The American President Trump is now 80 years old.
This is a respectable age for the leader of a country.
Mahathir Mohamad resigned from his position as prime minister of Malaysia at 95 and will celebrate his 101st birthday in July 2026. God willing.
Trump, given the average age at which his predecessors passed away (during the last half century), could well reach not only his 90th birthday but also his 100th birthday.
However, he has only two and a half years left in the White House, his talk of a third term should not be taken seriously (not because of him, but due to the impossibility of lifting the two-term limit set in the American Constitution).
Trump leaves his mark
And while much can still be achieved even in this timeframe, it is already clear how Trump will leave his mark on American and world history.
He will remain in it as the great destroyer.
There are many creators and destroyers, but the truly great ones are few and rare.
Trump is one of them, and his destructiveness is neither a flaw, nor a virtue. it is a reality.
Trump is a completely atypical politician and US president.
Starting from the fact that he entered American politics at the age of 70 and immediately became president.
And then, after losing the next election, he was able to return to the White House, something that only one of his predecessors had managed in the past.
Destroying to rebuild
Trump is a contractor, but he is not just a builder.
A contractor must first buy, and demolish whatever was on a specific plot of land he has targeted and only then build what he wants.
Trump, the contractor, became famous for his seemingly adventurous projects. and his ability to stand on his feet again after failures, namely bankruptcies and failures.
Then, he also became a star of American television shows and a media star. and with this "superbrand" in place, Trump entered politics.
Real steamroller
Within a year, he dismantled the two-party system. first by subjugating the Republican Party and then by defeating the Democratic candidate.
This was his first major destruction, but far from the last.
Yes, he lost the White House, but Trump returned, having strengthened his influence in the Republican Party.
He miraculously survived an assassination attempt. and given the hatred he fosters among a large part of the American elite, it is surprising that he is still alive. During his first term, he tried to dismantle the elite-controlled American machinery of governance. this was called draining the "Washington swamp".
He did not succeed, but he destabilized it completely.
It seemed that he would use his second term to continue the "Great Purge" and restructure the elite, but instead, Trump focused on the international stage.
First, the tariff wars with the rest of the world and then the war with Iran. neither of the two brought him success.
Iran was a catastrophic blow to the US
Moreover, the Iranian adventure was a catastrophic blow to the global position of the United States.
By assassinating Khamenei and unleashing a war against Iran, Trump opened Pandora's box and caused colossal damage to America's influence in the world.
In other words, he destroyed America's reputation?
Yes, but, as in the case of the "Washington swamp", not completely and not irrevocably.
The destructiveness of Trump has two causes
The first stems from the fact that he wants to destroy things to build something new.
The second is much more objective: what he destroys is already dilapidated and rotten.
Moreover, what he destroys is the real cause of problems, crises, and disasters, and Trump, in this case, acts simply as an instrument of providence, as a "scourge of God".
Trump does not always understand what he is doing
Moreover, he himself does not always understand what he is doing: while his desire to disrupt the American political elite and the system was conscious and sincere, in the case of Iran, he did not seek to undermine America's position in the world. Instead, he believed (after the operation to capture Maduro) that he had caught the wave. and that a quick, victorious war would strengthen the influence of the United States and himself personally.
But everything turned out exactly the opposite. not so much because Trump ignored the realists in his circle, but because American claims to global hegemony have long ceased to clash with reality.
America has overextended itself — not physically (economically and militarily), but geopolitically: it is unable to deliver what it seeks because the world no longer listens to it.
Trump partly understood that his geopolitical ambitions are hot air and even spoke about them, but he found himself trapped in exactly this swamp — not even a Washington swamp, but a globalization swamp.
Trump wanted to crush Iran to build a new Middle East, but instead he destroyed the very foundations of American influence in the region.
Instead of the institutions of the Islamic Republic, Trump's bulldozer destroyed the last traces of trust and fear toward Americans in the region, especially among countries that were considered US allies.
And all this for what reason?
To build a new Middle East under American leadership? But this was unrealistic anyway, and after the war, the Americans will have to consider leaving the region completely.
Equally out of reality was the attempt during his first term to build the "Abraham Accords", reconciling Israel with the Arabs supposedly by resolving the Palestinian issue (a completely unsustainable option for creating a "patchwork Palestine"). But in his second term, Trump went even further, presenting a plan for the construction of a "new Riviera" in place of Gaza, which Israel is destroying.
The plan is as cynical as it is unfeasible.
Trump did not demolish Gaza (and up to 80% of homes and infrastructure there have been destroyed).
Netanyahu did it.
Neither the Arabs nor the Jews want him
Trump, essentially, extended the check given to him by Biden to do it.
So that he could then build a city in Gaza:
Trump is, after all, a great builder.
However, in the end, American attitudes toward Israel were destroyed: for the first time, in an American society steeped in pro-Israel sentiments, negative attitudes toward the actions of the Jewish state prevailed over positive ones.
Trump is better at destruction
It is not that Trump is by nature a destroyer.
He truly wants to create.
However, he is better at destruction not only because he is good at it, but also because everything is rotten.
Even in the East Wing of the White House, which he demolished to build a luxury palace in its place.
He will achieve exactly this — although only his successors will be able to use the new building.
And then they will have the opportunity to exploit the consequences of Trump's destruction — in the American alliance system, in Europe, in NATO, in the Middle East, in global trade, in American domestic politics.
The Great Destroyer and how America can truly become "great again"
The Great Destroyer will clear the ground as much as possible, and what will be built on it will depend on his heirs and successors.
Will they try to rebuild?
Futile and even dangerous, including for America itself.
Will they build something new, strategically thought out and at least responding to the interests of others, and ideally even aligned with them (if we are talking about the global stage)?
Then America can truly become "great again" and avoid division and collapse.
In other words, what Trump so desperately wants will become reality.
They say that "it is easier to destroy than to build". However, to destroy something that hinders the absolute majority but is controlled by a powerful minority also requires talent.
And Trump possesses it in abundance.
He has a vision of what needs to be demolished, and even a dream of what should be built in its place.
But he has only dealt with the preparatory stage — down to the foundations.
And after that... no one knows anything.
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