And clearly, it is a fool’s errand to reverse any empire’s relative decline, and rank immorality to try.
Benito Mussolini and especially Adolf Hitler dreamed the dream of building empire as latecomers to the competitive scramble.
Trump, by contrast, is obsessed by the decline of a once great imperial power, and dreams of rebuilding it.
Trump cannot be a founder, and is reduced to longing for America’s imperial meridian of his childhood after the second world war.
From his first appearance on the political stage, Trump has feared what he takes to be the misrule and penury of lowly countries.
But doing so could never make America “a manufacturing nation once again”, as Trump promised after taking the oath of his office.
That Trump thinks otherwise, however, will affect that ongoing decline in ways that are both big and small, both hilarious and horrendous. »
