Trump has disorganised post-WWII order and turned allies into enemies

Israeli army tanks deploy at a position in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on March 15, 2026. [AFP]

There was a time in world politics when leaders took the words ‘allies” or “enemies” seriously. This is no longer the case given the fear and confusion among leaders in big countries. For roughly 80 years, people in the Conceptual West generally believed that the United States was a rich and powerful ally ready to defend the West against ideological challenges arising from ‘Communists’ in Moscow and Peking/Beijing.

To them, while Moscow and Beijing were ‘Godless’ enemies, Washington was the virtuous universal defender of freedom and the capitalistic way of life. They downplayed inherent racism that had dominated pre-World War II domestic and international politics. They attracted many people into their midst who were not white, mostly former colonial subjects. They had dismissed colonial subjects as being naturally stupid and sub-humans to be seen performing menial tasks but not to be heard or to lead anyone or anywhere.

That seeming success in propaganda warfare, called the Cold War, generated its own contradiction. Two types of migrants penetrated the systems so well that they or their second and third generation descendants ended up taking serious policy positions. First were migrants from Europe who, in the United States, marveled the Americans with their policy brilliance; they included such European migrants as Henry Kissinger, Hannah Arendt, and Madeline Albright. Americans also adopted and applied Rudyard Kipling’s white man’s burden mentality at the global level. In taking up what Niall Ferguson termed “global burden, just as Kipling urged.”

The United States, Ferguson wrote, “… considers itself responsible not just for waging a war … but also for spreading the benefits of capitalism and democracy overseas… the American Empire unfailingly acts in the name of liberty.” Second, besides the welcomed European migrants, former imperial subjects appeared to penetrate and identify with imperial headquarters in Europe and North America so much that, except for their skin colours, they were indistinguishable from other imperial operators because they had become properly assimilated into the imperial societies. It therefore became ‘normal’ to see real Indians and Africans in Britain and North America serving as legislators, top bureaucrats, ministers, cabinet secretaries, prime ministers, and even presidents in governments.

Below that belief in the wisdom of spreading Western universalism and ending ‘history’ for the Soviet enemy, however, was fear that perceived white ‘gardens’ were threatened by migrants from geopolitical ‘jungles’ comprising former Euro-colonies. The perceived waning of visible white dominance on the world stage seemed to reignite pre-World War II global racism. It reasserted itself through the New Right movement which stressed a curb on the migration of non-whites into Europe and North America; it wished to prevent ultimate demographic ‘replacement’. This fear of replacement accounted for the rise of Donald Trump as president of the United States and his determination to overhaul everything that was not inherently white.

Trump was angry that post-World War II liberal internationalism had enabled Barack Hussein Obama to become US president and he successfully mobilised and exploited aspects of white racism. While Trump is a second generation white German migrant, Obama is second generation black Kenyan migrant. Obama, the African had exploited American liberalism to capture the US presidency, Trump, the German, exploited the New Right white sentiments of resentment to become president and essentially make the White House white again. This meant rejecting and overthrowing post-World War II world order and everything that Obama, and his vice-president Joe Biden, represented.

In his anti-Obama/Biden drive, Trump forcefully asserted himself, claimed Canada and Greenland, insulted allies, and beat up on Iran. When Iran responded by turning the Middle East into a fireball, scared/confused Euro leaders blamed Iran and still rethought what security meant. While maintaining anti-Russian attitude, the Euros economically diversified by going to China, and by preparing defence against likely US annexationist proclivities. Trump succeeded in disorganising post-World War II order and turning allies into possible enemies.