Donald Trump flew to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, essentially to deliver his standard interminable campaign rant to a gathering of baffled world leaders and members of the press. He interspersed his speech, if that’s the right word, with boasts about his achievements and threats to annex Greenland - or was it Iceland? Nobody seemed sure, least of all Trump. America, in his fevered imagination, swings effortlessly from being the most powerful nation in the history of the world to one which is constantly taken advantage of by other lesser countries. The US is both victim and victor at the same time. One moment he’s boasting of taking in trillions of dollars and being the hottest country on the planet, and the next complaining that it’s not enough.
It was part Godfather, part dementia patient, full of ignorance, grievance and menace.
He bullies his allies, praises his adversaries to the sky, and all the while claiming that America is both highly respected and simultaneously downtrodden. He mixes petty domestic squabbles with geopolitical thunderbolts, trashes his political foes, real and imagined, attacks the press, pollsters and economists for their expertise and pumps out so much eye-popping rubbish and flat-out lies, that nobody can ever hope to keep up or try to correct him.
There is very little difference, I think, between Trump’s public utterances and the long, disjointed, agendaless policy meetings that take place in private. His world is one long whinge.
Last February, Vice President JD Vance told the Munich Security Conference that there was a “new sheriff in town” in the form of Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the new sheriff is operating what for all the world looks like his own personal protection racket.
Trump's lawless administration confirmed the first sale of Venezuelan oil last week, saying it raised $500 million, the first of many expected to bring in billions of dollars in the months ahead. But the money has been transferred to a bank in Qatar, rather than the US Treasury or sent directly to Venezuela. In fact, whether Venezuelans will ever feel the benefit isn't clear at all.
He’s also demanding $1 billion from countries that want to become permanent members of his Board of Peace for Gaza. The board doesn’t include any Palestinians, but Vladimir Putin, an indicted war criminal, has been invited. It’s not clear where that money will go or who will control it. Again, I would be amazed if most of it ever goes to Gaza or the Palestinians.
Trump’s family wealth has increased by $1.8 billion since the 2024 election from cash and gifts, including $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency gains. This is corruption on a grand scale, taking place in full view of the voters and Congress, with barely a peep out of any Republicans who might be expected to restrain him.
Politico reported this week that a Rubicon had finally been crossed. European leaders have concluded that Europe is on its own from now on.
President Macron and the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the EU’s two most powerful leaders, have reached the point of accepting that America is no longer a trusted ally and Trumps erratic behaviour and thinking has "catapulted the bloc into a harsh new reality — one in which it must embrace independence."
There was an emergency meeting in Brussels after which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters: “We know we have to work as an independent Europe.” It was a moment of clarity, a recognition that the old world order is gone and something new, more uncertain and certainly more costly and dangerous, lies ahead.
And this morning, to reinforce the point, the BBC report that the USA will offer “more limited” support to its allies in future. The Pentagon's new National Defence Strategy lays it all out. It calls on America's allies to step up, saying partners have been "content" to let Washington subsidise their defence, although it denies the shift signals a US move towards "isolationism".
"To the contrary, it means a focused and genuinely strategic approach to the threats our nation faces."
Washington is said to have long neglected the "concrete interests" of Americans, and that the US does not want to conflate American interests "with those of the rest of the world – that a threat to a person halfway around the world is the same as to an American." It is Trump's America First policy writ large.
Instead, US allies in Europe "will take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them". Russia is described as merely a "persistent but manageable threat to NATO's eastern members".
This is the direction we must now take. And it makes sense. The EU and Britain need to spend big on both defensive and offensive weapons, and both conventional and nuclear. We must do what Reagan did in the 1980s and force Russia into bankruptcy by trying to keep up with Europe. It can be done. It must be done.
Russia's economy is on its knees after four years of war, and it is only about the same size as the UK's. The EU is twelve times larger in terms of total economic capacity so it is right that it should be able to defend itself. But it will come at a cost. Living standards will be lower for longer, but there is no alternative.
None of this will change even if Trump disappears next week. The die is cast.
Trump's polling
Trump's ability to believe anything is unbelievable. His poll ratings are terrible but he now thinks there is a conspiracy among pollsters to deny his popularity among ordinary voters, despite the extensive 'No Kings' protests and those against ICE raids in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Have a look at this:
“The REAL Polls have been GREAT, but they refuse to print them?”
He needs psychiatric help. But we need to make this America's problem, not ours.
