Afrasianet - Gerard Deeb - US President Donald Trump said Tuesday, January 21, that he would consider imposing new sanctions on Russia if his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate with Ukraine to reach an agreement to end the war.
The observer may feel a bit surprised when reviewing Trump's statements before and after his inauguration, especially with regard to directing "compliments" to Putin's personality as a smart man, and by asserting that the Ukraine war would not have been, and that he will work to resolve it as soon as possible.
But his statements are not consistent with his practices, as they carry a lot of superiority and superiority within them, which provokes Russian President Vladimir Putin, and further complicates the complexities of this crisis, especially since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had signed a decree prohibiting the Ukrainian side from conducting any negotiations with Moscow when he was in his legitimate mandate, so why would Trump transfer the problem to the Russian side?
Russia feels that Trump is setting a trap for it to take it to surrender, especially after talking about the effectiveness of his country's sanctions on Russia and its exhaustion of the Russian economy, and that he is ready to provide Kiev with weapons, despite Trump's most important supporter, Elon Musk, describing Zelensky as a "thief of the century."
It is not true that Trump wants to end wars in the world, he is not a man of peace, as confirmed by his saying that he will "impose peace by force." But the question arises: What peace does Trump want to impose on the world? Does it mean by force the use of weapons?
Ukrainian peace may be just wishful thinking for a man, because the war in Ukraine is complex and intertwined. His "openness" theory toward China may be just media "balloons," despite the call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on cooperation for global development.
But the enmity between the two countries is based on the Greek historian's Thucydides trap, which imposes the inevitability of a "clash" between two powers: one rising (China Today) and the other to the United States.
There is no peace with Beijing, and the increase in the tax rate to 10% that Trump has proposed on Chinese imports is proof. What confirms this is Trump's request to acquire 50% of the Chinese platform "Tik Tok", if it wants to continue broadcasting in the US market, after a US court decision was issued banning it from broadcasting.
It is clear that what Trump is asking for is part of the American continuity in dominating the world order, through all its means, especially social media.
Trump's slogan "America First" does not mean putting limits on American involvement in the world, focusing only on resolving domestic issues such as transsexuality, to which he devoted a focused attack in his oath speech.
It also does not mean a commitment only to the application of the "Monroe Doctrine", as it is clear that under his reign we will see the embodiment of this principle in force in the United States of America since 1823. This principle obliges the Western hemisphere not to allow any foreign country to interfere in the affairs of the North and South American continents.
Therefore, the Trump administration is supposed to pay more attention to the oil-rich Venezuelan affair, and work to change the regime of Nicolás Maduro so that its fate will be similar to that of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, due to his total immersion in the axis of China and Russia, specifically Iran.
Trump also wants to brake the "hashtag" of his country's geopolitical rivals, Russia and China, by seizing the island of Greenland, where he finds the "location of confrontation" with Russia in the Arctic. He also seized the Panama Canal, considering that Chinese companies have become an investment presence by managing two ports on this canal, which poses difficulties on US maritime traffic.
Not only did Trump open fire on these countries, but he went so far as to sign an executive order re-listing Cuba on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, reversing the waiver issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, before the end of his term.
Trump's eye on Monroe, how not to and domestic crises have become a burden on any US administration that reaches the White House. That is why some may suspect that the Democrats' inaction against the Republicans in the last election is not because of the weakness of their candidate Kamala Harris, but because the next stage needs a man who is bold in decision-making to the point of "madness."
Who better than President Trump to take that responsibility and take decisions that could lead to a direct clash with the enemies of the United States, starting with the decision to strike Iran? This decision, which seems to have "matured" in the sources of the American as well as the Israeli decision, only needs to determine the zero hour.
We cannot say that the America of Trump's time will withdraw from international resolutions, and the observer should not imagine that Washington will leave China any opportunity to enter the center of global leadership. What the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced is not proof, but rather an American evasion, that it will support the World Health Organization in its tasks against the backdrop of the withdrawal of the United States from the organization by a decision of President Donald Trump, who said on Monday, January 20: "This organization is deceiving us."
Trump does not want to withdraw his country from global leadership, nor to destroy the liberal world order that is his country's creation, but only to remove external and internal threats that may plague the United States. How could he not, when the man came to power at a time when both Russia and China feel very close to bringing about change in the world order, will he stand by?