Although Donald Trump has never been modest about his abilities or reluctant to exercise personal power, during his second term in office he has shown clear signs ofmegalomania.
One sign, of course, is his blatant demand for the territory of other nations. Since January 2025 alone,he has suggested annexing or seizing controlof Greenland, Canada, Mexico, the Panama Canal, Gaza, Venezuela, and Cuba. In addition,he has proclaimedthe “Donroe Doctrine,” declaring that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
Although the NATO alliance, a collective security pact, has been the cornerstone of U.S. defense policy for the past 77 years, Trump has become a bitter critic of NATO to such a degree that its other members, aghast at this turn of events, havebegun exploring the reshaping of the Western alliancewithout the participation of the United States.
Other actions, too, have underscored Trump’s decision to “go it alone” in world affairs. Like the foremost military conquerors of the past, Trump has been busy building up his nation’s armed forces and their weaponry. The United States is alreadythe world’s biggest military spender, with about three times the military spending of the number two nation (China). Nevertheless, this AprilTrump proposedadoption of a record $1.5 trillion U.S. military budget, with the largest annual increase ever in Pentagon funding: 42 percent. This dramatic increase does not include an expected supplemental budget for the Iran war, which could cost an additional $200 billion.
Trump’s 2027 fiscal year military budget calls for$98 billion in nuclear weapons spending, most of it to build a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons. Having unilaterally withdrawn the United States from previous nuclear arms control and disarmament treaties with Russia and recently let the last of them lapse, he now has fewer treaty constraints on his nuclear ambitions. Accordingly,he recently announcedthat he has given orders for the resumption of U.S. nuclear testing, which has not been conducted since 1992. Furthermore, like past U.S. presidents, Trump has assumed the power to launch a nuclear war totally on his own. And he has publicly and repeatedlythreatened to do so.
Although the U.S. Constitution gives Congress – and not the President – the authority to declare war, Trump has shown no hesitation at sending U.S. armed forces into combat. In a little more than a year, without so much as consulting Congress, he ordered theobliteration bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, thedestruction of dozens of suspect boats and their crews, thebombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, anaval blockade of Cuba, and – jointly with Israel – a devasting war upon Iran. The latter, which has alreadykilled thousands and wounded tens of thousandsof people,displaced 3.2 million Iranians, and thrown the global economy into turmoil, iswidely unpopularand continues today. Queried in January 2026 about such international actions,Trump brushed aside international lawand said that he relied solely on his own opinion, which was “the only thing that can stop me.”
Not surprisingly, Trump has no use for the United Nations and most other international organizations, and has worked zealously to cripple them. Since his second term began, he hashad the U.S. government withdrawfrom such key UN agencies as the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Relief and Works Agency, and UNESCO. In addition, theTrump administration has imposed severe sanctionson the International Criminal Court and its top officials.
U.S. funding cuts for the United Nations have been severe. In July 2025, the Trump administration pushedrescissions legislationthrough the Republican-controlled Congress that pulled back $1 billion in funding previously allocated to the world organization, with devastating effects on a broad variety of programs, including UNICEF, the UN Environment Program, and the UN Fund for Victims of Torture. Furthermore, the administrationrefused to make its mandated dues paymentsto the United Nations, running up a debt to it – by far the world’s largest – of nearly $4 billion. As a result, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in February 2026 that the world body faced “imminent financial collapse.”
On September 23, 2025, Trump’s hostility toward the United Nationsspilled overinto whatLe Mondecalled “a blistering speech” during his first UN General Assembly appearance since his re-election. In what the French newspaper termed a “full-frontal attack on the global organization,” Trump condemned it for “empty words,” failing to assist him in the seven wars that he claimed to have ended, and for “funding an assault” by refugees on Western nations. He also depicted climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
Although it’s tempting to regard this behavior as reflecting an overheated nationalism, the remarkable degree to which Trump regards himself as the savior of the world suggests a more personal lust for supreme power.
Source: Antiwar.com
