Donald Trump’s dreams are great, wet, almost aqueous, even excessive. One day he dreams of anchoring the asta with the American flag on the island of Greenland, the next with snatching the channel to Panama and a little later with taking over Gaza, cleaning it from the garbage that the war has left – and of two million Palestinians -, to build a resort on the edge of the Mediterranean. This is the Riviera del Middle East, an “incredible”, “international”, “magnificent” place in the 40 kilometers of Palestine coast. In Trump’s dreams geographical, historical, political, military, moral or social obstacles are the least. As good dreams, they are very personal. But you don’t need to be a Freud or Jung to interpret them. They are the product of a psyche without limits, capable of running over everything there is in between to make them come true.
Well seen, the problem is not those dreams, which at almost any other moment in history would be only dreams: unreal, some ambitious but attainable and other unrealizable. The problem is that Trump is escorted by a large group of facilitators with very varied interests that are there to please their whims and ravings without measuring costs or consequences.
Many of the ads and decrees of the last two weeks will have a deep and long -term impact in and outside the United States, without even considering the brutal blow they represent for democracy, the aspirations of freedom and the sovereignty of other peoples.
The case of the American agency for international development, USAID, is illustrative. In Colombia alone, USAID contributes 330 million dollars to help civil society, as reported by the country last week. The different OneGés who receive contributions from USAID have been essential to underpin the precarious Colombian peace and handle the colossal migratory flow, particularly Venezuelans, during the last decade. It is a death sentence issued against these organizations, whose operations depend on 70% of US financing.
But USAID action includes areas as different as the environment, human rights, education and anti -corruption struggle.
The criteria established by the United States Department of State to guarantee aid are almost laughible, for how obvious the answers are: “Do they make the United States safer? Do they make the United States stronger? Do the United States make more prosperous? In the case of Colombia, greater internal stability implies a better quality of life for Colombians and immigrants, which implies lower migratory pressure. For Trump, the problem of those who migrate north of the Rio Bravo is that they steal jobs and make their country more insecure – this is certainly false – why not help Colombia or any other country of migratory origin to having a Best Society?
The independent press is one of the civil society sectors that will suffer the most with the partial or total cessation of USAID’s contributions. I talked to two colleagues who direct high relevance media in Latin American countries with different but very challenging situations. For one of them, the suspension is the equivalent of torpedo launched against the flotation line of his ship, for the other it is critical but not lethal.
In any case, in dictatorships such as those of Nicaragua and Venezuela, independent journalism cannot be sustained with the sale of advertising or private contributions that are criminalized.
The waning contribution of international philanthropies and the OneGés, financed in turn by organs such as USAID, is the main source of income to operate and overcome censorship, one of these colleagues told me. Eliminating those support is “a boost for authoritarian regimes,” he said. This is: more life for dictators such as Maduro and Ortega, and bullshit autocrats such as Bukele, who not by chance, tweeted celebrating the news: “Although they present themselves as aid to development, democracy and human rights, most of these funds are They channel towards opposition groups, Oenegés with political programs, and destabilizing movements … Cutting this supposed help is not only beneficial for the United States, but also for the rest of the world. ”
He Affair USAID is striking because Trump’s spokesmen from Elon A Marco, have chosen the most searching examples to discredit Usaid’s action as if it were a public relations agency of ideology Woke. Usaid is, in fact, an important arm of Soft Power American, is responsible for promoting values associated with the United States.
According to surveys, the public sees it as part of the parasitic bureaucracy that it hates. In addition, it considers that foreign aid is a waste of taxpayers’ money. There may be a certain level of waste of resources and excesses of bureaucracy, but hence it does not have a strategic importance for the government there is a good stretch. As explained by a note of Political: “Most Americans have no idea what Usaid is, much less than what he does. In fact, much of the country erroneously believes that foreign aid constitutes up to 25% of the federal budget, according to Brookings Institution. It is actually closer to 1%. ” Therefore, it is both an easy target as a desired dam. Whoever controls Usaid could redirect their budget to promote Trump’s agenda around the world.
But no one calls for a deception: the attack on Usaid is only the first of the many onslaught that will come from Trump and his henchmen against the call Deep State. Trump is right that the bureaucracy of the Federal Government of the United States is a care rival. Those more than two million employees, many of them career professionals, who Elon wants to fade through their government efficiency department (Doge), are not a mere bureaucracy: they form the backbone of the institutional system and embody the values and practices of the US Republic, inside and outside it. One of these practices is that of transparency and accountability that have made a less corrupt country to the United States than others. And the central value to attack is the idea that no one is above the law. To concentrate and consolidate the supreme power that Trump seeks, it is necessary to end both.
Undo the state is undoubtedly the common dream of Trump, the Maga and Anarchocapitalist warriors such as Elon. But the State is an elephant that must be eaten by bits and they know it. For example, by threatening to close the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Agency for Disaster Management (FEMA), Trump takes another step in that direction.
The ultimate goal of this onslaught is to privatize the government, subcontracting its functions to its billing friends, who can allegedly do everything more efficiently and cheap. Because the State is not only a heavy elephant, but also a very fat piñata stuffed with gold candies. You have to give it sticks to be able to loot it at ease and impunity.
But to achieve this, institutions have to co -opt. Then they must control public opinion by eliminating true informative competition. Understand well: they need to silence the press. And they walk in that.
The decreases of tone and changes of editorial line around the government in media such as The Washington PostABC and CNN, are notorious in that regard. Nor is it accidental that Elon has already advanced part of the work confusing further the informative ecosystem with an avalanche of lies from x and discrediting incessant journalism. In fact, in a recent tweet he implied that The New York Times had “sold” for receiving funds from the government of Joe Biden. The political news site.com has been the victim of the same attack.
Almost a century ago, Edward Bernays, the father of modern propaganda and architect of the coup against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, wrote a lucid essay where he reflected on the relationship between democracy, society and propaganda. For Bernays, education and universal suffrage had transferred the power of the king and the aristocracy to the masses. That power had to be concentrated again to dominate society. Thus, minorities discovered that propaganda was the most effective way to influence and control the majorities. “It has been discovered that it is possible to mold the minds of the masses that these will dump their newly acquired force in the desired direction. In the current structure of society, this practice is inevitable. Anything of social importance that is done today, either in politics, finance, manufacturing, agriculture, charity, education or other fields, must be done with the help of propaganda. Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government. ” It is not to abuse the comparison to say that, at this time, Elon is the Goebbles of Trump, his propaganda chief.
We already know what the master plan is: it starts with immigrants, passes through USAID, continues with the press and reaches Gaza.
Meanwhile, in Trump’s opposition circles in Washington DC and the press itself insists on not panic. “You don’t believe him,” says Ezra Klein, the well -colored opinion columnist of The New York Times. Klein knows that Trump follows a recipe from Steve Bannon – his gray eminence – to stun the media and the Democratic establishment, and thus advance through large jumps the agenda to destroy the State. I understand that you don’t have to fight each of the battles that Trump poses. Some are simple smoke curtains. But Klein is wrong to say that you don’t have to believe him. Not believing is the same as giving him time for him to continue acting without resistance.
The resistance must start now. And that resistance must come from below, from civil society that organizes and uses the mechanisms still available to press in defense of their rights and a federal government that is for people and not the heritage of the Trump family and its accomplices.
For a long time, the United States was an empire contained by a constitutional republic. Both lived together and were overlapping, but were limited by effective democracy. Today these constitutional limits – the system of laws and the calls Checks and Balances– They are being erased and democracy could also get lost.
What more can it be done? While there is hope that Democrats will recover Congress in the mid -term elections of 2026 not everything will be lost, because control and transparency mechanisms could be restored. You have to work for that. But if Trump implanted his hegemony through full control of the institutional system, he would become a Cesar that was democratically chosen and perhaps even impose the new Trumpist order outside the United States. Thus, democracies also die.
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