By Wayne Allensworth
Keeping up with the Trump White House is like tracking a whirlwind. Donald Trump knew he had to act quickly to exploit his electoral triumph and is doing so. Here are some thoughts on what is happening:
As far as a peace agreement in Ukraine goes, we have been hearing a lot about a potential deal to secure U.S. rights to rare earth metals there. Trump has said he wants financial security on any future US support. Rare earth elements are used in many kinds of consumer technology, including cell phones and hard drives, as well as electric and hybrid vehicles. At the same time, some apparently related matters are worth considering. While Trump was touting a rare earth metals deal with Ukraine and talking up potential economic cooperation with Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to government ministers, emphasized how important developing rare earth resources are for high technology in Russia. He also suggested that the U.S. and Russia could develop them jointly. As I understand it, a significant amount of such resources are available in Russian held territory in the Donbass, as well as elsewhere in the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, during U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, Russian sources reported, the Russian side proposed a number of areas for economic cooperation with the U.S., including developing natural resources in the Arctic. What’s more, the Kremlin might be prepared to go along with the West’s using $300 billion in Russian reserves — frozen as a result of the war — to rebuild Ukraine, so long as part of the money is used to rebuild the Donbass. Allow me to speculate on a very Trumpian way of concluding and maintaining a Ukraine agreement: Secure an economic deal that would give all the parties a strong incentive to maintain the peace. It’s early, yet, but something along those lines just might work. Trump just doesn’t just think outside the box, he discards it entirely. New security arrangements in Europe must eventually be dealt with, but the Europeans might not yet be ready for that. NATO, however, appears to be moribund and might have to be rebranded, at least, or replaced.
At home, the Trump administration is moving rapidly to dismantle the managerial state (“the Deep State”; “the Swamp”). That’s absolutely necessary if we wish to revitalize our government and at least have a chance to make it more responsive to us. We must deal with the thorny problem of how to train cadres and man the system in the future. At present, leftist-globalist ideology dominates the higher education system that trains potential bureaucrats. The Trump Collective must take on that system. Ending DEI programs and the entire apparatus of woke indoctrination in the federal bureaucracy is a first step to making government service more attractive to people who share our worldview.
We must also consider Trump’s business-minded approach: He realizes that the U.S. budget deficit of almost $37 trillion is tied to feeding a vast bureaucracy and military machine. This model is unsustainable. Trump has suggested halving the military budget. Just consider how many jobs in Middle America are linked to defense-related enterprises. The Deep State, the Pentagon, and the Swamp are limbs on the same tree. Cutting the massive deficit is in turn linked to revitalizing American industry, revamping the tax system, and developing energy resources. It’s a delicate tightrope to walk, and it will be very painful to try, but somebody had to take it on.
Finally, we must step back and take a long view of the struggle. It will take years to make any headway, and to achieve its goals, an unfinished America First agenda must be carried on after Trump’s presidency. Elon Musk’s idea of sending $5,000 to American households (savings from DOGE cuts to bureaucratic budgets, a so-called “DOGE dividend”) runs counter to the urgent task of reducing spending. But it might make the hard decisions that are ahead of us — sooner or later, entitlements will have to be scrutinized — more politically palpable.
For those howling about Trump’s bold actions, claiming he is overstepping his authority, drop your media-provided blinders and consider just some of what has taken place in the last 25 years alone:
• George W. Bush used false “intelligence” to launch a war that upended the Middle East and spread chaos in the region that persists to this day, not to mention the lengthy civilian and military casualty list.
• The US government supported “regime change” operations in Syria, Libya, and Ukraine that have brought on destruction and turmoil in those regions, and, again, unleashed the dogs of war, bringing us close to a direct confrontation with a nuclear power.
• The US military knowingly continued a war in Afghanistan it knew could not be “won.”
• Thanks to Edward Snowden, we know that the U.S. government unlawfully spied on U.S. citizens.
• Former President Barack Obama signed off on kill orders against alleged terrorists that included at least three American citizens. As Jonathan Turley wrote in Foreign Policy, that’s “the very definition of authoritarian power.”
• The Blob launched the “Crossfire Hurricane” operation against Donald Trump during his first term, concocting a ludicrous tale with Trump cast as a Russian spy. This was in effect, a “regime change” effort on our own territory.
• The Biden administration colluded with social media to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, “election interference” if there ever was such a thing.
• A number of administrations, Republican and Democrat, ignored the country’s immigration laws and facilitated the mass, illegal-alien invasion of our country and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans from drug overdoses as tons of fentanyl flowed across our porous borders
• The industrial heartland of our nation was hollowed out; “deaths of despair” and a decline in life expectancy followed.
I could go on. That’s not anywhere close to a comprehensive list of the Blob’s crimes. Future historians may recoil in shock at the incompetent, destructive, and malevolent acts of the globalist establishment. The pod people couldn’t give a damn about working-class Americans who were cast aside like so much excess baggage on the way to the Blob’s “end of history” Utopia.
In short, the Trump team is faced with a crisis of historic proportions, as it tries to deal with the disastrous consequences of globalism and the massive corruption it engenders. Establishment media create a myopic picture that magnifies the importance of whatever narrative they weave, leaving out critical context and historical perspective. Fortunately, “legacy media” are on their last legs. Decades of lies and distortions have destroyed their credibility. If Donald Trump had not stepped onto the scene, we would have had to invent him. A counterrevolution is underway. It will be painful. But we had better hope — and pray — it succeeds.
Meanwhile, the movement to detach Eastern Oregon from the coastal areas and join Idaho is reviving. Earlier, we heard talk about detaching inland California from the coast, of the bulk of Virginia detaching itself from the Blob-controlled counties around the capital and joining with West Virginia to form a new state, and even of districts within “blue” cities seceding from the metropolitan.
The Trump realignment might not be electoral alone, but a realignment of the U.S. administrative map. And that, in turn, could be a first step toward what your humble servant still views as the ultimate goal: Red states separating from Blue. We are engaged in a struggle that is not about politics as such. It is religious, a clash of opposing metaphysical views.
Separating is better than endless turmoil.
Chronicles contributor Wayne Allensworth is the author of The Russian Question: Nationalism, Modernization, and Post-Communist Russia, and a novel, Field of Blood. For thirty-two years, he worked as an analyst and Russia area expert in the US intelligence community.
Please consider supporting American Remnant: A green “Donate Today” button has been added at the end of each article (see below) appearing on the website. If you value what AR is doing, please consider supporting the website financially. $5, $10, or any amount that you can afford. Regular donations would especially be appreciated. Thank you!
