By Vishwamithra –

“Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth” ~ Albert Camus

It is not rocket science; nor is it quantum physics. What’s happening before our very eyes is as stark and clear as arduously-cut crystal. One man who was elected as President, in his maddening rush to show his fellowmen and women that they have to bow down to his fake decrees, without condition, is trying to hold the whole world hostage. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America has turned the political landscape of America upside down. One day historians will critique Trump’s method of governance as ‘governance by impulse’. Completely devoid of strategic planning and approach, laser-focused on self-gratification, the machinery of governance in America has begun to expose not only Trump’s idiosyncratic character and its inherent inadequacies, but also has generated bizarre consequences whose effects would be felt and suffered by the millions all over America and the rest of the world in time to come.

The net effect of the sum of episodes that were in display before the global eyes which Donald Trump willfully engineered on the UN podium is disgrace and unequivocal shame. So engrossed and entrenched in his monumental ego and puny mind, Trump is implementing policies whose devastating consequences will be felt in all three time frames: short, medium and long. Resembling a comic performance of a court jester, Trump displayed to a world audience in the UN General Assembly 2025, a catalog of false attainments. He said that ‘everyone wants him to win the Nobel Peace Prize’. He declared that the ‘world is in ruins’. He further added that he had ended seven (7) wars in a time as short as six (6) months.

He is either incurably sick or irredeemably deceitful and sickeningly cynical. The so-called leader of the world should not say such transparent lies and falsehoods. With all due considerations granted to Adolf Hitler, he did not address the world with such blatant lies; nor did he have, at that time, an august assembly of world leaders before whom he could make such statements or speeches. Hitler assured those world leaders when he met them on one-to-one basis that he did not have any intentions to go to war with the world. He understood the gravity and would-be consequences of uttering brazen lies.  Trump does not seem to have that ‘polish’ of a mass murderer such as Adolf Hitler!

A critique of Donald Trump’s speech before the UN General Assembly is redundant at this moment of time. The military might and economic dominance of the US is far too heavy for any Second or Third World country to challenge. The burden of challenging the US must be left for China or India; the Western Europe and other Asian nations simply cannot dabble with unnecessary warfare with the US. One must realize that if you challenge a ‘King’, for you to be successful and still be alive, metaphorically speaking, you must kill the ‘King’; leaving the ‘King’ alive would ultimately end with your own demise for the ‘King’ is still the ‘King’. That is a fundamental human condition.

Yet, the if the world chooses to be deaf and dumb in the presence of a monumental bully, it must face the ultimate consequences. Freedom is not handed on a gold platter for you to consume and be satisfied. Freedom has to be won; it has to be taken. Those who wish that you be under the suppressive boots of a tyrant, have an unquenchable thirst for more power. Access to world resources and other sources of wealth should not be limited to the strong and mighty alone. Humankind has not traveled such a long and arduous journey to drop dead at the foot of the sick and deranged.

The Roman empire did not vanish in just one or two years. It took more than a century for it to die; but the signs and other harbingers were manifestly present long before it eventually disappeared.  Those who ignored the signs and rude harbingers, would themselves pay the price of apathy and ignorance. What followed the fall of the Roman Empire, arguably in 476 A. D., was the ‘Dark Ages’. A slow decline in culture, learning and progress is not a phase of civilization mankind would wish to embrace.

Catapulting ourselves to the current times, the aftermath of the fall of the British Empire was not embedded with the decline in culture or dwindling of natural resources. India is the finest example. Thanks mainly to such historic and historical men like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and a so-called ‘Dalit’ (untouchable) Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, India stepped out into the international arena with pride and utter grit. Today the world trembles when a scholarly Indian speaks before a global audience.

Human advancement did not apply any brakes, nor did it suffer under artificial pressure. True, India could still be called backward, in terms of ritualistic lifestyles, in some remote regions and also being, every now and then, subjected to caste and racial disturbances. Yet she has not given up on her own sons and daughters who continue to bewilder the world with extraordinary talents and skills which are second to none of those products of the Western Civilization. The world no more belongs exclusively to the products and by-products of the teachings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. A deep commitment to the pristine teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha and the ancient Vedas has engineered, shaped and produced magnificent men and women who could challenge and prevail over the mightiest and  equally credentialed Western civilization products.

All that proves only one thing and one thing only: humanity does not recognize race, ethnicity, color or religion. Men are all equal wherever they are born. It is in this marvelous context an American President comes before the world audience and utters undiluted rubbish as he did on Tuesday, September 23, 2025. The polarizing effect of the speech, its superficial substance, delivered in the most uninspiring fashion and the arrogance with which each sentence was articulated have combined to produce a dispiriting aura of the most economically advanced and militarily unmatched America.

Ordinary American men and women are a marvelous people. Their natural propensity for philanthropic deeds are not second to any in the rest of the world. Yet, in the last Presidential Elections, a majority of them voted into power a political simpleton whose only ambition and vision did not go beyond his own small mind and huge ego. What is even more unfortunate is that Republicans in Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, have willfully become captives of the Trump syndrome. Based on nuanced aspects of ‘White Supremacy’ and insanely anti-immigration’, Trump has provided a refuge for those who are still dreaming of an America that existed about a century ago.

He has subtly built a personality cult around himself; its similarity to other dictators’ lives such as those of Stalin, Hitler and Mao is uncanny to say the least. When a Cabinet Meeting is held, the praise and verbal worshiping that cascades from the members is embarrassing; and even nauseating sometimes. A small mind and huge ego are being fed with meaningless and awkward phrases and bordering on total falsehoods and lies.

Trump’s tariff policy is in tatters. Every morning many an investor and many an ordinary person wakes up to a new landscape of the economy. Uncertainty rules the world that Trump presides over.  Sri Lanka has been hit with 40% while some other powerful nations have been at the end of lesser limits.  The callousness with which he treats his friends and foes is palpably rude and crude. Yet  American Congress does not seem to care. His policies of retributions, his pursuit of his so-called ‘enemies’ does not seem to wind down in a hurry. Each morning he wakes up and opens his eyes, he finds a new enemy; his vision is alarmingly narrow but ability to pursue his ambition, stupidly gross.

What can the average American do. Those who hero-worship Trump need not answer that question. But those who are yet eager to see a change, a fresher set of political rules and more amenable way of governance with freedom to think, freedom to move and freedom to express must strap one’s proverbial boots. No country, big or small, should deviate from such arguably a noble venture. The danger Trump’s rule poses to the world cannot be foreclosed.

Attacks on the free media, attacks on the higher educational institutions, attacks on his political opponents, attacks on the Judiciary and the basic rule of law would not come to end because Trump has seen the futility of such attacks. On the contrary, he sees the massive political advantages he could gain by building an everlasting bubble around himself; by engaging in that mode of governance, one day he could pass the baton on to his own kith and kin. Nepotism is not limited to the second and third world countries. Trump is proving that this self-destroying human weakness, nepotism, would  be an easy tool in the hands of the American President too. Wherever we live, America, Asia, Europe or Africa, history will not forgive us if we do not do anything meaningful now