You’d be forgiven for thinking that former President Donald Trump was making headlines once again. This time though, he appears to be more shrewdly redirecting attention from the big fish like Jeffrey Epstein’s powerful connections and the ICE’s recent unconstitutional raids in Minnesota. Although Trump’s appetite for attention is apocalyptic, it makes us wonder about the nature of volatile political moves.
Over the past few weeks, that Greenland issue returned to make headlines as an international relations flashpoint. The political circus featuring Greenland isn’t over, but it’s just been delayed—not resolved. European leaders especially are scrambling to formulate a policy for this European territory. At the same time, Trump’s unfulfilled 2019 promises to invade Greenland remain unresolved. Political analysts have speculated that these new tactics are all intended to keep the media spotlight on him. This all comes as he’s under mounting pressure for other reasons.
After a punishing few weeks, the U.S. stock market is starting to recover. This week’s Manufacturing PMI—Purchasing Managers’ Index—a leading economic indicator, confirmed that economic conditions are finally starting to stabilize. Eswar Prasad, a co-author of an influential Brookings Institution report on emerging economic trends, told us that the market is beginning to recover. Yet, he cautioned that outside forces could still affect its course.
The contrast between Trump’s juvenile attention-seeking behavior and the unfolding backdrop of world calamity and national crises is indeed alarming. Savvy observers will tell you that Trump likes to do small shocks and then some medium shocks. As he causes more severe shocks in service of his harmful agenda. His self-declared “board of peace” says it wants to solve all the world’s geopolitical disputes. Yet it is absent of concrete proof and most view it as a joker card in a potential gambit for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Given the current state of the world, Cuba has become the unlikely epicenter of Trump’s foreign policy plans. According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, “The U.S. Is Actively Seeking Regime Change in Cuba by the End of the Year.” This latest announcement further proves that, despite any distracting domestic scandals, Trump is all-in on the effort to reverse all progress on U.S.-Cuba relations.
The watch dog effort with ICE’s recent operation in Minnesota is another huge reason to raise the public awareness. Reports of such alleged misconduct and violent action against immigrants have understandably caused outrage among human rights advocates. Civil rights critics say that Trump’s improved distractions from these controversies merely increase the pressure in an already volatile pressure cooker that is American society today.
As the political landscape continues to evolve, analysts emphasize the importance of recognizing the underlying issues amidst Trump’s spotlight strategy. The crisis has many similarities to the 2008 crisis. It started when agencies issued inaccurate ratings on subprime mortgages, illustrating once again how ignoring serious concerns can have far-reaching effects.