Trump’s flight of fantasy

Donald Trump loves to imagine himself as the world’s ultimate dealmaker- the man whose word can halt wars, unleash missiles, or redraw borders. The latest drama over U.S. Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine has only inflated that delusion. Ever since his phone call with Vladimir Putin, Trump has been dangling the prospect of American firepower like a showman waving a sword- all glitter, no edge. The truth is, the Tomahawk has become less a weapon of war and more a prop in Trump’s theatre of ego. After announcing that the US was going to supply Ukraine with Tomahawks to defend itself against continuous Russian aerial bombing; Trump reversed this decision after consulting Russian president Vladimir Putin. Justifying his about-turn, Trump lamented that America must “save its own arsenal first.” This reveals that he is the showman president turning geopolitics into a stage, and himself into its loudest, most self-absorbed character. The Tomahawk, once the pride of American military supremacy, it now stands as an aging emblem of a bygone era. Russia and China both possess comparable, even superior, systems. Moscow’s Kalibr and Kinzhal missiles and Beijing’s DF-series have redefined range, speed, and precision. Unlike Trump, neither Putin nor Xi Jinping waste time boasting about them on television. They prefer silence to spectacle, calculation to clamor. That difference reveals everything about the new global power dynamic. Trump’s flight of fantasy is his conviction that appearance equals authority. He mistakes applause for achievement and headlines for history. His entire presidency is a performance of dominance – chest-beating and photo ops – but behind the performance lies a dangerous vacuum of strategy. Under Trump’s personality-driven politics, America’s display of strength is largely symbolic- a performance meant to impress audiences at home and abroad rather than a measured use of real power to shape outcomes. While Trump rants, Russia and China are accumulating strength quietly, positioning themselves in a far more disciplined and strategic way. Every boast, every televised tease about the Tomahawks, feeds into a narrative that flatters his ego- but erodes America’s credibility. Putin and Xi understand something Trump never will: power is not noise- it is control over silence. The real game is not fought with weapons but with patience, precision, and timing. While Trump treats warfare as a public spectacle, Russia and China treat it like chess – a game of positioning, where every move has purpose and every word has weight. They do not need to outgun America when they can outthink it, and they have mastered the art of watching Trump’s impulsiveness work in their favor. The tragedy for the United States is not that it lacks power, but that its leader squanders it in pursuit of self-admiration. The Tomahawk debate could have been a moment for measured, strategic policy. Instead, it became another mirror for Trump to admire his reflection. His ego, inflated beyond reason, blinds him to the larger geopolitical chessboard unfolding before him – a board where Russia and China are already many moves ahead. Trump commands the cameras; Putin and Xi command the game. While Trump basks in the glow of imagined greatness, Putin and Xi are reshaping the world’s balance of power, quietly, deliberately, and without the need for applause. In the end, the greatest weapon in this new age of warfare is not a missile-it is discipline and that is one thing Donald Trump will never possess.