Trump’s worldview

What the world is witnessing today is not simply a bizarre foreign policy but the normalization of power stripped of principle. President Donald Trump has laid bare a troubling double standard before the global community- one that excuses violence when committed by favored states while ruthlessly punishing those deemed expendable. Trump’s selective morality corrodes international law and destabilizes the fragile architecture of global peace. His justification of military aggression against Iran rests on a self proclaimed “sacred duty” to protect Israel. Yet this moral language collapses under the weight of inconvenient facts. For years, Israel has carried out relentless bombardments of civilian areas, erasing entire buildings and leaving tens of thousands dead, including women and children. Hospitals, schools, and refugee camps have not been spared. However Trump has remained conspicuously silent on this immense human tragedy. He neither condemned them nor asked Israel to restraint nor acknowledged the suffering of the Gazans. For Trump, civilian lives, it seems, matter only when they align with his strategic preferences. Trump’s conscienceless mind is seen with how he postures Moscow’s bombardment of Ukraine. Russia has deliberately targeted energy infrastructure which has left millions Ukrainians without heat and electricity in current bitter winter temperature of minus 18 degree Celsius. It is not a military target but a clear intent of collective punishment. Yet Trump showed no urgency, no moral outrage, and no sustained pressure. Russia’s actions are tolerated, even minimized, while Ukrainians endure deprivation. Contrast this indulgence with his treatment of Venezuela and its president on allegations of drug trafficking. Though contested and politically challenged, these were pretexts to justify extreme measures such as – open calls for regime change, threats of military intervention,. Eventually, the US invaded its neighbor and captured its president Nicolás Maduro and his wife at mid-night. Sovereignty, due process, and international norms were brushed aside. Unlike Israel or Russia, Venezuela is denied the luxury of moral ambiguity. Trump’s allegations sufficed to invite capture, trial and punishment of the head of a sovereign nation. This is the essence of Trump’s double standard where allies may devastate civilians with impunity, but adversaries criminalized, coerced, or threatened with force on allegations. The same logic extends to Trump’s astonishing stance on Greenland which has become the object of his openly stated desire to “take” it for strategic and economic gain. Even more alarming was his refusal to rule out confrontation with Europe’s clear affirmation of Denmark’s rightful ownership of Greenland and NATO’s obligation to defend it. Here, Trump showed zero tolerance for Danish sovereignty, even as he demands unconditional respect for Israel’s actions in Gaza and excuses Russia’s missile attacks on Ukrainian civilians. For Trump, land, alliances, and international law are negotiable assets, subordinate to money, leverage, and personal deal making. His behavior has unsettled America’s closest allies, particularly in Western Europe, who now face the unprecedented reality of a NATO member implicitly threatening another. Trump is a ruthless real estate mogul, who sees nations not as partners but as clients. His withdrawal of the United States from around 60 UN organizations, justified as saving taxpayer money, has instead squandered America’s reputation as a generous global leader. History teaches a grim lesson- that when power is divorced from conscience, war is never far behind. The world edges toward that precipice-not by accident, but by design and in this moment, responsibility rests squarely with Donald Trump.