Do I even faintly believe the times I’m living in?
asserted
I → believe → times
Every now and then, I try to imagine going back in time to tell my long-dead parents about the world of President Donald Trump, which just happens to still be mine as well.
asserted
which → try → Trump
Of course, they simply wouldn’t have believed it, not for a single second.
asserted
they → believe → second
To put it in the context of their time on this planet, the only equivalent I can imagine would be if Sen. Joseph McCarthy, that anticommunist nightmare-and-a-half of the 1950s, hadn’t flamed out, been censured by the Senate, and died young but somehow had made it to the White House.
asserted
McCarthy → put → House
But even he undoubtedly would have fallen short in terms of chaos and cruelty, if judged by the standards of Trump World.
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he → fall → World
Trump’s capacity for ushering in world-wrecking havoc is made possible by a character constructed almost entirely of flaws.
asserted
capacity → usher → flaws
His second term has been defined by global aggression and hostility.
asserted
term → define → aggression
Yet he recently complained bitterly — and in a fashion it’s hard to imagine any other politician ever doing — because he wasn’t awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
asserted
he → complain → Prize
As he put it, “The United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel peace prize, but didn’t.
asserted
States → put → prize
And this is an indelible stain on the country of Norway, and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision.
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that → make → decision
As president, Trump has presided over more than 20 military interventions, armed conflicts, and outright wars who nonetheless swears that he “settled” eight conflicts and should have “won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes, not just 1.”
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he → preside → Prizes
This includes a war between Egypt and Ethiopia that, of course, never happened and a failing war with Iran that drags on to this day.
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that → include → day
If you’re going to “end” a war with bombs and missiles, then there are, of course, going to be casualties.
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you → go → course
A few thousand or more Iranians killed, obviously, and tens of thousands injured, not to mention ever-rising American casualties.
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thousands → kill → ?
He’s already starting to hint (if there even is such a thing as “hinting” in the all-too-blunt world of Donald Trump) that he might join Saudi Arabia in taking on the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
uncertain
he → start → Yemen
“We’re going to look at it” was how he put it.
asserted
he → go → it
I should really have added “again” there, since he essentially began his second term in office by attacking those same Houthis — killing large numbers of civilians in the process.
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he → add → process
But after the U.S. burned through $1 billion and failed to even achieve air superiority in Yemen, Trump ended the stalemate.
asserted
Trump → burn → stalemate
Despite having vowed the Houthis would be “completely annihilated,” he announced a cessation of hostilities last May, leaving the group in control of most of Yemen’s populated areas.
uncertain
he → vow → areas
Given American history — think the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among other places — there’s nothing faintly strange about endless American military operations thousands and thousands of miles away from Washington, D.C., even for a president who said, upon taking office in 2025, that he would measure success by “the wars we never get into.”
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we → give → wars
A Grim Presidency
You would hardly know it from the mainstream press but one of those 20 Trumpian conflicts is the forever war in Somalia.
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one → know → Somalia
And that war has an increasing domestic component.
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war → have → component
Recently, the Department of Homeland Security raided the home of Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar in the Washington, D.C., area, aiming in some fashion or other to discover information that might help denaturalize her and so make it possible to eject her from this country.
uncertain
it → raid → country
As the president put it on Truth Social, Omar “left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars.”
uncertain
Omar → put → NOTHING
Of course, who would know better about such things than the president of the United States who, in these years, is estimated to have made literally billions of dollars while in office?
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who → know → office
And yet, the never-ending war in Somalia, the nearby conflict we may reenter against the Houthis, and the failed war in Iran should be considered the lesser of the potential disasters that will sooner or later be associated with Trump.
uncertain
that → end → Trump
After all, he clearly has the urge to do nothing less than end this very world of ours, at least as we’ve known it, even if in a distinctly slow-motion fashion.
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we → have → fashion
I’m not even thinking about nuclear weapons (although he admittedly still is).
asserted
he → think → weapons
No, I’m thinking about the president who, at the United Nations in 2025, called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
asserted
who → think → world
And since then, he has indeed done everything he could think of to ensure that this planet would get hotter yet.
uncertain
planet → do → everything
His Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has recently repealed “rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.”
asserted
that → repeal → coal
And that’s just to start down a long list of what should truly be considered Donald Trump’s ultimate war on this planet of ours — including blocking wind power development and doing the same with solar power.
asserted
what → ’ → power
All of this is happening as global warming reaches unprecedented levels, sea level rise is accelerating, northern forests and tundra are releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb, the Greenland ice sheet has lost about 129 gigatons of ice (or roughly 129 billion metric tons), and other major ecological systems like tropical coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest, and Antarctica’s ice sheet are being pushed toward catastrophic tipping points.
asserted
systems → happen → points
While Trump campaigns for eight Nobel Peace Prizes, his war on humanity’s only home continues unabated, a slow-motion destruction that threatens us all.
asserted
that → campaign → us
My parents couldn’t have imagined a leader in the White House who would put McCarthy to shame and push the country — and the world — to the precipice of doom: a commander-in-chief worthy of the name President Apocalypse.
asserted
who → imagine → name
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
asserted
WE → ’ → ?
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
asserted
seeing → see → government
Court orders are being ignored.
asserted
orders → ignore → ?
MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies.
asserted
loyalists → put → military
The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse.
asserted
Department → strip → purse
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
