North Korea conducted a series of missile launches and nuclear test blasts from July and its leader Kim Yong-Un threatened the United States with annihilation. That, in turn, caused Trump and later his generals to threaten North Korea with nuclear war and China with trade boycott. The EU, China and Russia called on the US to negotiate with North Korea to reduce the risk of war, but it rejected the Trump administration and instead used the UN Security Council to adopt ever tougher sanctions on North Korea. Everyone knew that the sanctions would only aggravate the crisis. 2 million Koreans were killed during the Korean War, and the war has not yet ended. Only a ceasefire agreement has been signed. For North Korea, it was a matter of survival. For Trump, it was a matter of using the tightened security situation in the northeastern region of Asia to increase US arms exports to Japan and South Korea in particular.
In July, the Trump administration voted down its proposal in Congress to bury Obamacare for the third time. A few weeks later, he got the Republican Party thrown after his statements about the Nazi violence in Charlottesville. In September, therefore, instead went into negotiations with the Democrats for legislation to replace the DACCA legislation that Obama had introduced in 2012 by decree protecting children of illegal immigrants in the United States. The consequence of the deal with the Democrats was that Trump’s own right-wing hinterland was thrown into deep disillusionment. They saw it as a betrayal on the part of Trump about the election promise to throw all illegal immigrants out of the United States – including the children. However, the political key in the process was that the president positioned himself as almost totally politically isolated. Isolated from its right-wing voter base, isolated from the Republican Party, which should formally be his political base, but also isolated from the Democrats who basically hated him like the plague. The president’s narcissism alienated him from his original base and threw him into the arms of his enemies from yesterday. The political amateur proved unable to achieve political results, was unable to understand or formulate politics that required more than 140 characters, but was still the man with his finger on the superpower’s nuclear trigger.
Trump threatened to invade Venezuela in August. Both Secretary of State Tillerson and his security advisers tried to talk him off the plan. In vain. Only when the president of the United States sound states in Latin America a few weeks later also turned his thumb down to Trump’s proposal, it was abandoned. (Trump repeatedly suggested invading Venezuela, stunning top aides – report, Guardian 4/7 2018)
Trump spoke in September as one of the first at the UN General Assembly. The speech was one of a host of threats to countries around the world. Strongest against North Korea, which he threatened with total annihilation. The UN is the organization of peace, and the speech was explicitly contrary to the UN General Assembly Rules of Procedure, which prohibits threats to other countries. Never before in the history of the organization had such an aggressive speech been held. It was greeted by alarming silence from world leaders – except for Israel, which welcomed the threats to Iran. Trump was unable to recall the name of North Korea’s head of state, Kim Jong-un, so this one was referred to as “Rocket Man.” The speech marked that the president was out of educational reach and had managed to isolate the United States from almost every other country in the world. (Donald Trump threatens to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea in UN speech, Guardian 19/9 2017; A blunt, fearful rant: Trump’s UN speech left presidential norms in the dust, Guardian 19/9 2017)
In September, according to ehotelat, Puerto Rico was hit twice by a Category 5 hurricane that caused enormous devastation and left tens of thousands homeless. Trump’s response was that the Puerto Ricans themselves had been out about it because their finances were in a miserable constitution.
In October, the United States government presented plans for a significant breach of the nuclear disarmament process initiated 30 years earlier. The plan was in line with Trump’s plans for economic development of the country through armaments and arms sales to the rest of the world. It was presented as a “modernization” of the superpower’s nuclear arsenal. As part of the build-up, a new blast head with lower burst force was to be developed for mounting on ballistic missiles. It was part of the illusion that a “limited nuclear war” would be possible. Something scientists and military strategists had already agreed 30 years earlier was impossible. Next, the Tomahawk cruise missiles that were placed in the moth bag 4 years earlier were to be retrieved and made ready for operation. Thirdly, the time needed to resume the US test blasting program should be reduced from the current 3 years. The trial program was placed in the mole bag 30 years earlier because computer simulations were far more reliable. Fourth, the threshold for when the United States would use nuclear weapons should be lowered. It was last modified by Obama in 2010, stating that the United States would only use its nuclear weapons in “extreme circumstances to defend its vital interests, allies and partners,” and never against states that did not have nuclear weapons and who otherwise complied with the non-proliferation agreement. Vice President Pence took the opportunity to declare that the best guarantor of world peace was the US nuclear arsenal. (Trump team drawing up fresh plans to bolster US nuclear arsenal, Guardian 29/10 2017)
