[News] Not US Foreign Policy as Usual—Who Will Stop Donald Trump?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/not-us-foreign-policy-as-usual-who-will-stop-donald-trump/>
Not US Foreign Policy as Usual—Who Will Stop Donald Trump?April 13, 2026
------------------------------
Trump attacked the Pope and posted an AI-generated picture of himself
dressed as Jesus healing the ill. (Photos: screen grab. Design: Palestine
Chronicle)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*


Outside of a small number of dissenting voices, there is no sustained
institutional effort to check presidential power. Congress has not
mobilized in any meaningful way.

This is not US foreign policy as usual.

We may try endlessly to impose a rational explanation on Donald Trump’s
behavior—linking it to doctrine, strategy, or even ideology. But that
effort collapses under scrutiny. There is no coherent framework that
explains what is unfolding.

This is not traditional American imperialism. That system—violent,
exploitative, hegemonic—has always been guided by clear interests: control
of markets, waterways, and geopolitical space. It is ruthless but rational.

Trump’s conduct is different. It is erratic, self-destructive, and
increasingly detached from even the most basic logic of power.

This is not containment either. Containment requires alliances, long-term
planning, and a calculated pursuit of stability. What we are witnessing
instead—from Iran to Europe to Latin America—is the dismantling of
alliances and the erosion of stability itself.

Even capitalism, in its most aggressive form, depends on predictability. It
uses war and intervention as instruments—but always toward expansion,
profit, and control. Trump’s policies, by contrast, are destabilizing
markets in both the short and long term, blockading waterways without a
strategy, and dragging allies into conflicts with no defined outcome.

This is not a strategy. It is a disruption without purpose.

The temptation to search for hidden motives—whether personal scandals or
political distractions—misses the point. Trump has never operated from a
coherent moral or strategic foundation. His record, including legal
controversies and public scandals, has always been visible. Reducing the
current crisis to a single explanation misunderstands its scale.

What is different now is the level of risk.

Former CIA Director John Brennan said it plainly: “This person is clearly
unhinged.” Brennan’s warning was not casual rhetoric. He went further,
invoking the 25th Amendment and stating that Trump’s behavior “merited his
removal from the Oval Office.” He rejected the central justification for
escalation with Iran, saying unequivocally: “Iran didn’t pose an imminent
threat,” and that it “did not have a nuclear weapon.”

Most alarming was his emphasis on presidential power.

“The fact that he is able to continue to be commander in chief and to
control the tremendous capabilities of the US military, including our
nuclear weapons capability, really puts us in very, very troubling times,”
Brennan said.

These are not ordinary political criticisms. They come from a figure deeply
embedded in the US intelligence system—a system that rarely speaks in such
direct terms.

A day later, Trump escalated again—this time targeting Pope Leo XIV.

In a lengthy statement, Trump described the Pope as “weak on crime” and
“terrible for foreign policy,” accusing him of aligning with the “radical
left” and even suggesting that his papacy was politically engineered in
response to Trump himself. He declared, “If I wasn’t in the White House,
Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”

This was not merely offensive. It was strategically reckless. There are
over a billion Catholics worldwide, including tens of millions in the
United States. The Pope is not simply a religious figure—he is a global
moral authority with political weight across continents.

To openly attack him in such terms is to provoke a cultural and political
rupture that extends far beyond domestic politics.

When placed alongside Trump’s repeated rhetoric targeting Arabs and
Muslims, the pattern becomes clearer. This is not isolated behavior. It is
a broad escalation across multiple civilizational, cultural, and political
fronts.

It echoes, in its most extreme form, Samuel Huntington’s ‘Clash of
Civilizations’—but without the analytical framework. What remains is a
chaotic attempt to confront multiple worlds simultaneously.

Trump is not managing conflict. He is amplifying it. Even the imagery
accompanying his messaging reflects this shift. The projection is not of
diplomacy or restraint, but of a militant, nationalistic identity wrapped
in religious symbolism—an inversion of the very traditions it claims to
defend.

Meanwhile, meaningful political resistance within the United States is
largely absent.

What exists instead is a fragmented and ineffective response. Republican
leadership has, with few exceptions, aligned itself fully with Trump or
chosen silence over confrontation. Within that camp, dissent is not simply
rare—it is politically costly.

The Democratic establishment, for its part, has failed to mount a coherent
challenge. While it criticizes Trump’s conduct and rhetoric, it does not
fundamentally oppose the broader trajectory of escalation. On key
issues—particularly Iran—the disagreement is often tactical rather than
principled. The result is a form of opposition that registers disapproval
without exercising real constraint.

Outside of a small number of dissenting voices, there is no sustained
institutional effort to check presidential power. Congress has not
mobilized in any meaningful way. Mechanisms that exist precisely for
moments of crisis—oversight, legislative pressure, even constitutional
provisions—remain largely dormant.

In practice, this means that Trump is operating with minimal internal
resistance. Not because opposition is impossible, but because it has not
materialized in a way that carries political weight. The absence of
meaningful restraint is not incidental. It is the defining condition that
allows the current trajectory to continue unchecked.

This paralysis is precisely what Brennan warned about when he described
continued political support for Trump as “very concerning.”

The result is a president exercising immense military power with
diminishing institutional resistance.

Beyond Washington, the consequences are already visible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are leveraging
this moment, pushing forward amid the chaos. For them, Trump’s
unpredictability is not a liability—it is an opportunity.

But this alignment is unlikely to produce the outcomes they
anticipate. Wars without strategy do not reshape regions in predictable
ways. They create new actors, new dynamics, and unintended consequences.
The Middle East that emerges from this escalation may not align with any
existing agenda—Israeli, American, or otherwise.

For now, however, the trajectory is clear. Trump and Netanyahu are driving
a cycle of escalation that risks expanding beyond control.

The question is no longer analytical. It is political—and urgent. Is there
enough democracy in the United States to stop this?

Is there enough institutional courage?

Is there enough collective sanity?

Who will stop Donald Trump?


*– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine
Chronicle. He is the author of eight books. His latest book, ‘**Before the
Flood*
<https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4779-before-the-flood?srsltid=AfmBOorgPOepR8fLBeCXLViw_awRDNTNNerbwDJ4V2X5Jza-ajlZ6_bm>*,’
was published by Seven Stories Press. His other books include ‘Our Vision
for Liberation’, ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’.
Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and
Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net*
<http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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