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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/not-us-foreign-policy-as-usual-who-will-stop-donald-trump/">palestinechronicle.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Not US Foreign Policy as Usual\u2014Who Will Stop Donald Trump?</h1>April 13, 2026</div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Trump_Pope_Truth_PC.png" alt="" title="Trump_Pope_Truth_PC" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="536" height="360" style="margin-right: 25px;">
Trump attacked the Pope and posted
an AI-generated picture of himself dressed as Jesus healing the ill.
(Photos: screen grab. Design: Palestine Chronicle)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud" title="Display all articles for Ramzy Baroud">Ramzy Baroud</a></strong> </p>
<blockquote>
<h3>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.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>This is not US foreign policy as usual.</p>
<p>We may try endlessly to impose a rational explanation on Donald
Trump\u2019s behavior\u2014linking it to doctrine, strategy, or even ideology. But
that effort collapses under scrutiny. There is no coherent framework
that explains what is unfolding.</p>
<p>This is not traditional American imperialism. That system\u2014violent,
exploitative, hegemonic\u2014has always been guided by clear interests:
control of markets, waterways, and geopolitical space. It is ruthless
but rational.</p>
<p>Trump\u2019s conduct is different. It is erratic, self-destructive, and
increasingly detached from even the most basic logic of power.</p>
<p>This is not containment either. Containment requires alliances,
long-term planning, and a calculated pursuit of stability. What we are
witnessing instead\u2014from Iran to Europe to Latin America\u2014is the
dismantling of alliances and the erosion of stability itself.</p>
<p>Even capitalism, in its most aggressive form, depends on
predictability. It uses war and intervention as instruments\u2014but always
toward expansion, profit, and control. Trump\u2019s 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.</p>
<p>This is not a strategy. It is a disruption without purpose.</p>
<p>The temptation to search for hidden motives\u2014whether personal scandals
or political distractions\u2014misses 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.</p>
<p>What is different now is the level of risk.</p>
<p>Former CIA Director John Brennan said it plainly: \u201cThis person is
clearly unhinged.\u201d Brennan\u2019s warning was not casual rhetoric. He went
further, invoking the 25th Amendment and stating that Trump\u2019s behavior
\u201cmerited his removal from the Oval Office.\u201d He rejected the central
justification for escalation with Iran, saying unequivocally: \u201cIran
didn\u2019t pose an imminent threat,\u201d and that it \u201cdid not have a nuclear
weapon.\u201d</p>
<p>Most alarming was his emphasis on presidential power.</p>
<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d Brennan said.</p>
<p>These are not ordinary political criticisms. They come from a figure
deeply embedded in the US intelligence system\u2014a system that rarely
speaks in such direct terms.</p>
<p>A day later, Trump escalated again\u2014this time targeting Pope Leo XIV.</p>
<p>In a lengthy statement, Trump described the Pope as \u201cweak on crime\u201d
and \u201cterrible for foreign policy,\u201d accusing him of aligning with the
\u201cradical left\u201d and even suggesting that his papacy was politically
engineered in response to Trump himself. He declared, \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t in
the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican.\u201d</p>
<p>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\u2014he is a
global moral authority with political weight across continents.</p>
<p>To openly attack him in such terms is to provoke a cultural and political rupture that extends far beyond domestic politics.</p>
<p>When placed alongside Trump\u2019s 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.</p>
<p>It echoes, in its most extreme form, Samuel Huntington\u2019s \u2018Clash of
Civilizations\u2019\u2014but without the analytical framework. What remains is a
chaotic attempt to confront multiple worlds simultaneously.</p>
<p>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\u2014an inversion of the very traditions it
claims to defend.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, meaningful political resistance within the United States is largely absent.</p>
<p>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\u2014it is politically costly.</p>
<p>The Democratic establishment, for its part, has failed to mount a
coherent challenge. While it criticizes Trump\u2019s conduct and rhetoric, it
does not fundamentally oppose the broader trajectory of escalation. On
key issues\u2014particularly Iran\u2014the disagreement is often tactical rather
than principled. The result is a form of opposition that registers
disapproval without exercising real constraint.</p>
<p>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\u2014oversight, legislative pressure, even constitutional
provisions\u2014remain largely dormant.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This paralysis is precisely what Brennan warned about when he
described continued political support for Trump as \u201cvery concerning.\u201d</p>
<p>The result is a president exercising immense military power with diminishing institutional resistance.</p>
<p>Beyond Washington, the consequences are already visible.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are
leveraging this moment, pushing forward amid the chaos. For them,
Trump\u2019s unpredictability is not a liability\u2014it is an opportunity.</p>
<p>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\u2014Israeli, American, or otherwise.</p>
<p>For now, however, the trajectory is clear. Trump and Netanyahu are
driving a cycle of escalation that risks expanding beyond control.</p>
<p>The question is no longer analytical. It is political\u2014and urgent. Is there enough democracy in the United States to stop this?</p>
<p>Is there enough institutional courage?</p>
<p>Is there enough collective sanity?</p>
<p>Who will stop Donald Trump?</p>
<div>
<p><br></p>
<p><span><i><span>\u2013 Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the
Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of eight books. His
latest book, \u2018</span></i><a href="https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4779-before-the-flood?srsltid=AfmBOorgPOepR8fLBeCXLViw_awRDNTNNerbwDJ4V2X5Jza-ajlZ6_bm"><i><span>Before the Flood</span></i></a><i><span>,\u2019
was published by Seven Stories Press. His other books include \u2018Our
Vision for Liberation\u2019, \u2018My Father was a Freedom Fighter\u2019 and \u2018The Last
Earth\u2019. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center
for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is </span></i><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><i><span>www.ramzybaroud.net</span></i></a></span></p></div>
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