Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Trump’s current presidency is nothing like his previous one. In his first term, he faced problems with federal bureaucracy and legally constituted and budgeted projects. He ended his term with little progress and minimal results. He promised to return to complete his mission of demolishing the US State and government. Together with China, Russia, and Israel, he is constructing a new world with hegemonic forces that seek to decide the future of everyone without the participation of secondary countries.
In the current government round, he is simply undoing the programs he does not like, regardless of their legality, necessity, hired personnel, or allocated budget. Entire organizations will be erased from the federal government’s organizational chart.
He implemented the Schedule Policy/Career, commonly known by its former name Schedule F, which allows him to reclassify hundreds of thousands of government workers in a job classification for appointments in the excepted service of the United States federal civil service for permanent policy-related positions, removing their benefits and allowing them to be dismissed at the whim of their bosses. This way, he can fire hundreds of thousands of workers considered “disloyal” to the government’s new political ideology. His idea, consequently, is to forcibly convert public employees into believers and followers of the conservative, populist, and nationalist ideology of the Republican party. The dilemma for federal employees will be to be faithful to Trump or be fired.
The same goes for the US armed forces. He wants to turn the military into a political instrument, committing it to his international project. Whatever that may be. To that end, he has fired all the senior ranks of the US Armed Forces, especially if they are black, Latino, or women. He is on a campaign against everything “Woke” concerning US arms.
Once Trump has the American State under his absolute control (the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches subjugated to his will), he will proceed to prepare for the incursion of the United States onto the international scene. Those who act as his brain trust have a project for global domination, clearly expressed in Project 2025 of the Heritage Foundation.
Its vision of the world of the future is one with great empires or hegemonic countries that dominate the world and interact exclusively with each other. Gone are the days of liberal or illiberal blocs of large, medium, or small countries with whom one has to negotiate. Also gone are the days of multilateral organizations that impose rules on all countries equally in commercial, environmental, human rights matters, etc. A world without global organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, etc., is beginning to emerge. The exit of the United States from the COP agreements (Climate Change), the World Health Organization, Human Rights, and others is just the beginning of these renunciations of the concept of settling world affairs among all its members. From now on, the negotiation will be only between a few.
The think tanks that influence Trump envision a world of powers and centurions in combat positions, imposing their will wherever they go of strong empires or hegemonic forces imposing their will on the rest of the world.
That is precisely the thinking that drives Trump to confront Canada and Mexico with the explicit notion of utilitarian subjugation. Are they neighboring countries? Yes, but not in the previous scheme of working together and coordinating efforts, as was done after World War II. Now, it is an empire-to-empire relationship, and countries will define their loyalties basically by their geographical location.
The new empires are clearly the United States and China, with Russia and Israel fighting for their place as relevant regional powers.
The thinking of these countries is always in terms of their national security. For Russia, for example, its intention to conquer Ukraine is a function of its defense against the possibility of an invasion from the West across the European plain or central plateau. It had to stop Napoleon’s French troops in the 19th century and Hitler’s troops in the 20th century when they crossed that plateau to conquer Russia/the Soviet Union. Understanding this in no way justifies the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But it reflects the thinking of a regional power with pretensions of being the empire of the region.
Imperial Chinese thinking is similarly reflected in the drive to take over Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chinese power in the region cannot admit such cracks in its grandest national security project. Because of their geographical proximity, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan are seen as threats to the consolidation of regional power.
In the case of the United States, it had never been expressed as an imperial claim. But Trump’s expressions contemplating the appropriation of Canada and Greenland are perfectly consistent with the idea of protecting the northern Arctic from possible Russian and Chinese incursions based on national security criteria. The fact that the Arctic is a new theater of confrontation between powers was seen when a Russian who attended the negotiations in Riyadh between Russia and the United States acknowledged that the issue of the North Pole and the growing regional tensions were put on the table. The idea of taking over Canada and Greenland (beyond the apparent impossibility of such an undertaking) expresses the vision of turning the United States land mass into an invincible fortress.
The new national security vision in the United States includes control over the southern flank, the Panama Canal. This territory, whose canal effectively separates North America from the rest of Central and South America, is the ideal place to place a defensive barrier of the United States.
The determining factor is that Mexico was trapped within the security perimeter of the new American world. The problem is that, in the era of national-populist conservatism, the United States is paving the way for the theses and proposals of China, Russia, and Israel that the world is going to be governed, from now on, by the rules, laws, and practices agreed upon by the hegemonic powers.
The rest of the world, including Mexico, must adapt to these conditions. Subnational projects will start to distort as they interact with and are influenced by these hegemonic forces.
For the sake of its survival, Mexico will have to adjust its political project to the new conditions of power in the world. Mexico, and much of Latin America, faces the same dilemma. The problem is that the welfare of the people is at stake. Leaders must understand the new conditions emerging to avoid dangers and find opportunities. They will have to choose their battles and decide on priorities intelligently and with the future of their people in mind.
What leaders need to understand is that a completely different world is coming.
@rpascoep
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