by Yorgos Mitralias
The Trump-Mamdani meeting at the White House was not only “strange” and “surprising” given everything that had preceded it. Above all, it was highly instructive for the future of both protagonists. And the first lesson is that Mamdani clearly emerged stronger! Why? Because Trump’s effusive displays of friendship towards him have caused confusion among Trump’s New York leaders and supporters, who no longer know what to think of Mamdani. This will help delay the implementation of Trump’s threats, at least until Mamdani takes office next January, and probably for the following four to five months. And of course, it is no coincidence that Trump was quick to declare that, following his exchange with Mamdani, he does not intend to send ICE and his other militias to New York unless… Mamdani asks him to! In short, Mamdani is gaining precious time to establish himself and organize his defense and, above all, his popular mass movement…
Obviously, Mamdani’s success owes much not to his undeniable personal “charm,” as our good media claim, but rather to his firmness and determination, which impress and destabilize Trump, as well as to his meticulous preparation for the meeting. However, all this is secondary compared to the state of inferiority in which Trump found himself at the time of his meeting with Mamdani. First of all, he was facing someone who had just triumphed by translating the word “affordability” into a program of action, which a needy Trump hastily adopted, even ordering his ministers to do the same. And he is in need because he is accumulating disappointments, the most significant of which concerns his economic achievements: according to an opinion poll by the very Trumpian FOX television channel published on the day of the Trump-Mamdani meeting, 76% of American citizens disapprove of his economic policy!
But Trump’s misfortunes are not limited to these catastrophic polls. His Republican Party has been in turmoil since a 27-year-old neo-Nazi, anti-Semite, homophobe, misogynist, Holocaust denier, and supremacist named Nick Fuentes was interviewed on YouTube by Tucker Carlson, the star of far-right channels and regular interviewer of Trump and Putin. The fact that Carlson offered a platform to such an individual, who was already taking the place of the late Charlie Kirk in the hearts of young Republicans, caused a real storm in Trumpist circles. First, by defending Carlson’s choice, the president of the venerable Heritage Foundation, the bastion of the most reactionary American and international conservatism, provoked an outcry and the resignation of several of its leaders, while a majority of the billionaires who finance the Foundation announced that they were withdrawing their support!
But that wasn’t all. Trump himself not only defended his friend Carlson but also declared himself in agreement with some of Fuentes’s theories, without specifying which ones. This was too much, especially as Israel and its American lobby were calling for the heads of those responsible, sensing the rise of neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic influence within the ranks of a MAGA movement now in crisis and divided, while Nick Fuentes, a great admirer of Hitler but also of Stalin and, incidentally, Putin, saw his hold over President Trump’s party skyrocket…
Faced with this series of failures and misfortunes, Trump attempted to restore his image by once again presenting himself as a peacemaker (1). First in Gaza, then in Ukraine. But despite the triumphalist media hype, the results are, to say the least, mediocre for him and tragic for the peoples concerned. In Gaza, Trump’s much-celebrated ceasefire was dead on arrival. To put it bluntly, from day one, it was nothing more than a macabre joke, the apotheosis of the murderous cynicism of the Trump-Netanyahu duo. Thus, while the media and our leaders continue to praise the “broadly respected ceasefire” in Gaza, the Israeli army kills 30, 35, or 40 Palestinian civilians every day, amid general indifference. As if killing 30 or 35 Palestinians in Gaza every day is something “normal,” in the natural order of things, which has nothing to do with the ceasefire and its famous… “respect.” Moreover, this much-celebrated murderous ceasefire only applies to Gaza, leaving Israel, its army, and its gangs of settlers free to act, kill, ransack, burn, demolish, uproot (tens of thousands of olive trees), and terrorize in the occupied West Bank. As well as in southern Lebanon, Beirut, and Syria!
So, buoyed by his success in Gaza, Trump wanted to complete his (divine?) mission of pacification by offering his services to Ukraine. Except that, according to his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his peace plan was drafted by Putin’s right-hand man. This caused a sensation even within his own party in the United States. But it’s not “details” like these that can deter Trump. “Things happen,” as he said of the murder, dismemberment, and dissolution in acid of poor Saudi journalist Khashoggi, in the presence of his executioner MBS in the White House.
And what about the European left in all this? What does it think and, above all, what is it doing at this critical moment for the present and future of humanity? Unfortunately, not much. When, of course, it is not doing the opposite of what it should be doing. Take, for example, Sarah Wagenknecht‘s party in Germany, which aspired to become the flagship of this international left that openly flirts with Putin, supports his “denazification” of Ukraine, and finds “anti-imperialists” such as Assad and Orban perfectly acceptable. Unfortunately for this party named after its founder and undisputed leader, Sarah Wagenknecht has just announced her departure from its leadership after a series of disastrous election results. But the worst thing is the current—and very instructive—outcome of these repeated failures: a faction of the BSW and Sarah Wagenknecht herself are now declaring their intention to do something that even the most right-wing bourgeois parties such as the CDU and CSU refuse to do: to ally themselves with the neo-Nazis of the AfD, with the ambition of co-governing the Länder in eastern Germany where the two parties could have a majority of local deputies! This is the sad and pitiful outcome of a journey that began on the extreme left and seems to be ending on the extreme right. Those who are following similar paths should reflect on this and take it into account…
Note
1. See also Trump the “peacemaker” like Hitler the “chancellor of peace”! : https://oaklandsocialist.com/2025/02/18/trump-the-peacemaker-like-hitler-the-chancellor-of-peace/