This worries me. What if Trump is proved right? What if his tariffs are successful in bringing manufacturing back to America; if he is instrumental in bringing peace to Ukraine, Gaza and South America; if he builds his luxury condos on the Mediterranean coast; if all the expelled Palestinians are genuinely happier living in Jordan; if the Greenlanders truly welcome American tutelage; if US-imposed regime change really is the best way to unseat despots; if the liberal international order is a piece of wokeish irrelevance, and might, not right, is the only thing that matters in diplomacy: – in other words, if things are simpler than liberal intellectuals presently make out, and so he succeeds in ‘making America great’ again in all kinds of ways? What then for us, his fiercest critics?
We would still of course be stuck with his awful personality: the narcissism, stupidity, malice, small-mindedness, racism, bullying, lying, incipient fascism and all the rest – which make him difficult to like as a man or a leader; but which we might then have to admit could have contributed to some of this success.
Which is why I guess most of us don’t want him to succeed.
Porter’s Pensées 
And it’s hard to imagine how he could have a win by dismantling the environmental protection laws and agencies.
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If he succeeds in all of that, it would be a miracle.
Probably his main aim in Ukraine is to disengage the USA and leave it to “Europe” to sort out…and blame when they achieve nothing. That allows the USA to try to detach Russia from China…which won’t succeed.
He probably will succeed in bringing high tech manufacturing back to the USA. It accords with the increasing isolationism. There will be Fortress America in control of the Western hemisphere and supporting other “friends” but no “boots on the ground”.
The Palestinians want their own state so won’t be happy elsewhere.
The Greenlanders will accept US tutelage.
Trump doesn’t care about despots…provided they do as they’re told (continuation of normal US policy).
The “liberal international order” has only ever been relevant as Western PR for the reality that might is right. The “West” ie the USA had the might for a long time, enough to contain the USSR…and cow the rest of the world.
The problem the West has now is that China will overtake it. The prospect isn’t appetising.
And which leader hasn’t had the characteristics you describe? But they managed to hide it better. Trump doesn’t care enough to try.
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You’ve lost me on this one, Bernard. To continue in your imagining: What if Jerome Powell is happier in jail; Ms Good goes to heaven and is blissfully entranced by being with Jesus; all the unvaccinated children who die of measles etc. are saved from child abuse; the Venezuelans are thankful to Trump stealing all their oil for reasons no one can understand; that the Baltic states will welcome being occupied by Russia – after NATO is dissolved – for reasons that only become apparent after the occupation is in full swing ….
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