51吃瓜

Oh, I always suspected that Donald Trump and I, having both grown up in New York City in the 1950s and early 1960s, had something in common. Now I know just what it is: his boyhood love for the 1950s TV , Victory at Sea. (鈥淒id you ever see 鈥榁ictory at Sea?鈥欌�� he reporters in January while talking about the new 鈥淭rump class鈥� battleships he wants to build. 鈥淲hat a great thing that is to watch!鈥�)

I was similarly fascinated by that prime-time documentary series on World War II when I was a youngster, and I imagine that the two of us were watching it at the very same time in the very same city, both of us possibly with our fathers, on what were undoubtedly black-and-white TVs. Of course, his father barracks and garden apartments for the Navy during World War II, while my father, at age 35 and unlikely to be drafted, volunteered for the military the day after Pearl Harbor and ended up a major in the US Air Force fighting the Japanese in Burma, now Myanmar. (He seemed to have made it back just in time for my birth in July 1944.)

Oh, and there was another difference between us, come to think of it. Only one of us, possibly inspired by that very TV show, has the power to order that a fleet of new battleships 鈥� a 鈥�,鈥� no less (鈥� be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built鈥�), including one to be named the USS Defiant 鈥� be constructed to fulfill his childhood war-making fantasies. And only one of us has the as well to any Navy secretary, most recently John Phelan, who doesn鈥檛 seem to be working hard enough to make the president鈥檚 version of Victory at Sea into our global reality. As President Trump at one point, 鈥淭he U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I鈥檓 a very aesthetic person.鈥� (Hey, the Trump fleet is going to be a stunner! Count on it!)

And oh (yet again), as it turned out, only one of us would have the power late in life to Venezuela鈥檚 head of state; try to Greenland as the property of this country; for a possible future war with Cuba; ships out of the water in never-ending fashion in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean; launch staggering numbers of airstrikes in (yes, can you believe it?) Somalia 鈥� well, of course you can鈥檛 because, with the exception of at Antiwar.com, those bombings are barely covered in this country 鈥� as well as at one point in ; and launch a genuine war with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz (brilliantly the global economy while he was at it). Count on it: In the next two-plus years of Trump鈥檚 America, there will surely be too many more examples to cite. In truth, it鈥檚 probably not even worth trying to imagine what countries might prove to be next for the 鈥淧resident of ,鈥� as he鈥檚 unpredictable on such matters (and on just about any matter, in fact).

Trump reigns (but doesn鈥檛 rain) supreme

Whew! I鈥檓 already out of breath! But who wouldn鈥檛 be since we鈥檙e all now living in his world? And given what the 鈥減eace president鈥� has done so far, the second time around, I suspect that everything I just brought up will be no more than the start of a future list that could prove breathtaking 鈥� and possibly even planet-breaking. (Yes, I鈥檓 out of breath just from writing all of that and I know perfectly well that I haven鈥檛 even managed to cover it all.)

Oh, and I鈥檓 so sorry! I almost forgot to mention one more Trumpian set of acts of war, undoubtedly by far the most important and devastating of all: those he鈥檚 launched against planet Earth itself. I mean, we鈥檙e talking about the president who has done his 鈥� and this word couldn鈥檛 be more appropriate 鈥� damnedest to wind farms of any sort, solar energy projects and expand the burning of fossil fuels in just about every way imaginable, including by opening up acres (no, that is not a misprint!) of US coastal waters to further oil and natural gas drilling.

The New York Times reporter Maxine Jocelow caught this Trumpian moment on Planet Earth perfectly in a recent piece on the 鈥渢riumphant resurgence in Mr. Trump鈥檚 Washington鈥� of climate-change denial. She the Trumpian viewpoint this way: 鈥淐limate change is a hoax perpetrated by 鈥榣eftist politicians.鈥� Fossil fuels are the greenest energy sources. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be harmless.鈥�

And in its own way, that also sums up 鈥渙ur鈥� president and his crew to a T in their search for Victory (with a capital V) 鈥� a word spelled d-e-f-e-a-t in the age of Trump 鈥� on Planet Earth. After all, in an address at the United Nations last year, he climate change, 鈥渢he greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,鈥� and , 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.鈥� And his White House even released a labeled, 鈥淓nding the Green New Scam,鈥� promising that 鈥淧resident Trump is committed to eliminating funding for the globalist climate agenda while unleashing American energy production.鈥�

There really can鈥檛 be any question that this president is intent on nothing less than making war not just on specific nations like Iran, nor on ships in the Caribbean Sea, nor on anyone in or near the Strait of Hormuz, but on this very planet in every way imaginable.

It should be stunning, in fact, that on planet Earth, such madness quite literally reigns (but unfortunately doesn鈥檛 rain) supreme in Washington, DC. And, oh, it will do so for, literally, ever hotter years 鈥� at least two and a half of them 鈥� to come.

Defeat at Sea, on Land and Anywhere Else You Might Imagine

Once upon a time, such wildly futuristic madness would have been left to the most dystopian of science-fiction novels 鈥� and undoubtedly not very popular ones at that, since such a plot and such a president would have once seemed far too unrealistic even for fiction. But now, thanks to President Trump, the United States of America, in addition to all its other warring acts of recent months, is at war 鈥� and there鈥檚 no other adequate word for it 鈥� with Planet Earth, as a habitable place for future versions of us.

Someday, if anyone is still making TV series (since by then they鈥檒l probably all be AI-created), I wonder if there will be one that young people, along with their parents, would be able to catch called not Defeat at Sea, but something far larger and more definitive: Defeat on Planet Earth. After all, we now have a president who seems ready not just to make war on Iran, but on more or less everything.

Hey, when the president鈥檚 military crew 鈥� and given what they鈥檙e doing to this planet of ours, they鈥檙e giving that word new meaning 鈥� Secretary of the Navy John Phelan in April, it made perfect sense (at least in the Trumpian version of our world), given that he didn鈥檛 seem to be producing that Trumpian fleet in double (triple? quadruple?) time. Hey (again!), it鈥檚 strange that Phelan didn鈥檛 grasp the situation he was in, since it really wasn鈥檛 all that complicated. The only thing the president wanted from him was the most beautiful fleet of Trumpian naval vessels imaginable tomorrow.

And hey (yet again!), since the president and I have so much in common from our childhoods, let me try to make some predictions about our Trumpian future on this beleaguered planet of ours. Let鈥檚 start with the fact that, despite everything Trump and crew are trying to do when it comes to destroying American green energy, as The Guardian , 鈥淚n March, the U.S. generated more of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind than it did via [natural] gas, the first time clean energy has surpassed the planet-heating fossil fuel for a full month nationally, according to data from the Ember thinktank.鈥� (Mind you, despite Trump and crew, 2025 was indeed a for green energy growth in this country.)

And yes, green energy production has already become cheaper than new oil and gas production and, even with a president who couldn鈥檛 be 鈥� 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 allowing any windmills to go up and we don鈥檛 want the solar panels. Fossil fuel is the thing that works鈥� 鈥� it鈥檚 still clear where we humans are headed in energy terms. Just not, of course, fast enough.

No, none of what we鈥檙e doing when it comes to clean energy is faintly enough. And Trump and crew, while working as hard as they can to launch a thoroughly useless fleet of naval vessels, have also been doing their damnedest to heat this planet to the boiling point. He has literally decided to transform himself into a hell-on-earth president at a moment when renewable energy has beaten out as the primary source of energy globally for the first time ever. And, of course, one other thing 鈥渙ur鈥� president has done is to functionally hand over the production and sale of green energy (and the equipment to make it) to that rising power on planet Earth, China. You know, the country which has already poured of billions of dollars into such energy development (though it also to pour greenhouse gases from coal, natural gas and oil into the atmosphere in a record fashion)?

And don鈥檛 forget something else. With their endless nightmarish decisions on green energy and climate change, Trump and crew are, among other things, in the process of literally reordering this planet of ours. Though you won鈥檛 hear much about it in the media, whether we realize it or not, we are all watching in real time what not so long ago was the greatest power in history, the US, turning the future, imperial and otherwise, over to China.

Someday, if any of us are around to see it, we will likely witness what could prove to be a historic trade-off of great powers. After all, in these years, Trump has put remarkable energy (literally and symbolically) into taking down the planet鈥檚 greatest power, the US. (Of course, if it hadn鈥檛 already been heading down, he would never have been elected in the first place.)

And China, while remaining distinctly quiet in this otherwise all-too-loud Trumpian moment, has been building what could prove to be a near-monopolistic control over our planetary future by becoming the country that produces green energy (or, more importantly, the equipment to make it) for the rest of the planet.

Trump, of course, is intent on making war on planet Earth (including, by recently making war on Iran, pouring yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere). War, after all, may be the world鈥檚 most efficient producer of such gases. The US military, even in peacetime (which, unlike during his first term in office, is no longer Trump time), remains the largest institutional of greenhouse gases on this planet. In the process, he鈥檚 doing 鈥� I鈥檒l say the word again 鈥� his damnedest to take both his country and the planet down with him.

Sadly, if he鈥檚 successful, American children of tomorrow, when they turn on their future media-watching machines, could witness not Victory at Sea, but Defeat at Sea, on Land and Anywhere Else You Might Imagine.

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