Philip Giraldi – The Unz Review Aug 23, 2026

As I have observed in the past, it is possible to be entertained nearly every week by the antics of President Donald J Trump, though one’s amusement often changes to annoyance or even to disgust when the consequences of the behavior become clear. To be sure, it would be difficult to top the just surfaced account of February’s chickenhawk parade involving the Air Force One plane-switching in Ankara after a NATO meeting. It was unparalleled for its sheer me-first Trumpean disrespect for the poor bastards who are forced to travel with the president and endure the vicious prattle of America’s top golf cheater. When Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt resigned several days later, possibly connected to her being set up by the president as one of the victims of a possible terrorist attack, Trump posted on his Truth Social site a picture of himself with the caption “The Best Press Secretary.” He was putting down Leavitt with an insult and nominating himself!

Donald Trump is always on the move when he is not hitting golf balls or sleeping during meetings, with threats and swearing to terrify his enemies both home and abroad. Observe how Trump worked out some kind of deal employing his Board of Peace over Gaza, with Hamas agreeing to disarm in exchange for an Israeli army subsequent withdrawal from the 70% of the territory that it is occupying to be replaced by an international peace keeping force. Hamas agreed to the plan so Trump sent his Zionist son-in-law Jared Kushner to Israel to speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seal the deal. Dumb move Donald! Netanyahu inevitably said “No” to the arrangement and Kushner immediately agreed to support Israel no matter what it does. What it does Jared, is kill Palestinians every single day after stealing their land and destroying their livelihoods.

One video captures the moment when an Israeli settler brutally beat elderly Palestinian Saeed Al-Omour with a club in Hebron, occupied West Bank. Al-Omour had lost his leg after being shot by Israeli settlers more than a year ago. In another particularly gruesome incident recorded on video Israeli settlers beat a Palestinian farmer on the West Bank before stealing his donkey. They dragged the donkey behind their truck until it died, a horrible death for a gentle and peaceful animal. Yes, these are the kind of people we are dealing with for whom killing us “subhumans” is not enough and they even have to torture our animals to death to show how superior they are. Israeli national Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wants to kill 30-40 Palestinians every day because he believes it is the right thing to do because they are “subhuman.” The whole world seems to understand that there is a genocide going on but somehow Donald Trump and the trash he has surrounded himself with doesn’t seem to get it, or care.

Trump has also again threatened to strangle Iran using unprecedented economic pressure. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s has promised “measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation of a country.” The damage will this time come from a US Navy blockade of the Iranian ports plus new devastating sanctions that might be extended to the secondary level, also punishing countries like Russia and China that dare to trade with Iran in spite of the US prohibition. So you make one enemy, Iran, by attacking it for Israel even though it posed no threat to the United States, and then you multiply it by trying to get other countries to join in with your bad behavior by threatening them and making them also enemies. And along the way you lie about everything. Trump is making three victory claims simultaneously. He says that Iran is “being very badly defeated;” the Strait of Hormuz, he says, is effectively American — “we own it,” and finally that the US has “total control,” the waterway, which he insists is open with the Iranian mines cleared. Very smart but it will fool no one as to who won the war and is unlikely to lead to “victory” for Donald Trump!

And speaking of trade wars, Trump has started his 50% tariffs penalty on Canadian products and Ottawa has responded in kind, cutting off all negotiations and initiating tariffs of its own. The US tariffs are in part in response to Canadian refusal to sell to the US their country’s water at a hugely reduced price demanded by the president, turning one of America’s traditional closest friends and a neighbor into an enemy. In a Truth Social post, Trump accused the the Canadians of wanting “the benefits of being a State, without being one,” in a nod to his previous comments floating Canada as the 51st state.

And also speaking of enemies there is Cuba which now has been placed on a more punitive sanctions list by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the president. How does Cuba threaten the United States? It has a communist government! Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the new sanctions on Thursday targeting both Cuban individuals and government entities. The move is seen as part of the Trump administration’s escalating pressure campaign to bring about regime change directed against the communist regime in Havana.

The leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) were among those cited, a group which Rubio claimed in a statement to be exploiting educational exchange with the US and other nations with the goal of “identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing subversives… The Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms – none of which are afforded to its people – by misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and other malfeasance as part of the regime’s raison d’être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world.” Per the Secretary of State, the new sanctions target entities “that sustain the regime’s repressive apparatus through control of key economic sectors.” On might suggest that a better policy would just be to leave the Cubans alone as they do not threaten the United States in any way but that is not the way Trump and Rubio operate.

On the domestic side of what passes for White House activity, this past week has also incorporated its own distinctive Trumpean charm, which might be called the name game. Trump slapped his name back up onto the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and it was learned that his name is now up on the building twice to make sure that no one misses it. He also closed the building for what he describes as “renovations” so no one gets to enjoy it. And Dulles International Airport in nearby Virginia is also due for a huge renovation and quite possibly there will be a renaming for that!

But a better name game involved the US Navy, where an aircraft carrier is under construction that has not yet been given an official name. There is speculation that it might be named after a Black sailor named Doris Miller who was at Pearl Harbor where he manned an anti-aircraft cannon shooting at attacking Japanese planes. He was later awarded a Navy Cross for valor. He would be the first black to give his name to an aircraft carrier, which is the largest and most prestigious vessel in the US Navy. But there is a problem. Word is that Donald Trump wants to name the ship, which will not be completed until 2034, after himself, presumably so it can someday join the flotilla of Trump-class battleships that are now being constructed with a $275 billion price tag. One does not want to be a worry-wart, but most navies in the world no longer have battleships or even aircraft carriers because they are extremely expensive to operate yet vulnerable to the type of ballistic and cruise missile warfare that now prevails both on land and sea.

Regarding her aircraft carrier, a commenter on Facebook observed how “Both are poor choices. Traditionally, carriers were named after noble concepts (Independence, Enterprise, etc.), then after political figures associated with military service (Nimitz, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy), then with other Presidents or politicians who were either folk heroes or got money for the military (George Washington, John C Stennis). Naming a carrier after a guy who was the ‘first Black to get the Navy Cross’ is political overkill; usually such a man has a Destroyer or other smaller ship named after him. And naming one after a President who dodged the draft, avoided military service, and works for the government of Israel is sacrilege.”

And speaking of national defense as seen by the Trumpsters another story appeared last week that relates to Trump’s often expressed anger over the fact that NATO members did not support his aggressive war on behalf of Israel against Iran. One might observe that NATO is a DEFENSIVE alliance but that fine point might have escaped the Great Thinker in the Oval Office. At the time, one might recall that the anger was expressed in shall-we-say non-diplomatic language and some believed that Trump’s usual raging could well lead to the end of the NATO alliance. Well, Trump is at it again, banging on a similar drum. He has now ordered his liaison contacts at the various NATO military headquarters overseas to press their contacts over their willingness to be “politically loyal” whenever the United States takes a hard line anywhere in the world. Reportedly, the Pentagon has presented to the NATO allies of the United States a long list of questions probing if they are adhering to President Donald Trump’s “vision” for the alliance. The three page document entitled “Questions for NATO Allies & Other Key Stakeholders,” asks whether the individual nations have been “publicly supportive of US foreign policy priorities” before asking whether the country “Has…shown alignment with the US approach to [be] ‘strong, clear, and quiet?’” which appears to be a reference to a pointed phrase used by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference in May.

The document appears to be a US Department of War guide to potential interactions between US officials and their NATO counterparts being considered during a currently ongoing six-month Pentagon review of American military presence in Europe. One particularly controversial question queries the allies about placing their restrictions on US access to NATO bases and/or allowing American military flights over their countries, an issue that has become prominent in the current US-Israel war on Iran. Several European countries imposed such restrictions after the initiation of the war at the end of February. The questionnaire asks “Are they willing to reduce or eliminate any such restrictions?” A senior European official observes how the document sends a message to allies to “be on the good side of the White House by expecting close alignment with the White House agenda.” That alignment would include the still continuing war with Iran and the impending possible partnership in defense planning with the State of Israel if the current drafts of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2027 and the related Intelligence Act are approved by Congress.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is https://councilforthenationalinterest.org address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

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