Paul Craig Roberts—paulcraigroberts.org June 12, 2026

It is increasingly difficult to make sense out of the Trump regime. The president himself has begun speaking as if he is the captain of a pirate ship busy at work looting the world.  In a recent social post, Trump said: “We will be taking Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their [Iran’s] Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have done with Venezuela.”  And he is also going to steal Greenland and Cuba, because America needs, or deserves, to have them.

The current US national debt is almost $40 trillion.  This is a bit more than $114,900 for every person in America, working or not working.  This is an amazing debt for Americans forty percent of whom the Federal Reserve says are incapable of covering a check for $400.

Foreign central banks hold about one-third of US national debt as represented by US Treasury bonds.  As US Treasuries serve as the reserves of the world’s central banks, US deficits have not been a problem to finance as US debt instruments denominated in US dollars serve as the underpinnings of the world’s banking system.

For a number of years Washington has been working to undermine this support for the US dollar with its aggressive sanctions against other countries. Any foreign central bank that keeps its reserves in US dollars can lose them to American sanctions.

A policy of sanctions makes no sense for a country whose currency serves as the principle world reserve currency, especially a country whose ability to finance its debt is dependent on the willingness of foreign central banks to hold its debt. In other words, US policymakers are stupid beyond belief.

It is not only the dollar’s value and the market for US debt that face challenges.  The Social Security Administration reports that the retirement trust fund will have exhausted its reserves by 1932.  That is six years from now.

This does not mean that Social Security Retirement will have no money.  It will still have the annual payroll tax revenues, but the revenues will only cover about 77% of the current level of benefits. So, either the payroll tax on working Americans will have to go up, or the retirement benefits will have to be cut.

The Social Security Trust Fund consists of US Treasury debt.  The trust fund was accumulated during the years when the payroll tax was generating more revenue than was being paid out in taxes  But as the ratio of workers to retirees worsened, the Social Security payments began exceeding the payroll tax revenues and were covered by redeeming the Treasury debt in the Trust Fund.

The Social Security and Medicare pay-as-you-go systems are products of those days before the offshoring of US manufacturing jobs.  In those former days, a husband’s job could support a family with children, and the working population was growing relative to the retiring population.  The pay-as-you-go system worked.

But things have changed. Globalism, which serves only a few, dramatically increased the insecurity of the American family.  Affirmative Action and Feminism discriminated against white males and reduced their role as family providers.  For many women careers took the place of motherhood. Then came the digital revolution which eliminated even more US jobs.  Then came robotics and artificial intelligence which are busy at work eliminating massive numbers of jobs.  While multi-billionaires and monopolies become richer by the day, the human work force shrinks. The retirees and the unemployed grow.  But, of course, the unemployed are hidden by the way unemployment is measured.

We are witnessing the total failure of a country, of a civilization. Everything that is being done is to reduce the value of a person. The multi-generational assaults on the United States, indeed on all of Western Civilization, as evil, racist, colonial exploiters is the only educational fare available in Western universities. The entire belief system has been destroyed, and people are trained to be opposed to their own racist selves.

In the 21st century, the George W. Bush, Obama, Biden, and Trump regimes have fought wars for Israeli’s agenda of Greater Israel, which claims hegemony over the Middle East. Trillions of American dollars have been wasted killing Muslims for Israel. Today thanks to a traitorous president, America is locked in a war with Iran that the US government lacks the intelligence to get out of. Trump’s solution is to integrate the US military with Israel’s, thus giving Israel control over the situation.

Let us take a look at an example of what is happening to ordinary Americans as Washington piles up debt on American taxpayers from Washington’s wars for Israel.

This is a factual case of which I know the details.  A woman whose husband after a long bankrupting illness left her with a mortgaged home could not sustain herself with the earnings from available jobs and took early retirement from Social Security.  Early retirement at age 62 has two penalties.  Your Social Security check is lower, and until you reach the full retirement age of 67 your Social Security Benedict can be reduced by one dollar for every two dollars earned by continuing to work once a low threshold is reached. The woman was unaware that if her earnings  exceeded a low amount somewhere in the twenty thousands, her Social Security would be reduced by $1 dollar for every $2 earned by working.  This penalty happens only if you sign up for Social Security before you are 67.

Social Security has informed this  woman that due to their error, they overpaid her $3,000, and she needs to repay in 30 days by check or credit card.  As the Federal Reserve has reported, 40% of superpower Americans cannot cover a $400 check. Credit card interest on unpaid balances is between 20 and 30 per cent.  Social Security has this woman on the road to homelessness while Washington spends trillions of dollars fighting wars for Israel.

Meanwhile, the war on Iran has pushed up fuel and grocery costs, squeezing household budgets across the US.  Those Americans who went on Social Security retirement between the ages of 62 and 67 cannot work their way out of the squeeze.   A society in which large numbers of people have no reserves with which to buffer hard economic times is unstable.  Yet, such a society is America’s plight.

It is extraordinary that the United States even has one patriotic citizen.

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