Photo by Eric Wiser

Right now, the United States has initiated a new phase of its unprovoked and illegal war with Iran. Ranting and raving about Iran being led by ‘scumbags’ is another example, if you needed one of the erratic and unstable mind of President Donald J. Trump. Trump also declared the ‘ceasefire’ over, if there ever was one to begin with. Iran responded by firing missiles at U.S. military bases and closing the Strait of Hormuz.1 For the foreseeable future, there will be a permanent armed conflict of greater or lesser intensity in the Persian Gulf region. Meanwhile, Israel continues to wage war in Lebanon with Washington and Tel Aviv at each other’s throats, an unprecedented situation in the long relationship between the U.S. and Israel.2 The first phase of the Iran War was widely seen as a humiliating defeat for President Trump and the United States across the political spectrum.3,4 Despite Trump’s panicked efforts to justify the terms of the now-dead Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to avoid a global depression — due to the burgeoning economic costs of the blockade of oil through the Strait of Hormuz — it is clear that the war was settled on Iran’s terms.5

Among the key points of the MoU are a massive $300 billion reconstruction program for Iran, an end to the regional war on all fronts (including Lebanon), an end to the mutual blockade of the Strait, and lifting economic sanctions on Iran.6 The U.S and Israel launched a war to effect regime change in Tehran and to destroy the country’s military capabilities, but instead they have strengthened their regional rival. All of the terms outlined in the MoU are amazing in-and-of themselves, yet the one that stands out, is the status of U.S. military forces in point 4: “The United States of America further undertakes to remove its forces from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran within 30 days after the final Deal.” This strongly hints that the U.S. was willing to negotiate the closing of its string of military bases and radar installations that surround Iran, many of which were rendered inoperable by Iranian missile and drone strikes, and even possibly, its Naval task forces from the Gulf.7 Now all that also appears off the table. Not since the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War in January 1973 was the United States prepared to accept terms so humiliating.8

The consolation prize for the U.S. is that Iran can maintain its current (civilian) nuclear program, while agreeing not to develop a nuclear weapon, which it previously agreed to during the Obama presidency.9 It’s hard to see how a future agreement between the U.S. and Iran won’t roughly come to the same conclusion. Iran clearly has the upper hand. This set off an initial round of panic in Washington. U.S. Senator, Chris Murphy (D.-Conn.), took to the floor of the U.S. Senate, and told those assembled and the wider viewing public, that the Iran war was “the biggest foreign policy blunder in 20 years.”10 He revealed that he,

knew the deal was going to be bad. I knew the deal was likely to be humiliating for the United States of America, but I didn’t think it was going to be this humiliating. The war needs to end basically upon any terms, but it is important for us tonight, as we are reading the details of this agreement to understand how to never make this mistake again.

The tepid opposition in Congress to Trump’s war was reflected by the narrow passage in the House and Senate of the “War Powers Act” in June.11 Trump typically dismissed the vote and called it ‘meaningless’. He then growled on social media, “These Senators have just made my job more difficult, but I will get it done, one way or the other, because I always get it done!” While major news outlets, including the BBC, were quick to highlight, “The vote marks the first time that both chambers of Congress have approved a concurrent resolution instructing a president to end a military action since the War Powers Resolution of 1973 was enacted.” There have been many U.S. wars since 1973. Despite claims that Trump represents a fundamentally different type of presidential leader, he shares much with past presidents on foreign policy. We’ve had an imperial presidency for a long time.12

Any Democratic and the small number of Republicans opposed to the renewed attacks will be faced with the question: What’s their alternative? The war has been unpopular with the American public since it began.13 The quick U.S. military operation that kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolaus Maduro and his wife — the 21st Century version of ‘A splendid little war’ — deluded the Trump White House into thinking that their enemies were empty storefronts.14 A lot is at stake here for the U.S. When the United States was defeated in the Vietnam War, it opened up a space for a few years that allowed national liberation struggles against U.S. backed tyrants, notably in Nicaragua and Iran, both in 1979. Today, the primary concern of the United States is the expanding global presence of its peer economic power, China.15Over the next few weeks, we will see if the renewed fighting will deepen the small cracks in the leadership of the Republican Party or will Trump simply backtrack on everything?

Trump’s military disaster in Iran has certainly revealed a weakened power. One that is still highly destructive, yet unable to achieve its primary political goal in the Persian Gulf. The simple truth of the matter is that anything can happen, and everything is possible. We are clearly at a major turning point, with U.S. military prowess and political influence questioned in the Greater Middle East and other parts of the globe, while still projecting itself as the dominant global power.16 The panic over the Iran deal in Washington, has once again revealed deep anxiety in the U.S. political class about Trump’s erratic behavior.17 Instead of Trump’s stated goal of restoring America’s preeminent position in the world, he has accelerated its decline.

While Trump was desperately trying to extricate himself from Iran during the phase of the war, where he delivered defeat in record time, he has also mused about other future conflicts. Though Trump promised the end of foreign wars during his 2016 and 2024 campaigns, lately, and typical of him, he said he never made that promise.18 He’s also raised the specter of more costly, burdensome wars. The U.S. military budget is nearly a trillion dollars. Trump wants to spike it up to $1.5 trillion to be paid for by looting the federal healthcare budgets.19 Recently he stated, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” (said).20 “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal level. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.” And then added, “We’re fighting wars.”

The United States has lost four wars in the 21st Century, so far: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Iran, an unprecedented string of military defeats. The renewed fighting deepens the quagmire that the administration finds itself in with no end in sight and at ballooning cost. The question of Guns or Butter that has been perennially debated since the Vietnam War, has always been resolved in favor of guns, yet how much more can working class and lower middle class people take?21 Something has to give.

The ‘Golden Age’

Trump is big on campaign promises that have gotten more fanciful with each election. His whole business and political life is modeled on a carnival barker. His ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) campaign slogan is a slightly reworked one from Ronald Reagan.22 Trump declared in his second inaugural speech after being sworn into office, “the golden age of America begins right now.23 From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation.” He was building upon themes that carried him to the White House in 2016, but whose first term crashed on the rocks of his incompetent handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and the Black Lives Matter uprising following the police murder of George Floyd.24

Trump’s comeback campaign of 2024, rested upon the failed promises of the Biden Administration to alleviate the declining living conditions of broad swaths of the working and middle class, exacerbated by the worst inflation in decades.25 Trump made even bigger promises this time around, to be delivered more quickly. Standing before Congress in February to deliver the annual Presidential ‘State of the Union’ speech,26 he declared that we had arrived:

Less than five months from now, our country will celebrate an epic milestone in American history, the 250th anniversary of our glorious American independence. This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the earth. And we’ve seen nothing yet. We’re going to do better and better and better. This is the golden age of America.

Except for the most cult-like of his followers, few believe it. Trump’s polling is in the toilet, exacerbated by a failed, unpopular, and costly war with Iran; but it began to decline before the war started in February 2026.27,28,29

Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ has drawn comparisons to the “Gilded Age” of the late 19th Century.30 The Gilded Age was a mocking description of the era popularised by American author and satirist Mark Twain.31 It was an era of obscene wealth, grinding poverty, and political corruption. Most Americans know it today as the era of the Robber Barons, the wealthy titans of industry whose unscrupulous methods, included outright thievery, and strike breaking by private armies. The most notorious of the Robber Barons was John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company monopoly, whose immense wealth made him the villain of the era.32 The great fountain of corruption emanating from the Trump family inner circle and his close allies approaches, if not exceeds the Gilded Age. According to the House Democrats oversight committee:33

While Americans struggle to buy groceries and pay rent, Donald Trump is making his family richer through digital grift schemes — collecting profits through digital wallets and granting pardons to the highest bidders. While Trump and his family are using the White House to make billions, we are tracking every cent. As of January 2026, our Committee’s analysis shows that these schemes have contributed to an estimated $2.25 billion in realized profits for Trump from foreign payments, corrupt oligarchs, and others. This total rises to as much as $9.7 billion when the value of Trump’s digital assets is factored in, with as much as $600 million coming from foreign interests. President Trump should be serving the American people — not his own pockets.

In one of many shameless examples of the Trump family stuffing their pockets, according to the ProPublica investigative journalism foundation:34

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.35 But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.

In this world of Trumpian corruption, no one excels like Elon Musk, who through creative accounting methods has become the first Trillionaire.36Musk, like Trump and U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance is an aggressive supporter of Far Right politics in Europe from his headquarters in Texas.37,38 Along with burgeoning corruption, Trump brings his own personal tackiness to everything around Washington and ruin to everything he touches. He destroyed large parts of the White House for his new Ballroom, ruined the reflecting pool on the Mall, wrecked the America 250 celebrations in Washington and held a UFC cage match on the lawn of the White House for his 80th birthday.39,40,41 If Nero really played the violin while Rome Burned, Trump is swinging his wrecking ball. He’s hit the gas pedal on American decline.

A Society Under Stress

Everywhere in the United States there is a sense of decay and stress in everyday life, leading to desperate acts of revenge. For example, during the past several years, the United States has witnessed a string of assassinations and attempted assassinations against the political and corporate establishment not seen since the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning in July 2024, then-former President Donald J. Trump was wounded in Butler, Pennsylvania, the first of four serious attempts on his life. On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, a far right political operative, who advocated black-listing and political violence, was assassinated on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.42,43 Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one the worst examples of corporate greed, was assassinated in New York City.44 The accused killer is Luigi Mangione, who’s been embraced as a folk hero.45

A massive bricks-and-mortar monument to corporate greed was destroyed by arson. Chamel Abdulkarim, a 29 year old warehouse worker at the Kimberley — Clark’s paper products live-streamed setting the building ablaze. Abdulkarim allegedly told his audience, according to the Los Angeles Times:46

You know, if you’re not going to pay us enough … to afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this. All you had to do was pay us enough to live.

The narrator says, as the camera focuses on several stacks of paper products beginning to catch fire — There goes your inventory.

Abdulkarim later texted messages: “I just cost these [expletive] billions,” “1% is a [expletive] joke.”47 The 1.2 million square foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse was located in Ontario, California, the western edge of the Inland Empire, a geographic region straddling Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, a tangle of road, rail, and airports that feed America’s logistics giants, including Amazon and UPS. According to a recent report:48

Almost one in 15 of the 1.7 million people employed in Riverside and San Bernardino counties is a warehouse worker. Many earn low wages — 75% of what the average worker in the region earns — while facing dangerous working conditions and setbacks in gaining union recognition.

I’m sure many warehouse workers feel the same way as Chamel Abdulkarim. If you get the feeling that America is about to explode, you are not wrong. California in many ways is the epicenter of the perpetual ‘American crisis’. The once famed ‘Golden State’, where endless prosperity and personal reinvention were once possible is now a faded memory, ravaged by year-round, massive wildfires, mind-boggling wealth inequality and housing crises, with visible and growing homelessness.49 The fire at the Lineage’s massive warehouse in Los Angeles produced evacuations, and a week of stink in the nearby area added to the miasma of catastrophe.50 Lineage is one of the major players in the global cold storage supply chain, with five hundred facilities in twenty countries.51 Tens of millions of pounds of food was left rotting because of the week-long fire. One nearby resident said the smell was........

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