‘America First’ is Donald Trump administration’s self-minted license for imperialist American wars and aggression in pursuit of their naked self-interest. It demands first dibs on resources and spheres of influence around the world, from oil to trade routes to minerals and rare earth metals. At the same time, he wants to shut out imperialist America’s rivals in countries they do business with or treat as “allies” or trade and security “partners.” If they are not with, or not vowing to, America, these countries court sanctions and rising tariffs, intervention (ranging from abduction, regime change, global demonization, etc.) and war.
Trump is leading the charge to reassert hegemonic control of not just their allies but also of those former colonies and regions that have been veering toward America’s rivals. It is seeking a deeper and broader imperialist expansion while suffering increasingly huge budget deficits and fierce challenges from imperialist rivals.
A year into his second term, Trump’s actions and pronouncements bluntly declare that might makes right, to hell with rules of law, conventions of war, others’ sovereignty, or respect of their so-called allies. In fact, to hell even with the United Nations and other multilateral institutions they themselves helped form after World War 2. These institutions are supposed to usher in what leaders of their allied countries now mourned as “rules-based” competition and contention between and among superpowers and emerging powers. As a European Commission leader said at a regional security conference held in Munich, “Some lines have been crossed that cannot be crossed anymore.”
In fact, chiefs of imperialist America, not just Trump, had not let up in pursuing their naked self-interest as leaders of imperialist US. They have been crossing uncrossable lines since America became an imperialist. To paraphrase Trump himself, they haven’t been innocent in past wars. What “changed” under Trump is the increased intensity and brazenness in their policies, wars and intervention. Some media reports call it “norm-busting.” It is simply a criminal leader acting in desperation because the imperialist US is in a crisis it cannot seem to get out of. It has ramped up its engagement in wars, an imperialist big business to help it maintain itself. So far though, the more it tries to get out of the crisis, the more it sinks like in a quagmire.
US Department of Defense now aptly called Department of War
Trump’s administration has revised imperialist America’s security strategy. They aptly rebranded the US Department of Defense into Department of War. His Secretary of Defense (War), Pete Hegseth, is known for his contempt for laws of war. Hegseth has claimed the rules of engagement “tie the hands of soldiers in the field.” He has fired many senior legal advisers in military operations and gutted the Pentagon’s Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Office. This is akin to preparations to more freely commit war crimes.
The Trump administration is renewing or extending the imperialist US neocolonial control in many regions of the world. Toward their neighboring countries, Trump revived the Monroe doctrine to add the Trump corollary, to reassert imperialist American control over their neighboring American countries. The emblematic example of their stance is their January 3 abduction of Venezuela’s sitting president Nicolas Maduro. And their ensuing “negotiations” with (or threatening) the acting leaders of Venezuela.
Trump’s security strategy reveals
the imperialist greed as much as
its crisis and bankruptcy.
Venezuela has twice nationalized their oil industry, enraging oil majors including that of US. Venezuela holds some of the world’s biggest oil reserves. It also received the biggest official Chinese loans and grants in South America ($106 billion between 2000 and 2023 according to a research center called AidData).
“We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground,” said Trump after American forces abducted Maduro.
These days, all the crude oil being dug out of Venezuela are being hauled to Texas (USA) for processing, said a Chavista professor in a webinar following the US attack on Venezuela. US oil majors are “negotiating” exclusive crude supply contracts with Venezuela.
In America’s new national security strategy, they declared they would deny competitors the ability to position military forces or control strategic assets in the western hemisphere. That competitor is China. Imperialist US is alarmed at Chinese becoming an economic force in their backyard western hemisphere. Chinese hold investments in infrastructure across this region.
In Panama Canal, Donald Trump exerted his imperialist US might to make Panama force out the Chinese conglomerate operating and owning ports at either end of the canal.
In Europe, Donald Trump representing imperialist US casts a long shadow. Europe is said to be imperialist America’s digital colony. Against the now 4-year Russia-Ukraine war, Trump wants to ink a peace deal with Russia. Reports suggest both US and Russia were talking of sharing the spoils of war. Meanwhile, the war drags on. Trump wants Europe to increase its defense spending, to decrease its “reliance” on America and increasingly foot the bill of operating NATO. Trump complained that America has been paying for NATO. His Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said America (American taxpayers actually) has spent $22 trillion more than the Europeans on “defense” since 1980.
Europe has provided imperialist America with bases, helping US project power and defend its interests including in the Arctic; serving as market for $1 trillion-worth of US goods and services; supplying technologies and even intelligence. They cooperated against the Soviets during the Cold War. Now the imperialist America wants them to increasingly shell out money, too.
Trump’s security strategy reveals the imperialist greed as much as its crisis and bankruptcy.
(Imperialist US) has ramped up its engagement
in wars, an imperialist big business
to help it maintain itself…
the more it tries to get out of the crisis,
the more it sinks like in a quagmire.
Amid Trump’s paper tiger order is a revealing cry about America’s growing budget deficits and debts. It cries about being wronged, wronging its allies in the same breath. If we we follow their logic, imperialist US just might fray its alliances. If imperialist America through Trump succeeds in making Europe wary, not just because of his insults about their sponging in NATO or his covetous claws toward Greenland, it is Trump’s America who stand to lose strength.
Reports indicate that weaning Europe from dependence on American military hardware and technology may also spark a new arms race, including of nuclear arms.
In other parts of the globe, Donald Trump’s imperialist America is brokering deals, maximizing US benefits in the process, in conflicts in Africa which imperialist US also helped to foment. For example in the conflict between Congo’s army against Rwandan troops and M23, a rebel group supported by Rwanda. Imperialist America is helping Congo in return for access to its minerals. They brokered a peace deal between the contending parties in December but the fighting still continues. The Congo administration Trump supports also happens to be imposing a crackdown against citizens of Congo.
In the West Asia (Middle East), as we all know, Donald Trump has continued and intensified his predecessors’ war against what they used to call ‘rogue’ states such as Iran. The US-Israel war against Iran has entered its fourth week, killing thousands including Iran’s old leader and wreaking havoc not only in West Asia but in much of the world because of increased oil prices.
Trump said they have won on the first day of the war. But even satire shows have twitted him—for they were still hard put to end the globally unpopular war as of this writing. Trump has been forced to ask other countries to send their troops to Iran, and is now resorting to duplicitous releases of what Iran calls as fake news such as conducting peace talks to end the wars.
So far, Trump’s bluster about America First is pushing it downward instead. But the heavy costs are being borne by the working people in America and everywhere US extends its claws.### (Pinky Ang)
