Trump's Diplomacy of Threat

Roses and Rage in 2025

Donald Trump's rage attack on the people of Colombia is a shocking example of the United States 2025. It's not the fact that Trump ignored the numerous protocols under international law and diplomacy that would have made the deportations of Colombian migrants possible; it was the vicious nature of Washington’s response that such protocols must be followed. Enraged, he suspended visas and then announced across-the-board tariffs of 25%, rising to 50% within a week.

Normally, trade threats are made after consultations over potential impacts – positive or negative. Trump's tantrum, however, has now targeted the immense Colombian trade ($3665 million) in roses – just two weeks before Valentine's Day. Way to go, Donnie.

In analyzing Trump's intervention, it is important to understand that we are not going back to the darker age of gunboat "diplomacy." This is more erratic and thuggish. This isn't anything like Admiral Perry, who threatened to blow up the Japanese harbour unless they opened the border. This is like Al Capone in his syphilis phase. Welcome to gangster America.

There is a real possibility that those who should know better will go along with Trump. Some might be relieved that he has turned his rage on the people of Colombia rather than, say, Alberta, Ontario, or Canada. When Trump was elected, Premiers Danielle Smith and Doug Ford jumped forward to say that we should kick Mexico out of the North American free trade deal. It was all about currying favour.

I have many problems with how corporations used Mexico, with its lower wages and environmental standards, as an excuse to massively offshore jobs. But anyone who thinks we can kick one country to the curb to win the favour of a bully will be in for a rough awakening.

Trump's erratic behaviour plays to the rage base. The brilliant Irish writer Fintan O'Toole introduced me to a powerful concept of "political disinhibition" (New York Review, Dec 4, 2024). Disinhibition is a psychological condition where people act out in inappropriate and socially transgressive manners.

In politics and everyday life, we see more and more people embracing the politics of assholism – believing that insulting, hateful and deeply transgressive statements are a sign of their freedom. They vote for Trump because he is the ultimate troll and disrupter. But here's the thing: Rage politics might love chaos, but capitalism doesn't.

You can't run a global economy with a president sticking a spoke in the wheel every time he gets pissed off. At a certain point, the consequences of economic uncertainty and disruption begin to play out in real-time. And that's when politicians run for cover—even Donald.

But there's another element that gives me greater hope. Ordinary people are being compelled to step off the sidelines. In the age of "political disinhibition," we are being forced to take stands. Do we stand idly by when someone racially insults someone else? Can we support the politics of appeasement when the very future of our nation has been put on the table?

It's like the old labour anthem – which side are you on?

Personally, I am on the side of the people of Colombia. I am inspired by President Gustavo Petro's heroism in responding to Trump.

"You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with White slavers. I shake hands with the Black and White farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany."

I also cried at those graves at Ravenna, Cassino and Sicily. I have cried at graves across the fields of Normandy. I was moved that the President of Colombia paid tribute to our people who gave their lives for the freedom of others. President Petro, who has been tortured and faced severe oppression, knows what it means to stand up for freedom. He also knows how to stand up to gangster politicians.

As for Donald? Sooner or later, he's going to have to smell the roses.

Charlie Angus smelling the roses at Casa Museo Quinta de Bolivar (Bogotá, Colombia)

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