Decay, decline, and dysfunction have been worming through the American republic for decades. But the speed at which Donald Trump has accelerated the process has been truly dizzying. A natural-born agent of arson and chaos, this megalomaniacal narcissist faithfully reflects the narcissism of the system he represents.

On the eve of Trump’s second inauguration, we published an editorial titled, “Trump’s Empire of Chaos and the Delusion of ‘Fortress America.’” In it, we outlined the broad perspectives for US foreign policy in his second term, all of which have been confirmed—and intensified. The key point is this:

While Trump’s apparently outrageous proposals may take a different form, the content of his foreign policy is fundamentally the same as that of his predecessors: to defend the power and profits of the US capitalist class by any means necessary …

 

Trump’s unenviable task is to manage the systemic crisis of capitalism, and in particular, US imperialism’s accelerating decline relative to other rising powers.

Though it is proving difficult for many in the halls of power to swallow, American imperialism is no longer the hyperpower it was after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the emerging multipolar world, Russia and, above all, China, have roared onto the imperialist scene.

One possible resolution to this tectonic shift would have been a gangsters’ agreement to carve the planet into spheres of influence. Were US imperialism to graciously accept that it is now just one great power among many, it could focus on retrenching to the Americas to more aggressively exploit the peoples and resources of its own hemisphere.

As Trump promised in his electoral victory speech: “I’m not going to start wars; I’m going to stop wars.” Early pronouncements by Vance, Rubio, and others also seemed to point in this direction. According to the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy, security of the US homeland and Western Hemisphere—not China—is its primary concern.

But Trump is deep in the clutches of the neocons who have hijacked MAGA and control the so-called “deep state.” Though there have been plenty of zigs and zags, the outline of a strategy has emerged: scorched earth.

There will be no gracious exit from the world stage. If US imperialism is forced to prioritize because it can no longer dominate the entire planet, it will spread endless instability to prevent others from consolidating a foothold, no matter the human cost. A wounded alpha lion can be even more dangerous and unpredictable than a younger and hungrier up-and-comer.

Multipolar imperialism

Far from softening contradictions and conflicts, imperialist multipolarity only sharpens the rivalries, as the big players are locked in a life-and-death struggle to export crisis, commodities, and unemployment—all to avoid civil unrest at home.

While Russia is focused on developing its military-industrial capacity to defend its near-abroad, and China imposes its will mainly through the export of commodities and finance capital, US imperialism prefers good old-fashioned bullying, beatings, and humiliation. In his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Teddy Roosevelt “spoke softly and carried a big stick.” The “Donroe Doctrine” is far less subtle: speak loudly—and incoherently—and wildly wave a stick.

Though he has been careful not to get dragged into another forever quagmire, the “peace president” has bombed Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, and Somalia, kidnapped the president of Venezuela, and proposed raising the already eye-watering military budget to $1.5 trillion—a 50% increase in a single year. Si vis pacem, para bellum—if you want peace, prepare for war.

He has threatened to invade, annex, sanction, regime-change, or otherwise coerce Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Cuba, Brazil, Greenland, and even Canada. Far from ending the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours, he has pushed the US-led coalition war against Russia dangerously close to a direct and potentially nuclear escalation.

Now that US-Israeli bombs have done the demolition, he has revealed his dystopian plans to set up a “Board of Peace” to build a Gazan Riviera—never mind the untold thousands rotting beneath the rubble. For good measure, he continues to poke the Chinese dragon over Taiwan, and has by no means backed off from open war with Iran.

In conjunction with all of this, he launched the ill-conceived “Liberation Day” trade war against the world, which is merely war by other means. Future historians may well look back and determine that by 2025, the planet was already embroiled in a slow-burning third World War.

To be sure, by his own magnanimous count, Trump has also ended eight-plus wars. But since this wasn’t good enough for the Nobel Committee, he wrote the Prime Minister of Norway that he “no longer feels an obligation to think purely of Peace” and “can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

The no-rules world order

Trump was always more interested in the prize than the peace, and it’s every capitalist and every country for themselves. The illusion of an international world order, governed by mutually agreed laws and conventions, fell with the USSR. It was rudely replaced by the “rules-based order,” in which the rules were arbitrarily decided by the unipolar kingpin. Now, even that flimsy pretense has been thrown out.

Suddenly, liberal outlets like The New York Times have belatedly discovered that the US is an imperialist power. As CNN expressed it: “Goodbye forever wars, hello empire.”

Trump’s close advisor, Stephen Miller, put it candidly:

We live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.

In a recent interview, The New York Times asked Trump if there were any limits on his global powers:

Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law.

This is the “law of the large,” and all the mid-tier and minor powers must either fall into line, band together, or be trampled underfoot. At Davos, the Rothschild banker turned French president, Emmanuel Macron, lamented the “shift towards a world without rules.” Canada’s Mark Carney—a governor of the Bank of England turned prime minister—told the World Economic Forum:

I will talk today about the breaking of the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction, and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the great powers is not subject to any constraint.

 

Every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great-power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.

 

Let me be direct: we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

The postwar boom and its accompanying institutional arrangements were the anomaly, not the norm. Under Trump, the so-called United Nations and the myth of the “inviolable sovereignty” of nations have been unceremoniously tossed out.

If anything, Trump’s naked, unapologetic embrace of imperialist colonialism is a refreshing change when compared to the reeking hypocrisy of bourgeois-liberal democracy.

Capitalism has always been “red in tooth and claw,” and Trump’s world outlook is merely the distilled morality of capitalism in its epoch of senile decay. He is more forthright than those who despise him for saying the quiet part out loud—or than the liberal sycophants like NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who call him “daddy,” yet abhor him in private. Welcome to the no-rules world order.

Geopolitics and the class struggle

In the final analysis, the class struggle is the conflict over who controls the surplus wealth created by the laboring classes. Given the exploitative structure of capitalist society, Marxists tend to focus on the interclass struggle between workers and capitalists.

For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that the share of national wealth going to the workers hit a record low of 53.8% in Q3 2025—the smallest proportion since data began in 1947. This is a classical “finished recipe” for an uptick in open struggle between the classes.

However, rival groups of capitalists are also in conflict with each other, both at home and abroad. And the outcomes of these intraclass struggles most definitely impact the workers of the world. So while Marxists are not geopolitical realists in the academic sense of the term, we recognize that the relative balance of world power influences the unfolding of the broader class struggle on a world scale.

In times of relative prosperity, when there is more or less enough to go around, some accommodations can be made, and a relative, temporary equilibrium can be established. Such was the case in the decades following World War II. In today’s world, however, the intensifying contradictions of the system condemn humanity to a world of constant crisis and instability.

In the final analysis, imperialist power is a function of military-industrial-technological power. To strategically outcompete their rivals, imperialist nation-states must directly or indirectly control as much of the planet’s landmass, waterways, natural resources, and labor force as possible, either singly or in coalition with others when their interests temporarily align.

Remember: under capitalism, there are no permanent allies, only permanent interests. Long-term peaceful coexistence simply isn’t in its DNA.

The struggle for world domination

In 1904, the British geographer Halford Mackinder proposed the “Heartland Theory” as a framework for understanding global power dynamics. His thesis was simple:

Who rules East Europe commands the heartland; who rules the heartland commands the world-island; who rules the world-island commands the world.

Mackinder saw the “world-island” of Eurasia—including the Northern half of Africa—as the pivot of world history. The “heartland” included the resource-rich but relatively inaccessible regions of inner Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia.

Britain was the world’s supreme naval power, and its empire depended on control of the world’s oceans. The only serious threat it faced was a land-based empire capable of dominating the entire Eurasian continent. Only by keeping the Germans, Russians, Chinese, and Indians weak and divided could they perpetuate their rule.

On the other side of the Atlantic, however, a continent-spanning maritime power emerged, and the Americans eventually supplanted the British as masters of the imperialist world. Following Mackinder’s guidance, they used their naval and expeditionary land forces to cut across the emergence of a viable Eurasian power or coalition.

After World Wars I and II, they held more cards than anyone and established hundreds of bases around the world, in large part to cut across the rise of a Eurasian rival.

As Zbigniew Brzezinski explicitly stated in his 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard:

For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia … and America’s global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained …

 

Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.

When the Cold War ended, it was natural for Germany and Russia to develop closer economic ties, especially in energy. US imperialism cut across this by provoking a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.

Though disastrous on most counts, the Americans succeeded in their effort to cleave Western Europe from the Eurasian heartland. America’s erstwhile allies have been fully humiliated, vassalized, and exposed as paper tigers, crushed between the disdainful Americans and the revanchist Russians. In desperation, the leaders of France, Italy, and even Germany have opened the door to renewed diplomatic contact with the Russians they so deeply despise.

However, by pushing the continents’ true behemoths into each other’s arms, America’s hubris backfired badly. Between them, China and Russia outstrip US manufacturing output by more than two-to-one, and their state-driven military and technological sectors have left America’s for-profit armaments industry in the dust. And when you add India, Iran, Indonesia, and the rest of the emerging BRICS bloc to the mix, a formidable threat to American dominance emerges.

This explains the push to expand US imperialism’s footprint of geographic control. There is a long tradition of this, and Trump clearly takes inspiration from William McKinley. After its predatory war against Spain, the US controlled Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the sprawling Philippine archipelago, which did not gain independence until 1946. Trump would love to be remembered for adding even more land than Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase—though a revival of “Greater America” through territorial expansion is hardly what his voters expected when he promised to “Make America Great Again.”

There is another precedent, as well. In the 1930s, the “technocrat movement” proposed combining the US, Canada, Mexico, parts of Central America, and Greenland into a single continental power as a counterweight to Eurasia. The so-called “Technate” would be governed by centralized planning and technocratic principles such as mechanization, automation, data analysis, and energy efficiency, rather than blind market forces. Goods and services would be distributed based on scientific calculations of need and sustainability.

In other words, they thought they could circumvent the constraints of the bourgeois nation-state and market economy without abolishing these pillars of capitalism altogether. Needless to say, this is a circle that cannot be squared. In a distorted and even more deluded way, Trump and his billionaire tech buddies appear to be reviving this idea—starting with Greenland and the Arctic—minus any consideration for rational planning and human wellbeing.

Greenland and the building of “Fortress America”

As we wrote last year:

Of all his recent proposals, acquiring Greenland is probably the most serious. Should he succeed in acquiring the island, it would be a splashy and relatively easy win and show of strength.

The Americans have had their eyes on the Arctic island for over 150 years. For all the talk of national security, opening sea lanes, mineral rights, keeping out America’s rivals, etc., Trump’s reasoning for aggressively pursuing it at this juncture is simple: “We need to have it.”

Trump is a bully at heart and is revolted by Europe’s spinelessness. He can smell weakness a mile away. Why shouldn’t he take their lunch money? Greenland is already a Danish colony, so why the hypocritical uproar over Trump’s desire to turn it into an American one?

After doubling down on the “madman theory” and threatening to invade what is technically European territory, it now appears a face-saving “framework of a future deal” has been worked out. Not that the Europeans had much of a choice. They prefer to lose even more of their dignity and sovereignty, and to avoid higher tariffs, rather than being kicked to the curb entirely. An abusive big brother is better than no big brother at all. Wall Street’s concerns over the instability an outright takeover would unleash probably also played a role in Trump’s apparent climb-down.

Negotiating directly with NATO’s head, Mark Rutte, the agreement on mineral and military rights appears to be modeled on Cyprus—an island partitioned between Greece and Turkey, with the British retaining sovereignty over the bases they control. All this without consulting the Danes, let alone the people of Greenland, who are treated like the pawns of pawns. So much for the right of nations to self-determination, laughably enshrined in the UN Charter.

Like the Ukraine War, NATO’s days are numbered no matter what. There have even been rumors that Trump plans to offer every Greenlander a $1 million payout. He may yet circle back to claim the entire island.

This is all a stark reminder that the contours of bourgeois nation-states are above all political, not geographic or demographic.

Who’s next on Trump’s hit list?

Emboldened by his success in Venezuela, Trump thinks he can run roughshod pretty much anywhere. Colombia, Mexico, and Panama have all been warned. Cuba, in particular, is squarely in the crosshairs. As reported by The Wall Street Journal:

The Trump administration is searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year.

Iran is also high on the list. Netanyahu and the Zionist cabal to whom Trump is in thrall will never rest until Israel’s existential rival goes down in flames—though it could well be the Israelis who suffer that fate. And with China’s power and influence increasing daily, we can’t rule out a desperate provocation in Taiwan before it’s too late to turn the tide.

Given Trump’s interest in the Arctic and North Atlantic, Iceland would appear to be a logical candidate. And no one should forget “the 51st state”: Canada. As with Greenland, most people assumed he was just trolling. Strategically speaking, however, the North American Arctic is to the US what Siberia is to Russia in the Eurasian heartland. As we wrote a year ago:

From the perspective of the imperialists’ “Great Game,” bringing Canada even more fully under US domination has a certain logic …

 

Even on the basis of capitalism, a larger economic and political unit with an unrestricted flow of commodities and labor would bring efficiencies and economies of scale. But this would, of course, only benefit the capitalists and their ability to profit from the exploitation of the working class.

However, Trump’s “strategic uncertainty” is driving many even further into China’s orbit. While Trump pivots to the Americas, much of the world is pivoting away from the US. Despite Trump’s trade war and sanctions, China ended 2025 with a record trade surplus of $1.2 trillion. Instead of de-globalization across the board, it seems that global trade and finance capital are increasingly circumventing the US, with serious implications for the US economy.

For his part, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney scurried to Beijing and announced a “new strategic partnership” with his neighbor’s arch-rival. In addition to leverage in US-Canadian negotiations, he hopes to relieve his country’s beleaguered agricultural sector in exchange for opening the Canadian market to Chinese EV imports. Unsurprisingly, Trump has threatened 100% tariffs.

And yet, despite everything, a mafia-style “grand bargain” between the three big powers cannot be entirely ruled out. Such is the unpredictable nature of the world we live in.

From reaction to revolution

The fleeting “normality” of the postwar world is finished. The old order is breaking down. But in the absence of the revolutionary subjective factor, a new socialist order is not yet able to replace it. In the resulting vacuum, the knives are out. Murder and piracy on the high seas are literally the new status quo.

Even if US imperialism could wrest total control of its hemisphere, it wouldn’t insulate it from its global rivals. Nor would it end capitalist exploitation and oppression. In fact, as American capitalism barrels towards an almighty reckoning, things will only get worse for the working majority.

Though it’s impossible to predict the trigger or timing, the “Greatest Depression” may be just over the horizon. Once the world’s biggest creditor, America’s debt load is now unsustainable and may soon grow faster than GDP. The AI boom is a ticking time bomb, and a collapse of the dollar cannot be ruled out—there’s a reason gold and silver prices are skyrocketing.

Far from a golden age of well-paid manufacturing jobs, the sector has only shrunk since Trump declared economic war on the world. And the full inflationary and recessionary impact of his tariff policies is yet to come. With the midterm elections fast approaching, Trump is desperate for anything that distracts from the cost-of-living crisis, Epstein scandal, and his rapid cognitive decline.

Millions can see that the US Constitution has been stretched beyond recognition and stands exposed as a fig leaf for the rule of the rich. Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene are the canaries in the coal mine, anticipating further cracks in his base.

Domestic policy is the continuation of foreign policy, and in ICE’s heinous actions in Minnesota and beyond, we see “war on terror” coming home to roost. However, Trump’s provocations could blow up on his face and lead to a repeat of 2020 on a higher level. Minneapolis shows the way forward!

250 years since its revolutionary birth, the American republic is in the throes of its counterrevolutionary death agony. “Socialist revolution or barbarism” isn’t hyperbole—it’s one possible perspective if capitalism isn’t overthrown in our lifetime. Only the collective action of the united working class can stop the madness—and the RCA is building its forces as quickly as possible to speed the day.