President Trump seems to think of himself as an alpha in a world of betas and a global businessman extremely successful in the “art of the deal.” But he is remarkably ignorant in world affairs and vulgar in interacting with his people and social media, particularly in his Truth Social account. His approach is based on the defunct and faulty premise that he is the alfa leader of an alfa country―a delusion seemingly generated by his time and experience in The Apprentice TV game show, where he could humiliate people at will, creating an illusion of raw power.
Trump has demonstrated aversion to any association with failure, being openly hostile towards those whom he considers weak and prone to failure, and deriding losers unworthy of his consideration, let alone sympathy. The performance and the façade are meant to trump the substance of an insecure and thin-skinned Trump 2.0 desperately floundering with his Potemkin foreign policy.
Trump 2.0 was created during the 2024 re-election to U.S. presidency upon rhetoric opposing the increasingly unpopular and self-destructive policy of the U.S. Deep State and Western global liberalism. Demagogy, supported by the skill to conceal the substance by the spectacle, was the tool of his political trade.
His narcissistic personality fuels his approach to putting image above all else and overestimating his abilities and underestimating others’ while communicating with audiences. Yet, paradoxically, a man who despises the weak and losers of this world is caught up in a ‘wicked’ dilemma of the declining U.S. power.
What has become abundantly clear since Trump 2.0’s inauguration in January 2025, is that he is not a reaction to the excesses of the crumbling empire, rather he is its product. The fundamental challenge is how to reform and save the empire from itself, where both the tangible (the military, economy, and populace) and the intangible (politics, trust, and belief in the system and its leaders) are in an exponential decline. Its physical and intellectual capabilities have eroded. The political establishment of the Global North is torn by an internal crisis. The differences stem not from the lack of strategic vision of how to maintain U.S. global hegemony, but in the tactics of achieving this end―a dilemma similar to the existential crisis the Soviet Union experienced in the mid-1980s. Thus, the geostrategic imperatives outlined by Brzezinski in 1997 (it is not the intended (geo)political goal that matters, but how the end goal is achieved) remain relevant, but this time for the maintenance of U.S. global hegemony.
Saving the declining U.S. empire is not an easy task. There is a heavy reliance on the use of information and knowledge that is weaponized against friends and foes alike, to affect the cognitive realm. The idea is encapsulated in Trump’s personally branded tactics The Art of the Deal. The first demonstrations of attempts to revive the U.S. empire were the trade wars launched against friends and foes alike. This should not come as a surprise as the U.S. has never abided by this principle in its policies, rather it is guided by the interests embodied in its geostrategic imperatives. The façade of friendship is a means to this end. The trade wars are not meant to create a “fairer” system of global trade, but to implement U.S. economic power in a bid to rescue itself while lacking the capability to physically assert its global dominance. Therefore, the threat of enhancing power is needed to bluff other global powers to pay for the revival and rehabilitation of the U.S. empire through cognitive imposition of power and dominance. This bluff works well with the weak-minded with slave mentality, such as the EU, which has fully accepted the terms of capitulation―and humiliation.
In reality, the tariff wars, which Trump 2.0 proudly boasts other countries must pay for, place a heavy burden on U.S. tax payers.
As a good salesman, Trump 2.0 has created and surrounded himself with myths to project his political brand and personality as a means of engineering consent among targeted audiences. As a popular English saying goes, he is writing cheques that he cannot cash. His tactics are to cognitively overwhelm an opponent or counterpart and rally supporters with some form of logic (often false) and his self-constructed persona, so that the audiences are primed with and (de)mobilized by such emotions as fear, revenge, etc. The forefront of this (geo)political battle is the volatile environment of social media. In his Truth Social account he can better control this environment and manipulate the audience into thinking about certain topics that are in a constant chaotic change rather than meeting the harsh realities of the contemporary geopolitical atmosphere.
Trump 2.0 is seeking to set the geopolitical stage by framing the U.S. as a victim of all of the world’s powers taking advantage of America’s “kindness” and “benevolence.” Victimhood is the linchpin of the domestic support for the rapidly shrinking appeal of his MAGA (Make America Great Again) slogan meant to emotionally prime the Americans for the “great reform.” This is obvious in his Truth Social rants on China, Iran, and Russia (as well as the EU and other actors) that are seen as the primary challengers of U.S. hegemony in the key geopolitical regions―the Indo-Pacific, West Asia, and Europe. Trump 2.0 has approached these countries and their leaders as he would front an episode of The Apprentice: he is in charge, the alpha, where others dance to his tune as he is “Making America Great Again” on the world stage. This was most dramatically encapsulated in his vulgar statement that world leaders were lining up to kiss his posterior during his disastrous trade wars. Such façade tactics work well on the feeble minds of the leaders of U.S vassal and client states with entrenched slave attitude towards their patron. However, it does not work on subjects of international relations that pursue their own interests and understand Trump’s primitive psychological games of smoke and mirrors.
These show games are not strategic and not even operational. Rather they are tactical at best and aimed at creating sound bites and publicity moments for Trump 2.0 to parade on the world stage.
This comes in many forms, e.g., in his haphazard pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize (while starting numerous wars across the planet, which seems to be a prerequisite for being considered for this prize).
Trump 2.0 likes nothing more than servile flattery from his minions and is tough when he sees disobedience, such as putting Zelensky in his place during the conflict in the Oval Office (a perfect moment of publicity for his ego). But problems come when the leaders of the Global South sovereign states stand up to Trump 2.0 as he has “no cards” in these geopolitical gambles.
For all of Trump 2.0’s vulgarity and ignorance, his game show policy lacks consistency of purpose, while the roller coaster of uncertainty and risk is uniquely accelerating the U.S./Global North’s decline and the rise of the Global South. Trump 2.0 is the perfect symbol and face of the current stage of the Western civilizational development that appears to be locked somewhere between the time of Roman emperors Caligula and Nero. This gives impetus to the Global South to collaborate with each other and resist the Western imperial standard ‘divide and rule’ policy.
