Facts For Working People: Trump 2.O.  A Roller Coaster Ride From the Man With No Philosophy. #Trump @realDonaldTrump 
“Trump’s approach is bad for America’s friends, the only hope I have is it’s even worse for our enemies.” John Bolton, Former US Ambassador to the UN
An interesting interview with John Bolton, Trump’s one-time National Security Advisor.
Trump’s recent proclamations about the possibility of taking Greenland by force, annexing Canada, taking back the Panama Canal, should not be taken literally as I have argued with some of my friends and colleagues, some of them fearing the end of the world is nigh. But it's important as workers to recognize that only one in four US Americans voted for Trump (in the world’s greatest democracy apparently) and some 90 million people opted out of the electoral process completely. Trump does not have a mandate electorally.
Trump is a buffoon, an accident of history. His election, and popularity among some, is a product of the political crisis of US capitalism reflected in the decline of the two capitalist parties that have dominated US political and economic life for over a century. This has been a long time coming.
This is not to say we are not in dangerous times and Bolton makes that very clear arguing that Trump is harmful to the US and its allies. With regards to Greenland, which is a Danish autonomous territory, his comments place the (democratically elected) government of Denmark in a very difficult position, and the same with Panama. Both these states are close allies of the US.
Trump’s threats of using force to strengthen National Security, are also very harmful Bolton says, as it undermines the US position on Ukraine and also, China can easily claim the same with regards to Taiwan. I think Bolton is correct as well when he says that there are some sections of the US bourgeois that actually believe the US can win a nuclear, war.
It’s not simply with regard to its global competitors that a significant section of the US ruling class is overconfident. There is almost no attention paid to the role of the US working class in the coming period either. Why should there be? There has not been a serious national intervention in affairs since the Civil Rights movement and the CIO before it. There have been so many opportunities within organized labor to open up a real front against capital, but all have been derailed by a powerful combination of the bosses and our own leadership.
Rumblings within organized labor or in combination with forces outside of it like the WTO protests in Seattle are coopted with the conscious intervention of the labor hierarchy as an agent of the Democratic Party. In addition, the movements in the streets are violently suppressed like the WTO protests that followed, as well as the movements against police violence and the near civil war led by indigenous people against the pipelines. Identity politics and the absence of a class approach plays a huge role.
Trump’s in brain out mouth approach is part of his efforts to distract from the real issues at hand as he’s incapable of analysis or critical thinking. He is not worldly. “I’m not sure Trump could pronounce the word imperialist” Bolton says, he has, “no philosophy, no grand strategy”. That's not a good situation at all.

On a final note. I think it is not out of the question that the US/Greenland link could become much more intertwined. With climate change and warmer temperatures, the likelihood of greater access to the raw materials that lie beneath the ice once the land is exposed, is in the sights of US capital. Competition with Russia, and Norway for the Arctic exploration is another issue. And I don’t think It can be ruled out that the Greenland Independence movement, when forced to choose between its colonial past with Denmark or the US could opt with the latter. The EU is pretty much in thrall to US imperialism.
Trump has no plan. And I think the commentator, Robert Wright who   I quoted in an earlier post pointed that out exactly:
“The problem is: 1) when a president says stuff this crazy, it's genuine news and merits coverage but 2) for Trump, almost all coverage is positive reinforcement--behavior that gets headlines is behavior he repeats. This dynamic will cause much turbulence over the next 4 years.”

Bolton says as much. We’re in for a roller coaster ride indeed. And the only force that can set it straight is the intervention of the working class in the US and globally.
I am always wary of quoting revolutionary figures given the myriad of grouplets and individuals that claim to be the “genuine Marxists” as myself and the organization I was expelled from did. But Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary leader wrote some 75 years ago that the crisis of the working class was one of leadership and that’s as applicable today as it was when he wrote it.
#Trump