announced a $2 billion aid package for Ukraine and has drastically ramped up the UK defence budget. Likewise, French President Macron has called for European states to increase their defence spending to 3% of GDP, which is a 50% increase on the current amount being spent. And this is just the first wave, with Germany, Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and Scandinavian countries set to increase their defence spending and Ukrainian aid.
But can Europe really afford to replace the US military presence they have relied on for so long? Yes. Easily.
The US gave Ukraine $119.7 billion in military aid between January 2022 and December 2024, or $39.9 billion per year. The EU has a population of 449.2 million, meaning for the equivalent of $88.82 per person, per year, the EU can replace this aid.
The same is true for NATO. The US accounts for 15.8% of its annual budget, meaning it only paid $567 million into NATO in 2023. Europe could replace that spending for less than the equivalent of $2 per person per year.
But doesn’t NATO and the EU rely on US-made military equipment? Um… no. We make our own fighter jets, tanks, warships, guns, missiles, defence systems, and more, all independently of the US. And you can be damn sure that these increasing defence budgets will be spent on EU-made equipment.
Okay, so what is the effect of all of this?
Well, why has Europe let its defence capacity slip and relied on US backing for decades now?
It’s because of US hegemony.
The US overspends on its defence and military because it wildly benefits from it. It allows the country to have a massive influence over other countries, enabling them to strong-arm them into exploitative trade deals. This has also played into the US’s global financial hegemonic powers, with the World Bank and IMF being practically under US rule and the US dollar being made into the de facto international currency for trade. In short, it made no sense for European countries to spend more on their militaries, as they wouldn’t get the same kickback as the US. They can’t use them to compete for trade deals against the US and can’t convince other countries to come under their military protection rather than the US’s.
But this status quo was smashed to pieces over the weekend. The reason these EU countries are increasing their defence spending is not just to protect themselves and Ukraine from Russian aggression but also because they can now wildly profit from it. Helping to defend, rebuild, and trade with Ukraine will bring in billions of euros over the long term. Furthermore, other countries under threat or financial coercion from Russia, such as Moldova, Georgia, Turkey, India, and many Western allied Middle Eastern countries, like Egypt, the UAE, and Kuwait, will see this increased defence (and possibly the ability to create peace agreements with Putin) and almost certainly shift towards supporting and taking part in the new European-centric defence initiative. After all, it’s in their best interest to ally themselves with the one actually defending against Russia, not inviting them in.
Now, Trump will almost certainly retaliate against Europe with tariffs in the coming weeks or months. But that is more of a problem for the US than Europe. America is a big importer of European goods, but we don’t actually import all that many American goods, at least not directly. So, such a trade war will harm the US more than the EU.
But, in this hypothetical but likely scenario, where much of the Western-allied world is starting to look more towards Europe rather than the US for their defence, do you think they will sit idly by or start forging better trade deals with Europe and making up for the lack of US customers? And, if that happens, will the world continue using the dollar as the de facto trade currency or switch to the euro so that these trades are under European control, not the US’s?
Do you not think European leaders know this cascade of events is possible? That by dramatically increasing their defence budgets now, they can, in turn, bring much of the Western-allied world under their financial control, rake in massive profits, and neuter US international power?
The car that Trump ripped the steering wheel out of was the status quo of a world that put America first. It forced almost every country to bend their policies, trade, and military to the whim and will of the US, as they were the ones in the driving seat. But, in his avaricious greed, Trump has destroyed this privilege and left America vulnerable.
Ultimately, Europe and the rest of the world know who is really gambling on WW3 and how little they are gambling it for. Not only are the emperor’s clothes non-existent, but he has giant skid marks all up his back. The world is fed up with morons over the Atlantic dictating their politics and exploiting their wealth. They are using this moment of transparent ineptitude and self-sabotage to decapitate the old world order and build a new one without such petulance.
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Sources: AlJazeera, The Guardian, The Guardian, Politico, Politico, Politico, BBC, EU, Reuters, Reuters, EU