America, shedding the dead skin of a crumbling empire, sits on its golden throne and Trump returns to the White House, shining, all-powerful, … carnivorous. Zelensky, the bewildered despot of the East, crawls, his eyes sunken, his mouth a gaping wound that can only be filled with money. He stinks of defeat, of despair, of the smell of burned cities and sacks of bodies, financed by NATO. The war ate him alive, but he still plays the game, still clings to the American nipple like a starving infant.
Trump, leaning back, fingers crossed, says: “If you didn’t have our military equipment, if you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would be over in two weeks.” Smiling gleefully. Delighted. A cat playing with a half-dead mouse and still wondering if it was worth it. The truth, hard and cold, spills onto the carpet like spilled blood: Ukraine doesn’t matter. Ukraine is a pawn. America is about interests, not charity.
J.D. Vance, the golden boy of the “rust belt,” stands next to him, eyes like steel, his mouth in that grim expression that men have when they know they hold the biggest weapon. He says: “Peace, is the only path forward.” Zelenskyy protests – No, he growls. Like a cornered hyena. He wants war, because without war, he is nothing. Without war, it fades into the trash heap of forgotten revolutionaries, another puppet left in the rain.
[*The “Rust Belt”, formerly the “Steel Belt” or “Factory Belt”, is a region of the United States that suffered significant industrial decline in the late 20th century. The region is located in the center of the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.]
Trump lets him stumble. He enjoys it. “You’re playing World War III,” he says, his voice deep, knowing. This is not a game of ideals. This is not good versus evil. This is a game of numbers, and Ukraine’s debt is growing. No more blank checks. No more free weapons. No more protective hunching over a man who thinks he can preach to the sovereign of the deal.
Carl Schmitt is grinning from his grave: “The sovereign is the one who decides the exception.” And here is Trump, drawing the line. No more perpetual war, no more forced allegiances. America is sovereign, but Ukraine? Ukraine is just another problem to be solved. Friend? Foe? The difference is a piece of thin paper, a contract waiting to be signed or shredded. Zelensky, for all his cries about democracy and morality, does not understand the game. He does not understand that might is the only truth.
The decision is the fact that determines the sovereign. In the conflict of nations, there is no morality, only friend and foe. Trump, who stands as the sovereign, names the enemy not by ideology but by necessity. Zelensky is the supplicant who mistakes customer service for loyalty, who believes that war can be eternal if the right pockets are filled. But the exception has been declared. America withdraws its clemency, and at that moment, the fate of Ukraine is no longer its own. Power lies not in supplications, but in the ability to decide, to choose, to cut off. The world does not belong to those who supplicate. It belongs to those who dictate the terms.
The meeting does not end – it breaks up. No press conference. No handshakes. Just silence, the emptiness of silent war. Trump wipes his hands. He says: “Come back when you are ready for peace.” She rejects him like an uncertain debt, like a rejected prostitute. Zelensky runs away, the smell of failure clinging to him.
Vance stands tall. He sees the future. He sees a nation emerging from its endless wounds. He knows the war machine is a fraud, a jumble of dollars and dead bodies. He knows that America’s strength lies not in the collection of fragmented nations, but in the protection of its own.
Zelensky? Will he run back to Europe, begging like a dethroned vassal, chewing on the scraps the EU throws at him. Perhaps he will realize, in the dark corners of his sleepless nights, that the world never owed him anything. Perhaps he will understand that gratitude and strength are the only currencies that matter.
And Trump, still smiling, still towering, still in control, has made his decision. Dominance. Power. The exception.
The war, his war, America’s war, will end on his terms. Or not at all.
The new normal
Trumpism is proving to be much more powerful than Donald Trump. Because it seems to be based on a significant part of Western societies, not exclusively in the USA as relevant polls reveal. Western societies felt increasingly excluded from the modern world, resulting in the continuous increase in the acceptance rates of the Alternative Right.
This is a big problem because it constitutes the most serious challenge to the widely rooted belief that “democracy is the best system available”. In a democratic regime, parts of societies felt excluded and have begun to look askance, at least for the time being, in the direction of countries characterized as “undemocratic” in the West, with a key characteristic of a very strong personality at the helm.
This situation should have already led to alarm in Western societies and the necessary adjustments. Unfortunately, it is proving in practice that reflexes are too slow. Not only before Trump’s re-election to the US presidency, but also after. The documentation would be particularly easy. Behind ideological references, powerful economic interests were served that always hoped that they would somehow survive. However, Trump’s behavior has led the planet to deregulation, at all levels.
