The US and Israel Against the World

January 20, 2025 marked the genesis of global Trump Saga II as the US and Israel deepened their seemingly unbreakable bond while simultaneously giving the finger to the rest of the world. While Trump fumed about taking over the Panama Canal by force if necessary, annexing Greenland and Canada, starting a trade war with the rest of the world, sanctioning the International Court of Justice, pulling the US out of the World Health Organization, shutting down the USAID, and deporting millions of people from the US, President Netanyahu and his right wing branch of religious sycophants were licking their chops at a Trump inspired proposal for some high powered ethnic cleansing that would constitute a final solution to the Gaza problem.

The rest of the world has been put on notice that no one is safe from the long reach of the Trump/Netanyahu axis of power. Canada, a nation known for its ability to peacefully coexist with the rest of the world in general and with the US specifically, was one of the first nations to be threatened by the New Trump administration. The twenty-five percent tariff which is now in limbo for the next thirty days was America’s gift to Canada for being such a peaceful and good neighbor.

Mexico, long accused by President Trump of sending rapists, robbers, and a rich assortment of rather ruthless, wretched, wrecks of humanity across the border to dilute the bloodline of America, was also slapped with a thirty day suspended twenty-five percent tariff also. It is left to be seen what will happen after the thirty-day suspension ends. Over ten thousand persons have already been sent packing back across the border into Mexico. Interestingly some of those sent back over the border to Mexico are reported to be of other than Mexican nationality.

The ten percent tariff that was imposed on Chinese goods coming into America represented a significant walk-back from the originally threatened sixty percent tariff on Chinese goods entering America. The new Trump administration was forced to recant from its proposed plan of not handling any Chinese parcels in its postal system. This proposal was rescinded within a day of its announcement. The Chinese have retaliated naturally by imposing some trade restrictions of their own.

The European Union long criticized by President Trump as a group of free loaders who refused to contribute sufficiently to their own defense is also on Trump’s tariff radar. While it is generally accepted that European nations need to pay more for their own defense and that there is a European-biased trade deficit with the US, European politicians argue that they are stepping up to the plate with their military contributions and with the growing involvement of Americans in the European service sector.

Perhaps the most far-reaching new Trump policy surrounds the changes in USAID. According to President Trump, USAID is funding many causes that the Trump administration opposes. The closure of USAID offices around the globe and the retrenchment of a majority of its workers has negatively affected many humanitarian programs that were being run in countries around the world. The restructuring of USAID has led to the loss of jobs across the globe. The discontinuation of USAID programs has also disrupted crucial health care services in some of the most indigent parts of the world.

President Trump’s out of the box thinking on Gaza has received raved reviews in Israel. President Netanyahu disproportional military assault on Gaza suggests that the thinking in Israel and the US were in tandem as the wanton destruction of the infrastructure of Gaza was aided and abetted by former President Biden. Gaza has been deliberately made unlivable. President Trump’s glib announcement of an ethnic cleansing on par with the Nakba of 1948 has been soundly condemned across the globe.

The International Court of Justice must be applauded for its issuance of an arrest warrant for President Netanyahu. The killing of over forty thousand Palestinians inclusive of over twenty thousand women and children constitutes a war crime. The Trump/Biden/Netanyahu axis is now trying to ram the final chapter of their deliberate genocide and ethnic cleansing down the throats of the rest of the world.

It should be clear by now that we are living in a post-rules-based world. Rule by might has replaced rule by right. President Trump’s America first rhetoric is a clear omen that the era of globalization introduced at Bretton Woods is over. America is no longer prepared to be the policeman of the world or the guarantor of the global system of trade introduced at Bretton Woods. It is almost as though we are on the eve a new era of imperialism where nations will exert their might over other nations in their quest for survival.

The life boat ethics of the Trump administration should serve as a reminder to African and Caribbean governments that these two regions must become masters of their own destiny. The US is closing ranks with other Caucasian right-wing governments across the globe to ensure the continuation of global Caucasian hegemony. The rest of the world will be left to swim, float, or drown as best as it can.

As Trump, Netanyahu and the rest of their Caucasian allies begin to circle the wagons to protect their ill-gotten political gains, Black leaders in Africa and the Caribbean can no longer continue to play the adolescence political games that they are accustomed to playing. Food security and a system of moving goods and people between the African continent and the Caribbean is a lifeline that should have been established decades ago. African and Caribbean politicians who lack a truly Pan-African perspective need to be encourage to follow the path of John the Baptist who declared that he must decrease to make way for someone with a much grander vision and message.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of The Rebirth of Black Civilization: Making Africa and the Caribbean Great Again.