As Trump continues his drive to consolidate power domestically, it is worth remembering that authoritarian leaders typically attack other countries as part of their quest for domination.
Hitler did that, unleashing World War II in the process. Putin has been doing it more gradually for decades now.
In Trump’s case, he is already waging what is almost certainly an illegal war against Venezuela and the drug cartels allegedly headquartered there. His pretext is the drug overdose crisis in the U.S., which is a real problem that needs thoughtful attention by government officials.
I’m not sure that blowing up the unknown occupants of small boats off of South America’s coastlines fits the description of thoughtful attention, but again, this is just the pretext for Trump’s expansionist dreams.
(Remember his comments about Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.)
Now he is threatening what sounds like a modern-day Crusades against Nigerian Islamists who have allegedly killed a few Christians.
I’ve got news for the president. People of different religions, races and nationalities kill each other all over the world every day. It is appalling, but why does Trump get to choose one isolated situation above all others to threaten using the U.S. military?
There’s no mistaking what Trump is doing as he cherry picks targets around the globe. Like Putin and Hitler, he is not satisfied with merely achieving domestic control.
He is eyeing other parts of the globe where he can dominate as well and he has most of his term in office left to settle on targets.
HEADLINES:
Nigeria rejects US military threat over alleged Christian killings (Politico)
Trump tells military to prepare for ‘action’ against Islamist militants in Nigeria (BBC)
Nigeria says U.S. help against Islamist insurgents must respect its sovereignty (Reuters)
Treasury Secretary Bessent says SNAP food benefits could restart by Wednesday (CNBC)
Tariffs are Trump’s favorite foreign policy tool. The Supreme Court could change how he uses them (AP)
Michigan lawyer says a Halloween terror plot that FBI Director Kash Patel described never existed (Seattle Times)
Tuesday’s elections may leave America more divided than ever. (CNN)
Voters divided on midterms despite broad Trump disapproval, poll finds (WP)
China to ease chip export ban in new trade deal, White House says (BBC)
US not planning nuclear explosions at this time, energy secretary says (Reuters)
An Intoxicating 500-Year-Old Mystery (Atlantic)
Large reasoning models almost certainly can think (Venture Beat)
AI researchers ’embodied’ an LLM into a robot – and it started channeling Robin Williams (TechCrunch)
Parents Ask Detained Nanny If She’s Still Free To Watch Kids Friday (Onion)
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