Trump's military adventurism poses threat to global peace and order

A supporter of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a banner during a demonstration as they watch a session of the National Assembly on a big screen in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on January 5, 2026. [AFP]

Daniel Ellsberg’s ‘Madman theory’ postulates that a leader considered unpredictable by peers can gain an advantage in coercive bargaining by simply making his or her threats appear believable. 

Former US President Richard Nixon was in the vanguard putting this theory into practice. While not irrational, he acted in ways that made the Vietnamese and Russians believe he was ready to deploy nuclear weapons against them during the Cold War period. 

No one, however, has given this theory more meaning than US President Donald Trump. So much so that while hiding behind his affected erratic disposition, he recently engineered a forced regime change in Venezuela, ostensibly to save Venezuelans from the excesses of President Nicholas Maduro. Over time, Trump has acted and spoken in ways that suggest he could be mentally unhinged. From refusing to hand over power to President Joe Biden in 2020, calling climate change a hoax, pulling the US out of the World Health Organisation, disbanding USAID, starting trade wars with China, Mexico and Canada, threatening to annex Greenland and take over the Panama Canal as well demanding that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America, Trump exhibits signs of dementia. 

It was perhaps because of this reason that Psychotherapist Dr John Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn group, averred that Trump suffers from ‘dementia and is severely mentally ill’. Former US Vice President Kamala Harris was unequivocal that Trump is “unstable and mentally unhinged”. 

They are not alone. Last year, a group of 200 mental health professionals in America appended signatures to a letter warning that Trump is dangerous after exhibiting signs of “severe, untreatable personality disorder - malignant narcissism, which makes him unfit for leadership”. They warned that Trump was an existential threat to US democracy. 

Indeed, Trump is a threat to democracy not just in the US, but the world as a whole, and more so, to poor, developing countries endowed with natural resources but unfortunately groaning under bad and corrupt leadership. While Trump’s overt excuse for toppling Maduro was rampant corruption, terrorism and drug trafficking, it turns out his main interest was in Venezuela’s oil stocks that can fetch an estimated $17 trillion. Trump has unashamedly said this money will go to the US, and a little to the people of Venezuela. He is already micro-managing Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez through threats. 

The global community should not keep quiet under such provocation and military adventurism that takes us back to the era of obnoxious colonialism. Each sovereign country has the right to govern itself without interference by interlopers. As a matter of fact, the US is in dire need of redemption from Trump’s malevolence. 

South American countries must protest. The United Nations must act, and so should the European Union. After Venezuela, it is now apparent that the coerced signing of the Washington Accord between DRC and Rwanda in 2025 was not out of altruistic considerations. Trump merely wanted a climate conducive to US corporations to extract gold from the DRC without worrying about war. What will stop Trump from toppling the Nigerian government for its oil after recent bombings disguised as defence for Christians against Islamic attacks? And thereafter, what stops him from toppling the government in DRC to leisurely appropriate its minerals? Ditto South Africa over Boers? 

There is no paucity of terrorists, corrupt leaders and drug lords worse than Maduro worthy of US attention, but it pretends they do not exist. What happens if tomorrow Russia gets emboldened to abduct Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and China goes for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-Te? 

The US has no right to police the world and topple other governments. Trump can’t make America great again by threatening and antagonising everybody. While the US is resorting to brawn, China is increasingly becoming the real global powerhouse with its implementation of sound economic policies abroad, devoid of military interventions. Much of Africa boasts better roads and rails, including ports courtesy of China. This is what the world needs to see more, not live under the malevolence of a war monger.