Donald Trump has always liked to think big. He has now taken to thinking so big that he wants to add Canada, Greenland and a chunk of Panama to the already extensive domains he is about to receive thanks to his triumph in the recent presidential elections. Not surprisingly, the imperialistic aspirations he outlined the other day in a press conference greatly annoy the current owners of the pieces of real estate he has his eye on, but it is entirely possible that some of the folk who live in them could end up welcoming the prospect of becoming US citizens. So too, for that matter, could people in countries from which millions of people are trying to escape and, at enormous risk to themselves, make it into what for them is the promised land. Hard as it no doubt is for those who find Trump appalling to understand, they would rather have him as their overlord than the rulers of the countries they have left behind.
By openly declaring that all that stuff about sovereignty, the inviolability of internationally recognised borders and such should be discarded for what he says are strategic reasons, Trump may well have kickstarted something that could have far-reaching consequences that he would be the last to welcome. How would he react were large numbers of Central Americans, say, to stage noisy demonstrations demanding that their troubled homelands be incorporated into a growing Trumpian empire? Indeed, the Panamanians could say they would let him have the canal as long as he took over the entire country.
By saying that Mexico is a very dangerous place with a great many problems, Trump has already told those who could be willing to collaborate with his imperialistic schemes that he would almost certainly refuse to let them join his empire because doing so would confront him with too many difficulties. He may find territorial aggrandisement tempting but, like most of his compatriots, he has no desire to assume the responsibilities that directly ruling what he sees as backward regions, and has described in scatological terms, would be bound to entail.
For Trump, who does not want MAGA man to take up any weighty Kiplingesque burdens, sparsely populated Greenland would not be a problem. Much the same could be said about Canada, whose economy is smaller than those of California and Texas, but is still wealthy enough to pay her way. Of course, persuading the Canadians to join the United States would not be easy. As yet, King Charles III, who happens to be Canada’s head of state, has not expressed an opinion about Trump’s threat to repeat, by presumably non-military means, the ill-starred invasions of 1812.
Trump is not the only person to find empire-building attractive but thinks it should be cost-free. Until about halfway through the 20th century, much the world was under the sway of empires, as had been the case throughout recorded history, but then, in a remarkably short period of time, they went completely out of fashion. Though some remain (China and Russia are empires dominated by the principal ethnic group), those run by Europeans were quickly dismantled not just because their very existence offended democrats back home but also because they had become far too expensive to maintain.
Unfortunately for hundreds of millions of people, the self-determination that was sought and on occasion was fought for, by previous generations of politicos and intellectuals, soon turned out to be an utter disaster. This surely is the main reason why so many men and woman are now risking their lives in an effort to get to and settle in countries that are run by people much like their former colonial masters. Many who, when asked, will agree that imperialism was as terrible as almost everyone today says it was, have evidently come to the conclusion that what replaced it is far worse.
Trump and those surrounding him are clearly aware that the current world order is coming apart at the seams and want the United States to be in a position to take full advantage of whatever happens in the coming years. He is now approaching 80, so he is in a hurry, as are Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, the elderly Iranian ayatollahs and the leaders of a gaggle of Islamist organisations. For a variety of reasons, all feel that time is not on their side so they had better act fast. They were encouraged to do so by the assumption that the US had become a bewildered and incompetent giant that, after surrendering under Joe Biden to the ragtag Talibans and skedaddling from Afghanistan, had given up trying to be the world’s policeman. Though Trump says he is dead against foreign entanglements, he wants to look down on all the mayhem going on abroad from a position of strength.
Trump is better placed than the autocrats who fantasise about toppling him from his position as “the most powerful man in the world” because, notwithstanding the frantic complaints of lobbyists for supposedly progressive causes involving racial distinctions, genders and the like, the North American way of life, and the European with which it has much in common, continue to serve as an extremely powerful magnet for “ordinary” people everywhere. Were it otherwise, hordes of migrants would be doing their utmost to break into Russia, China and Iran, instead of trying to give such tyrannies as wide a berth as possible.
While most North Americans and Europeans want the millions who are fleeing poverty and oppression to go back to wherever they came from, by “voting with their feet” in such a manner they show that, apart from some entrenched minorities that cling to ways of thinking that are rapidly becoming outdated, much of the world’s population knows very well that Western civilisation is far superior to any of the alternatives that have been put to the test.
This, needless to say, is an opinion which is not shared by that many members of the credentialled elites in the West itself. Most seem to have become addicted to self-flagellation though, strangely enough, instead of warning would-be immigrants that they would have a miserable time in Western countries, they want far more of them to come and encourage them to cling to the customs that helped ruin their homelands.
