The Mad King

Trump is at times brutally frank, brazenly dishonest, and endlessly self-contradictory—yet he still commands fierce support. Why?

Text by Guest-Contributor: John Snow.

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It is unprecedented to see a president of the United States, the most powerful nation on Earth, express himself the way Donald Trump does: at times brutally frank, at others lying brazenly for all to see, and regularly contradicting himself from one sentence to the next. The man seems to have completely lost his mind and has become either the laughingstock of the world, or the most feared person on Earth. And yet, the Israel-first camp on the one hand, and die-hard QAnon conspiracy theorists on the other, continue to support him. What are we to make of it?

A Molotov Cocktail in Global Governance

In November 2016, on the eve of Donald Trump’s election, filmmaker Michael Moore described the future president as a “human Molotov cocktail thrown into the American political system.”

Nearly ten years later, it is clear that this human Molotov cocktail has wreaked havoc on the international stage, right in the heart of the Middle Eastern powder keg. Since February 28, Trump’s words and actions have been like missiles and live grenades hurled not only at Iran, but, through a perfectly predictable chain reaction, at every Gulf state, all the way to Israel and Lebanon. And since the near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the entire world is now threatened by an economic crisis of staggering proportions.

The French lawyer and commentator Régis de Castelnau used an expression that is almost impossible to translate into English, yet perfectly fitting: “Non seulement Donald Trump dit n’importe quoi, mais il fait n’importe quoi.” Google Translate renders this as “Trump says whatever comes to his mind.” That is partly right, but not enough. The expression n’importe quoi conveys something both unpredictable and irrational.

Since the beginning of this war of aggression against Iran, President Trump has done nothing but shout victory from within his parallel world, a fantasy world in which he seems to retreat between brief visits to reality.

Trump’s statements are so contradictory and erratic, not just from one day to the next, but from one sentence to the next, as many online commentators have pointed out, that they raise legitimate questions about his mental health. How could a sane man display so little coherence in his speech without being crushed by shame and ridicule?

Moreover, seeing him regularly break into little dance steps in the middle of a deadly war adds insult to injury. He has been compared to Boris Yeltsin. The man seems to be reaching new heights of indignity (though, for that matter, had we not already reached similar heights of indignity during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with all those choreographed dances by masked nurses while hospitals were supposedly overflowing with dying patients?).

As we saw especially in the controversy over the bombing of the school in Minab, Trump appears as immature as a spoiled eight-year-old child, incapable of admitting the slightest fault. And the former Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba confirmed this sign of worrying immaturity. At the same time, the US President and his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, who has revealed himself to be a religious fanatic, never stop boasting about their destructive power and about having won the war. Yet at the same time they have asked NATO and the Gulf countries, and even others beyond them, for help in unconditionally reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which is in fact controlled by that same supposedly defeated Iranian state.

While all experts agree that any land or naval operations to reopen the strait would have very little chance of succeeding in the long term and would sooner or later almost certainly end in disaster for the troops involved, Trump at some point declared that the problem of reopening the strait, whose closure he himself caused, was no longer America’s problem. The insult to the rest of the world was unprecedented in its sheer brazenness.

And when Trump recently mentioned discussions with new Iranian leaders whom no one could identify—even as Iranian officials who had survived the mass killings, such as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, denied that any negotiations were taking place—the credibility of the United States seemed to have sunk to depths likely never before seen in its history.

But then, we learned on April 3 that an Iranian negotiator, Kamal Kharazi, a former foreign minister, who was reportedly in contact with the Pakistani foreign minister—who himself was in contact with JD Vance—had just been seriously injured in a new strike. What kind of perverse individual attempts to systematically assassinate all opponents who might wish to negotiate? One might recognize the modus operandi of those who draw inspiration from the Book of Esther, following the Book of Ezekiel (see previous article) to justify the systematic massacre of all their enemies. And as Tucker Carlson points out, among them are people from the Protestant faith. But Joe Kent, the former director of counterterrorism, does not hesitate to accuse Israel. When Trump said he did not want to name who his administration was talking to so that they would not be killed, one had to understand “killed by Israel,” as had already happened at the very beginning of the war. The goal would be to drag the United States ever deeper into the war. If that is the case, it is extraordinary to note that Trump is apparently letting it happen without a peep.

And more and more observers believe that Israel’s objective is not merely to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program or the mullahs’ regime, but to destroy Iran as a functioning state, as Libya and Syria were, Lebanon as well and in a different way. Former Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoah Gallant, who called Palestinians “animals,” believes that the US has the means to destroy everything in Iran, even razing Tehran, to force them to capitulate. And the recent bombing of as many as 30 Iranian universities - which is a series of war crimes - seem to demonstrate that goal.

Iran Still Holds the Stronger Hand

IIran, a nation under attack that is fighting for its survival with every means at its disposal, would refuse to negotiate with the United States, given that the Trump administration has now demonstrated its treachery on three separate occasions. Trust in the United States had already been shattered on 28 February. Now more than ever, with the U.S. government having proven itself once more agreement-incapable - because, ultimately, it lets its partner, or rather its handler, decide - only the balance of power matters. Iran has now fully understood the American-Israeli lesson and has no choice but to continue applying the same principle in return.

Between the latest American demands on the one hand, expressed in a fifteen-point plan that more than ever looks like a mere wishlist, and Iran’s demands on the other, no compromise appears possible. Iran logically rejected the US ultimatum and keeps demanding the withdrawal of American troops from the Gulf, guarantees against future aggression, and financial compensation for the colossal material losses the country has suffered.

Let us also remember that it is not only the Islamic Republic regime that has faced an existential threat for the past month; Iran itself is fighting for survival as a state. Under such conditions, it is hard to imagine how those still in charge of the country could yield to new threats, especially since Iran still possesses considerable means of pressure and disruption. Strengthened by its ability to withstand a shock for which it has been preparing for twenty years, including by organizing against decapitation strikes through three to seven levels of automatic succession for all sensitive leadership positions, and by burying its main military installations deep underground, Iran still retains the capacity to strike any country in the region, as well as the major card of its effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil and gas trade passes, as well as nearly 30% of fertilizers.

Strategic Defeat of the Empire

The narcissistic Trump, who himself admits to being susceptible to flattery, seems to have been manipulated by the representatives of the Zionist lobby who surround him and who have figured out exactly how to handle him. On the other hand, Susan Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, reportedly asked her staff to stop shielding Trump from reality. This would confirm that the information reaching him is being filtered. And that he is somehow unaware of the disaster unfolding.

Yet, it is hard to imagine that he would not be aware that the US military had to evacuate their Victory Base in Bagdad,after 23 years of occupation, but also the US Navy 5^th Fleet base in Bahrain. While it was reported on 26 February that the US Navy staff had been reduced to “Misson critical level”, with the recent announcement of 1,500 sailors having being urgently evacuated, it is unclear how many US personal would remain there.

Having failed to force Iran to back down despite intense bombing, and unwilling to admit that his strategy has failed, Trump is threatening to bomb the country even more to send it back to the Stone Age. Out of sheer vengeance? Or as a last-ditch, desperate attempt to intimidate the adversary before withdrawing and letting the rest of the world negotiate the right to transit the Strait of Hormuz? Or might he be tempted by one final, spectacular move to declare victory—a move that could end in disaster?

That would mean a strategic victory for Iran and a historic defeat for the United States, far worse than the fiascos in Vietnam or Afghanistan, which were only local conflicts disconnected from the global economy. With this suicidal war against Iran, more than eighty years of American domination over the Middle East and its oil and gas industry now appear to be nearing their end. It was on February 14, 1945, aboard the USS Quincy, that the foundations were laid for cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia: oil in exchange for security. Yet in recent weeks the United States has demonstrated that it is incapable of guaranteeing the security of the Gulf states.

Beyond that, it is the entire system of American economic domination over the world, based on the petrodollar, that Iran is now in the process of blowing up, since it took the initiative of allowing passage through the Strait of Hormuz only to non-hostile countries, those that pay a transit fee, or those pay for their oil in yuan or in a currency other than the dollar. And China, America’s number one commercial rival, will hardly complain.

The United States can go on blustering and destroying as much as they like; the Israeli-American operation is shaping up to be a historic failure, perhaps even one of biblical proportions.

Is Trump Mad, Desperate or Manipulated?

John Mearsheimer suggests two possibilities for explaining Trump’s behavior. Either he has become a mad king. Or he is aware that he has trapped himself in an inextricable situation with potentially catastrophic consequences, and no longer knows how to get out of it, thrashing about in desperation, alternating between moments of magically optimistic thinking and moments of pessimism whenever he is forced back into the real world. Hence the utterly erratic discourse.

There is the third option that a weak-minded Trump has been disconnected from reality by his handlers. Those messianic Zionists, whether Jewish or Christian Protestant, continue to support the current war, believing they are on the right path, convinced, or at least hoping, that a last-minute divine miracle will bring about the return of the Messiah and the victory of the chosen people and their armed wing over all their enemies. The most fanatical figures, such as Paula White, the Senior Adviser at the White House’s Faith Office, compare Trump himself to Jesus. And another fanatic, such as the evangelist Pastor Franklin Graham, declares in front of an impassive Trump that the Iranian regime wants to kill all Jews in a nuclear firestorm. Clearly, he is unaware that Judaism is protected as an official minority religion in Iran and local jews even have a reserved seat the Parliament. The level of ignorance—or propaganda—among these people is abysmal. This said, there are some human rights issues in Iran. But is it worse than Saoudi Arabia? Or worse than the Western world that allows the super-elite to rape children?

These religious Zionists, still backed by all those convinced by media outlets such as Fox News that the Islamic Republic of Iran represents Evil on Earth are undoubtedly the most dangerous people in the world, because they do not operate on the basis of a balanced and rational view of reality.

So, Trump could be mad, desperate and manipulated at the same time. But the scary part is that those who manipulate him appear as crazy and unhinged as he is.

Playing the Game of the Globalized Empire in Order to Destroy it Better?

Finally, there is a fourth possible interpretation, that of Q supporters, who still want to convince themselves that Trump is carrying out a divine plan, but one exactly opposite to the one embraced by the Zionists. In the French-speaking world, the Canadian Alexis Cossette is one of them, as is the Frenchman Black Bond. In this theory, Trump only pretended to play the game of the Zionists and other supporters of the globalized American Empire in order to push them toward self-destruction, while ultimately giving the United States a pretext to withdraw from NATO, something that has tempted Trump for years. Supporters of this theory emphasize that even if the method may be shocking, given the destruction and casualties it entails (this said, Cossette insists there are no images of the bodies of the girls said to have been killed in Minab and suggests it could be propaganda), the results objectively stand a good chance of being achieved: the end of NATO, the end of the petrodollar, the end of the American Empire, the end of American popular support for Israel, and therefore the eventual end of the power of the Israeli lobby in the United States, the collapse of Israel’s image around the world, perhaps even its end, at least in its current form. In short, it is the domination of the American-Zionist globalized oligarchy over the world that now seems to be on the verge of collapse in the short or medium term.

Having already survived two assassination attempts, Trump is said to have understood that openly confronting the Zionists and the neoconservatives was too dangerous, and that the strategy of pretending to follow them, acting crazy, until their plans failed would be the only way to put an end to the grip of this globalized mafia that has governed the Western world for the last decades.

But if that were a strategy, it would be a very risky one. If Trump loses the midterms and is impeached? What will happen then? Given Trump’s behavior, his daily lies, his constant reversals, and even his indignity, especially in the contemptible way he treats the courageous men and women who oppose his war, such as Joe Kent, Thomas Massie or Marjorie Taylor Greene, it seems very difficult to believe that he could consciously be playing such a subtle and risky game of multi-cushion billiards while sacrificing his own image in the process.

Especially since the latest news regarding the dismissal of several administration officials seems to indicate an attempt to reassume control of key positions in a way that might not necessarily please those in the MAGA base who voted to end the wars and prosecute those on the Epstein list.

Thus, Attorney General Pam Bondi is being replaced by Todd Blanche, her deputy, who is becoming acting Attorney General. Blanche was Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and has already stated scandalously that the Department of Justice should “move on” from the Epstein files.

At the Pentagon, three generals have been dismissed: first, the Army Chief of Staff, General Randy George, as well as General William Green, commander of the Army Chaplain Corps. Given that the question of deploying ground troops to Iran has been raised, it is likely that George expressed strong reservations about what would appear to be a suicide mission. His deputy, who is replacing him on an interim basis, General Christopher LaNeve, was previously Hegseth’s Military Aide, so one can imagine that the latter will be more compliant.

Furthermore, one can also imagine that the Chief Chaplain did not appreciate Pete Hegseth citing the Old Testament to support his messianic war policy, like the Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Archdiocese for the US Military Services, who, in the steps of the Pope, another American Catholic, also condemned the US War against Iran. It seems the US is on the verge of some kind of new religious war amongst Christians.

While these dismissals appear to strengthen the executive branch’s control over its administration in the short term amid multiple crises, it remains to be seen whether those dismissed will be tempted to voice their views in the media, as Joe Kent (another Catholic) did, and how this will be perceived by the electorate.

In any case, these dismissals do not bode well for future operations in Iran. And rumors are swirling about an imminent and highly risky ground operation to seize Iran’s enriched uranium, with a string of US C-17 military cargo planes being spotted flying towards the Middle-East, while the latest news between 3 and 4 April mention 4 US aircrafts shot down or damaged, and a costly operation to rescue 2 American pilots in Iran on 5 April, leaving more aircrafts destroyed, up to 12, according to Iranian sources, while images show at least one C-130 and one MH-6 helicopter destroyed on the same location, thanks to various spare parts identified. Arnaud Bertrand went through the official narrative of President Trump about this near debacle presented as a victory and underlines the many implausibilities. Since no names or photos of the pilots were released, some speculate the heroic rescue story may have just been a cover for a failed special operation to seize uranium in Isfahan, which would further explain the Mad King’s rage on his Easter message.

Then remains the hypothesis that Trump, with his very particular qualities and flaws, might despite himself be an instrument of Providence for changing the world in a positive direction after a period of deep chaos. But only people open to a spiritual view of the world can entertain such a hypothesis. It remains that what Trump is doing, allegedly for the sake of Israel, looks like the best way to bring about the downfall of the American-Zionist Empire, while revealing in the process to the entire world how it operates. Is Alexander Dugin wrong when he states:

“the longer Iran stands, the more the satanic nature of the US is revealed”?

Massive Calls for Trump’s Removal from Office

On 5 April, following Trump’s latest unhinged message of threats towards Iran, a massive wave of alarming messages from former major Trump Supporters and others flooded X. Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene or Candace Owens immediately made public calls for the removal of Donald Trump for office, invoking his madness. Candace refers to him the “Mad King”, “surrounded by religious fanatics who have convinced him that he is a messiah.” Even the rather moderate and once mainstream British Commentator Piers Morgan dares to suggest Trump “lost his marbles.” Some think Trump’s marked disinhibition is “a classic symptom of frontal neurodegenerative disorders”, “particularly the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia”, an age-related disease. When the US president calls Iranian leaders “crazy bastards”, he is like the mad man blaming the victim for making him beat him up. Yet, he seems to have fun about it at the same time, inventing days of destruction such as “Power Plan Day and Bridge Day.”

The democrat Bernie Sanders, who had challenged Hillary Clinton in 2016 to win the right to run for president, published an appeal calling Trump “a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual”, urging the Congress to “act now” and “end this war”. More Democrat Senators and Representatives followed.

Already, on March 21, after Trump’s first ultimatum to Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, retired U.S. lieutenant colonel turned commentator Daniel Davis had sounded the alarm. According to him, this president, who had already been making incoherent and contradictory statements for weeks, appears to be clinically insane, and it may be time to consider invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Under that amendment, if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet consider the president unfit to discharge the duties of office, they may remove his powers in writing. The vice president then immediately becomes acting president. If the president contests the declaration, Congress must decide the matter, requiring a two-thirds majority in each chamber to uphold the transfer of power. In other words, it still seems highly unlikely that the president would be removed through this procedure. But the simple fact that some people who had previously supported Trump are beginning to contemplate it is a measure of the gravity of the situation.

All the more so because Daniel Davis is no fringe figure. In March 2025, he had been considered for the position of Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Mission Integration under Tulsi Gabbard. But his appointment was abruptly withdrawn on 12 March 2025, because of growing criticism of his past statements… on Israel. He had notably described American support for the war in Gaza as a “stain” on the nation’s character.

As long as the Zionists remain as influential as they are today around the American president and in Congress, it remains hard to see how a strong parliamentary majority could form against Trump, at least in the short term. While some Democrat Representatives call for the implementation of the 25th Amendment, inviting the Republicans to join, prominent figures such as retired General Flynn, once considered a moderate, double down on endless escalation, “Like it or not, the war is engaged and we have only one acceptable outcome for America—Victory!” And commentators like Mario Nawfal with 3,3 million followers blame Iran for not “accepting Trump’s off-ramp”. In those crazy days, some people lose their common sense.

With the expected change in the balance of power in Congress after the midterms, impeachment would become a serious possibility. But, depending on the scale of the disaster unfolding in the Middle-East, things could go much faster.

The Nuclear Threat that Does Not Come from Iran

On 19 March, referring to “the power of some weaponry that is unthinkable”, Trump suggested the war in Iran could be over “in two seconds if you wanted to”. And everyone understood he was referring to the possible use of nuclear weapons. Then, he added, “but we are being very judicious”, before starting two different sentences he did not finish, showing the amount of confusion in his mind.

But if the destruction of Iran’s civilian infrastructure does not bring the results they want to get, faced with their growing frustration of not being able to defeat Iran, how far Trump and his handlers are ready to go up the escalation ladder?

The more US aircrafts are lost in and around Iran, the more they could be tempted to use the supreme weapon. And, from the psychology displayed by the lunatics in power, they would then probably blame Iran for giving them no other choice. While some others may believe this would make the coming of the Messiah even more imminent, or simply reveal Trump is the Messiah.

It is safe to assume than both Russia and China probably discreetly warned the US that the use of nuclear weapons could not be tolerated. But, concretely, what would they do if Trump would not listen?

Right now, we live day by day. And every day brings more surprises.

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