On March 30, Secretary of State Marco Rubio participated in an interview with news network Al Jazeera in which he said, “I mean, imagine an Iranian regime who, instead of spending billions of dollars supporting terrorist groups and building up all of these weapons, had invested that money into Iran, for the people of Iran, so they wouldn’t have water shortages, so their economies would provide opportunities for an incredible people.”
Two days later, during a private White House event, President Donald Trump said, “We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We’re fighting wars. It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things.”
Therein lies the hypocrisy that has dominated Trump’s second term. The war machine must be well-oiled, while the American people are left to fend for themselves in a broken system that subscribes to the Ebenezer Scrooge school of thought. The State refuses to help the people, and if they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
Last Friday, Trump released his annual budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year. Trump proposed increasing defense spending to $1.5 trillion, a nearly 50% increase. With that comes the reduction in spending on non-defense programs. Russell Vought, leading architect of Project 2025 and Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, said, “President Trump promised to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure, to make sure our nation is safe in a dangerous world.”
The programs slated for cuts to help offset the defense budget are typical of a nation that puts its military might above the well-being of its people. One proposal is to eliminate LIHEAP, which helps roughly 6 million families with energy bills. NOAA, which monitors natural disasters, is slated for cuts, along with FEMA grants. The Trump administration wants to cut $2 billion from humanitarian assistance funding and $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health.
The request for a colossal increase in defense spending comes at an odd time, since Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has decimated the Iranian military and the war is essentially over. On April 1, Trump said of Iran, “They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.” Less than 48 hours later, the Iranian military shot down two U.S. aircraft. While a pilot of one of the downed aircraft was missing and being searched for, Trump was posting war crimes on social media, “KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?”
The New York Times is doing its part in trying to spin these acts of self-defense by Iran as acts of aggression, writing in a recent article, “Augmenting people’s anxiety are the escalations from Iran’s leadership.” If the U.S. fighter jets weren’t in Iranian airspace, they would not be in danger of “escalation.” The New York Times lit the Bat Signal and pointed it to the sky, and when Captain Obvious showed up, they ignored him.
But here’s the rub: this dangerous world we live in isn’t made any safer by the U.S. To the contrary, the U.S. is one of the leading players in global terrorism. While our own infrastructure continues to crumble into disrepair (Pittsburgh once famously built a bridge underneath the Greenfield Bridge to catch falling debris), the U.S. spends heavily on the destruction of infrastructure in the Middle East. While the U.S. sends billions of dollars worth of gift cards to Israel so its military can continue to terrorize the Middle East, the total U.S. credit card debt hit a record high of $1.28 trillion.
The initial purpose of Operation Epic Fury, as framed by Donald Trump, was to “liberate” the Iranian people. Thousands of Iranians were reportedly killed by their government, and Trump wanted the Iranian people to “seize control of your destiny” by taking over the government. In less than six weeks, Trump went from “liberating” the Iranian people to saying, “We’re going to hit [Iran] extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Age where they belong.” By saying the Iranian people “belong” in the Stone Age, Trump is targeting them as a people. This is genocidal intent, and this is what happens when the U.S. ruling class aids in the genocide of Palestinians without consequence.
On Easter Sunday, the rot that has long embedded itself into the New Republican Party bubbled to the surface again, with this social media post by the President: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
Prior to the U.S. military aggression in Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was open. However, since our leaders decided to start dropping bombs and killing innocent people, Iran retaliated by closing the Strait. Geopolitics can be confusing to many, none more so than the Trump administration, reminding us of the quote by Plato: “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
In 1992, then Vice President Dan Quayle, reading from an incorrect cue card, misspelled “potato.” This incident defined his political career, and much of the media at the time cited it as one of the most memorable missteps in politics. In 2026, President Donald Trump is dropping F-bombs on social media and threatening to destroy an entire sovereign nation to solve a problem of his own doing.
For those who haven’t read it, The Art of War by Sun Tzu has an entire chapter about screaming at your enemy to open a strategic trade route on your personal social media platform. It would seem Plato was right.
As with all op-eds and news analytical articles published by People’s World, the views expressed here are those of the author.
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