This 45 minute discussion with Professor Glenn Diesen provided an excellent opportunity to expand on various conclusions about Trump and political theater that I have first put out in brief in the past couple of weeks.
There is my critique of the Western habit in both mainstream and alternative media to direct all attention to lay psychoanalysis of Trump based on his words instead of considering what have been the geopolitical consequences of his actions. My colleagues often do not differ from CNN presenters when they tell their audiences that Trump is a narcissist, that he is manipulated by X or Y and that his intentions are sinister, to enrich himself and little more. They feast on his lies which, in the case of the ‘obliteration’ of Iranian nuclear sites, have behind them raison d’etat, the salvation of the State of Israel from the latest results of the war of aggression against Iran unleashed by Benjamen Netanyahu, namely the utter destruction of much of Israel’s defense establishment as well as of its office and residential towers in Tel Aviv and elsewhere as demonstrated by Larry Johnson in his latest Sonar blog.
By harping on the fact that Iran may have moved centrifuges and enriched uranium away from the sites before the Trump attack, these analysts in mainstream and independent media are, objectively speaking, spreading sedition and arguing for renewed attacks on Iran and never ending war.
As for the NATO summit, I argue here that its main achievement, namely the agreement of the NATO Member States to raise their defense budgets to 5% by 2035, sets the stage for reduced American contributions to NATO. This may not be the same as a U.S. withdrawal from NATO but it can be a fairly good approximation, depending on Trump’s budgets for the years remaining in his term of office. This, in turn, puts NATO on a fast track to collapse, since European contributions will de facto not rise much if at all: the Member States simply cannot raise taxes or take loans sufficient to meet the new military obligations and they cannot find the funds by cutting other budgetary categories, meaning social benefits, because that spells political suicide.
I add here to previous mention of the problems Germany faces to realize the rearmament program that Chancellor Merz has set out. As yesterday’s ‘Financial Times’ discusses in an excellent front page article, there is growing resistance to rearmament within the German SPD (Socialist) party. Although a majority supports the plans of Merz and his Defense Minister Pistorius, a ‘substantial minority’ oppose these plans, including the prominent deputy Peter Brandt, the eldest son of Chancellor Willy Brandt, who set in motion the Ostpolitik (détente) in the 1970s.
Peter Brandt is probably the most visible signatory of a Manifesto against the rearmament that is now being circulated in Germany. The FT notes that the ruling coalition of CDU and SPD only has a slim 17 vote majority in the Bundestag, so that a revolt by some Socialists can bring down the government. Given Merz’s present unpopularity, any successor government will have a very different complexion.
One can say that we are witnessing now a new Turning Point in German political history when the Turning Point declared by Scholz a little more than a year ago, meaning the rejection of all accommodation with Russia and assignment to it of enemy status, is itself about to be thrown out.
To this, I add the observation that under present circumstances, the sinking of NATO also means the sinking of the European Union. Thanks to the work of Commission Chairwoman Ursula von der Leyen these past several years, the two have become virtually synonymous. Just as NATO has made fear and hatred of Russia the glue that keeps the Alliance alive, so von der Leyen and Team have made the very same fear and hatred the unifying theme of the European Union. Take that away, as will happen when the Russians conclude their erasing Ukraine as a military and political force, which we may well expect in the coming months, and the EU no longer has a reason to exist- at least no reason to exist under its present leadership in the Commission and in the Parliament. If it is to be saved, these people will have to go, either by voluntary resignation or by impeachment.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025
Gilbert Doctorow 
Disappointed that many of the regulars on Judging Freedom have been infected with
Trump-Derangement-Syndrome.
If Trump, a cunning, baffling, and powerful bozo, prevents nuclear war during
the next three years, that’s all I care about.
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