{"id":22458,"date":"2025-06-13T09:58:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T13:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=22458"},"modified":"2025-06-13T09:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T13:58:28","slug":"everyone-wants-to-know-why-trump-is-playing-such-an-astonishingly-dangerous-game-this-is-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=22458","title":{"rendered":"

Everyone wants to know why Trump is playing such an astonishingly dangerous game—<\/span>THIS IS WHY!<\/span><\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018One quiet early morning in Beijing, the dollar\u2019s crown slipped\u2019<\/h1>\n

Should China succeed, the U.S. would lose its \u2018magic weapon\u2019 of monetary dominance.<\/h3>\n

By Claudio Resta | VT<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we must start from the notion of defeat leading to revolution \u2013 to grasp the Trump revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience underway in the United States, even if we don\u2019t know exactly what it will be, is revolution. Is it a revolution in the strict sense? Is it a counter-revolution?\u201d<\/p>\n

So spoke the French historian and philosopher Emmanuel Todd in his April Moscow lecture, From Russia With Love.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\u201cThis [Trump revolution] is, in my opinion, linked to defeat. Various people have reported to me conversations between members of the Trump team, and what is striking is their awareness of defeat. People like J.D. Vance, the Vice President, and many others, are people who understood that America had lost this war\u201d.<\/p>\n

This American awareness of defeat, however, contrasts markedly with the Europeans\u2019 surprising lack of awareness \u2013 rather it is denial \u2013 at their defeat:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the United States, it is fundamentally an economic defeat. The sanctions policy showed that the financial power of the West was not omnipotent. The Americans were reminded of the fragility of their military industry. The people at the Pentagon know very well that one of the limits to their action is the limited capacity of the American military-industrial complex\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\u201cThat America is in the midst of a serious revolution, right now \u2013 easily comparable to the end of the USSR \u2013 is understood by a few\u201d. Yet our preconceptions \u2013 political and intellectual \u2013 often prevent us from seeing and assimilating the import of this reality\u201d.<\/p>\n

Todd, to his credit, admits the difficulty with perception readily:<\/p>\n

\u201cI must admit that when the Soviet system actually collapsed, I was unable to foresee the extent of the dislocation and the level of suffering this dislocation would cause for Russia. My experience taught me one important thing: The collapse of a system is as much mental as economic \u2026 I didn\u2019t understand that communism was not only an economic organization but also a belief system, a quasi-religion, that structured Soviet and Russian social life. The dislocation of belief would lead to psychological disorganization far beyond economic disorganization. We are reaching a situation of this type in the West today\u201d.<\/p>\n

The psychological dislocation caused by \u2018defeat\u2019 may explain (but not justify) the West\u2019s \u2018curious\u2019 inability to understand world events: The almost pathological dissociation from the real world that it displays in its words and actions: It\u2019s blindness \u2013 for example, to the Russian experience of history and to the long history behind Shi\u2019a defiance in Iran. Yet, even as the political situation deteriorates \u2026 there is no sign of the West becoming more reality-based in its understanding \u2013 and it is very likely that it will continue to live in its alternative construction of reality \u2013 until it is forcibly expelled.<\/p>\n