Cold and calculating Trump

 By Milton Lima

14-03-2025

Cold and calculating Trump. Tabloid readers and consumers of the official media in their countries are likely to notice the presence of Donald Trump on the front pages of their newspapers on a regular basis.

fonte: Il Sole

It was Sunday 2 March and the Italian newspaper Il sole carried a picture of a woman in London going to work with a message on the wall in the background: 'Be brave like Ukraine’. We have not lost sight of the logic of a cold and calculating man in politics, and after the image coming from the London woman and the newspaper's defense of the courage not to give up on Ukraine; we will see other newspapers around the world in the first 15 days of March.

Protect European interests

Europe's strategy seems to be changing as Trump's cold calculations are put on the table. First, the leader of the most influential culture of perpetual war gives a nod to contributing to peace and ending the war in Ukraine. Then he asserts what he considers essential to his country's interests, leading to his strategy of re-engagement with Russia.

fonte: Politico Europe

For a rapprochement with Russia, the US president must first prioritise his cold calculations to win a narrative war on the economy. And his strategy is based on tariffs and a trade war. This was the case with NAFTA, and now he wants to follow suit with Europe.

As Alastair Crooke pointed out:

President Trump wants Ukraine settled, full stop. This is so that he can move ahead quickly – to normalise with Russia, and begin the ‘big picture’ project of setting a new World Order, one that will end wars and facilitate business ties.

Trump hopes to make US industry competitive again, and to this end he is already seeking to reduce sanctions against Russia. He wants to be cold and calculating and defend his interests.

What will happen to European interests in this new scenario of Trump's closeness to Putin? They need to show strength in order to continue writing history. In short, France and the UK want to continue to support Ukraine with arms and not give in to Russia's views.

In the European Union, with the US withdrawal from Ukraine, the idea is to use this moment to invest in the protection of Ukraine and support the nation against Russia, which means establishing new rules.

While Trump is cold and calculating, the European Union is warm and enthusiastic about a new plan to rearm and defend its interests. What is not being discussed is how it will pay for it. In fact, the economic recession Europe is going through has not yet hit home enough for citizens to realise how worrying it is for people.

February weekly newsletter start of the month

Milton Lima

Sociologist

02-04-2022

I confess that this week it will be quite difficult to choose just a few subjects, but I must be prepared to do so. So I must start with the elections. From Honduras to Portugal, the faces of socialism are back. This means that these governments with such lines are already moving the chess in the game. I say this because a fortnight ago the FT newspaper has once maintained the opinions of its columnists about the risk, for example, of Lula in Brazil supporting the governments of the left in the region. This same Lula was invited to the president's January ceremony there in Honduras. This game is old when the threat saw the government become populist. It is important to say that within politics, exactly nothing is what it seems. So we were not naïve yesterday and therefore we will not be naïve today. Who should offer more fear to Brazil or Argentina, Chile or perhaps Venezuela? On that, I will return to the periphery and I hope you all see it. 

In Europe, the conflict has been brewing since mid-December. When we point to the elections we must not forget that the Green party in Germany has dealt many cards in the government. This means that there what happens in the face of the conflict with Russia and natural gas has an ideological bias behind it. So the issue that should gain a lot of strength this year is climate change because anyone who has read the newspapers in Germany has noticed that there is a public opinion well directed towards the climate issue. In this case, my opinion remains the same, the psychological war will have many paths from the climate apocalypse, which has always been on the globalist agenda. 

Meanwhile, newspapers in Italy and Spain show how much the extreme right is organising with its grassroots. The elections in Italy are already knocking on the door. In France, it's not much different. Taking into account unemployment, the economic recession and the pandemic, which is far from over, the agenda is once again: what to do about integration? A hot topic that is likely to return to the agenda is immigration, whether there is a war or not. There is no need to go far, look at Afghanistan, at Yemen, people there are dying of hunger and endless misery. 

On the great meeting of leaders Putin and Xi, the covers did not waste much time for a smear, meanwhile, other covers show the seas around NATO near Ukrainian with several Nawians, that is, the conflict is just beginning. I keep hoping there won't be a war because that would be a catastrophe for all humanity.