Peter Espeut | The gloves are off

I find Donald Trump to be disturbingly honest!

In days gone by, when the United States (US) wanted to depose a demagogue – or even a democratically elected leader – they would send in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to engineer regime change by overthrow or underthrow, all the while pretending to uphold democracy and the rule of law.

Those days are done! Now the US is prepared to send in the aircraft carriers, the bombers and the drones to get the job done in an open and transparent way. No more covert operations. The gloves are off.

In days gone by, when the US wanted to establish control – nay, hegemony – over the world economy, they would preach the rhetoric of free trade and democracy, while establishing a rules-based international economic order [like the General Agreement on Tariffs and trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO)] that favoured themselves, and disadvantaged smaller economies. The WTO forbade weaker economies from protecting their productive sector by levying tariffs on imports, while allowing the big powers to practice protectionism by being able to claim exceptions and exemptions.

Those days are done! Now the US openly imposes tariffs on almost all the countries of the world in flagrant breach (really abandonment) of WTO rules. The days of fake free trade are over. Tariffs are now tools of coercion to force countries to tow the US line. Now, the only global rule is “might makes right”. “Do what we say or we will impose punitive tariffs on you!” The gloves are off!

In days gone by, when the US wanted to gain influence with the global South they would cajole countries to support its foreign policy goals by offering foreign aid – essentially buying votes at the United Nations (UN) and other multilateral fora, and offering concessionary trade arrangements [like the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)]. They would send in the falsely named US Agency for International Development (USAID) – really creating dependence not development – to offload US surplus food, provide free contraceptives and abortifacients to reduce local populations (who might migrate to the US), and fund local infrastructure using US contractors, and procuring US goods.

ABOLISHED USAID

Those days are done! The Trump administration has abolished USAID, which many hawks considered to be a waste of resources. Now the US makes it clear: if you trade with our enemies, or accept aid from our competitors, we will punish you, with tariffs, travel advisories to kill your tourism industries, and take away the visa privileges of your politicians. Either you are with us or against us! The gloves are off!

In days gone by, the US positioned itself as the leader of the free world, creating a Western intergovernmental military alliance [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)] between 32 member states – 30 in Europe and two in North America – to act as a bulwark against the growling Russian bear. To attack one was to face the wrath of all!

Those days seem to be almost over. Trump mouths off that he wants to incorporate NATO-member Canada into the US, and that he intends to take over Greenland, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO member. In response, three months ago six fellow NATO countries (Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United Kingdom) supported their NATO Bredren against the US by sending military forces to Greenland. What a prekeh if the US decides to invade Greenland!

No! Kissinger was right! The US has no friends, but only interests. The gloves are off, even for their former allies from World War II days, and from the Cold War. It is the US against the world!

In his speech in Davos on January 20, 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney seemed to wish to break ranks with the global North. He declared:

“For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that, we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.

PARTIALLY FALSE

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

“This fiction was useful, and American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.

“So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality”.

In less than two years of his second term as US President. Donald Trump has all but demolished the 80-year-old global order (UN, NATO, WTO) set up by Washington in the aftermath of the Second World War, which frankly, was unfair to the Global South. I am not hearing the applause.

The world is now different than it was two years ago. I don’t know what will happen for the rest of Donald Trump’s term as US President. I do not know if there will be US mid-term elections in November, which look to be heading for a wipe-out of the Republicans by the Democrats. I do not know when Trump’s second term will end, or whether he will get a third term.

I don’t know what Putin will do post-Ukraine, and I don’t know what Israel will do post-Iran and post-Gaza, and what China will do in response to the Trump corollary to the Munroe Doctrine.

And I don’t know if/when his presidency is over whether the world will return to the pre-Trump hegemonic arrangements.

Uncertainty seems to be our lot for the near future. But it is the uncertainty of a pregnancy.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com