15 April
"I´m Interested In the Unimportant, the Seemingly Worthless" 
April 15, 2025 "I´m Interested In the Unimportant, the Seemingly Worthless"
April 1, 2025 Go With the FLOW
Trump´s Amok Run
İvo MOLİNAS
April 17, 2025
If Charles de Gaulle, the famous soldier, statesman and politician who was the symbol of resistance against the Nazi occupation on behalf of France and free Europe in World War II, were alive today, he would most likely say in response to Donald Trump’s actions as, “See, I have been saying since the 1950s that the US cannot be trusted, but you never believed me. Now put out the fire, if you can.”
De Gaulle would never forget the reluctance of US President Roosevelt at the beginning of the war to provide military aid to free Europe against the Nazis and to join the war. Only after the major attack by the Japanese on their own bases at Pearl Harbour in 1941 did the US decide to enter the war, became allies with England and France and played a major role in winning the war.
After the war, De Gaulle always put forward the desire for a European nation community that would be independent of the US and would provide its own security, and he did not even want to include England , whom he believed was the US’s Trojan horse, in it. He vetoed England’s entry into the European Economic Community, which was established in 1957, twice, and England only joined the community after De Gaulle’s death.
Since De Gaulle did not trust the US in defending Europe, especially against the Soviet Union, he implemented his country’s third nuclear power of the world over the years and followed a balancing policy against the Soviets, independent of US aid.
In a speech in 1959, he would say:
“Oui, c'est l'Europe, depuis l'Atlantique jusqu'à l'Oural, c'est tout l'Europe, qui décidera du destin du monde. / ''Yes, this is Europe, stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals, only a united Europe will determine the fate of the world.”
In short, De Gaulle wanted to lay the foundations of a European power independent of the US, and he also showed his desire to make a non-conflict agreement with the Soviet Union.
But geopolitical realities and constantly changing political conditions would prevent his will from being fully fulfilled after his death.
In addition, it should be noted that all Republican or Democratic presidents who came to power in the US after the war, no matter how nationalistic they were, did not betray the continental Europe that created their country, but always allied with it.
♦♦♦
Donald Trump's statements and actions at the very beginning of his second term in power, confirm De Gaulle's thoughts. With his crazy economic barriers to everyone without distinguishing between friend and foe, De Gaulle's idea of unreliability towards the US, which some describe as a paranoid view, is becoming a reality with Trump.
He has no qualms about 'selling out' Europe, the owner of the culture and values that founded his own country, and strangely, he does not show even a tenth of the tolerance he shows to Russia to Europe...
In fact, there is a logic behind the huge customs duties that Trump and his isolationist friends want to impose on the entire world.
Contrary to popular belief, while globalization mostly benefits China and developing countries, it should not be overlooked that his own country and of course Europe have emerged from this with a blow, and that especially the middle classes, which represent the most solid pillars of the countries, have been getting less and less of the pie and have been relatively impoverished.
China's great improvements in its economy due to free trade and globalization, even its trade surplus, and its middle class' increasing prosperity, always work against the West.
Based on this fact, Trump decides to put an end to globalization in order to break this cycle. He turns to aggressive protectionist policies, regardless of the tears of even his allies. He wants to limit imports and bring production in its own country. However, while trying to combat this, he transforms his decisions into a nihilistic character that tries to destroy everything in front of him. He fights, threatens, elbows at the bargaining table. Then he pretends to pull his elbow and prepares for a new attack.
Instead of acting together with his allies and raising the flag of a stronger, more comprehensive, logical and determined struggle against China, he proves De Gaulle was right and throws away the conventional practice of friendship and solidarity with Europe, which was demonstrated by his predecessors.
Trump’s narcissistic character is also reflected in his speeches. He speaks of the world countries, shocked by his crazy customs duties, talking to him and his economic management and trying to find a middle ground, with a very morally problematic discourse. He disregards ethical boundaries to the extent of saying, “You know what I do. That’s why you vote for me. I’m telling you, these countries are calling us and kissing my ass. They’re dying to make a deal,” at his party’s annual fundraising dinner in Washington.
♦♦♦
Donald Trump’s desire to have a third presidential term, even though it is known that it is not possible according to the American Constitution, and his claim that he is looking for ways to do so, is his desire to continue his amok run forever.
As long as he remains in power, it is certain that there will be anxiety brought on by the unknown in everyone, both inside and outside.
Who knows, Trump’s nihilism may be useful in bringing some people to their senses and motivating them to take action while they are sleeping in the warm bed of conformism, in the short and medium term…
Trump has named the day he announced the crazy taxes as 'liberation day’.
However, if he does not make any U-turn or make a more realistic and sustainable plan with his allies, ‘liberation day’ may very well turn into ‘destruction day’.
Because, as Turks say: ''water sleeps, ‘enemy’ does not sleep''.
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