Trump and the Delusion of World Domination
It is commendable that Joe Kent, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his high-profile public position on March 16, 2026, stating in a written declaration that the U.S. president had been pressured by the government and the Israeli lobby to believe that Iran posed a threat to the United States — a claim that was clearly a fallacy. He also noted that the absurd war against the Iranian government has caused, and may yet cause, even more deaths among U.S. soldiers and officials stationed abroad.
However, I see a significant weakness in Kent’s reasoning: He treats the United States and Israel as allied yet essentially autonomous actors. While it is true that Israel is not merely a satellite of the U.S. political establishment, nor does it mechanically submit to Washington’s directives, it nonetheless functions as a key collaborator in the contemporary imperial strategy advanced by the transnational capitalist class, whose ideological foundation is neoliberalism — an ideology that is neither novel nor genuinely liberal.
As former U.S. President Harry S. Truman stated in 1948, the United States needed an enclave that would serve U.S. policy, and that entity became the State of Israel. Although the governments of both countries display certain contradictions and disagreements, they come together to consolidate a project of global domination, since their leaders believe that a favorable opportunity exists following the end of the Cold War with the collapse of so‑called real socialism; the decline of the welfare state, which had produced social reforms partially benefiting the working classes in order to curb attraction to socialist movements; and the marked weakening of the organized left as a whole, along with the growing fragility of nationalist‑oriented popular movements.
Historically, the delusion of world domination has existed for many years, and recalling this irrational impulse brings to mind figures and forces such as Napoleon Bonaparte, the Victorian British Empire, German Nazism, and U.S. imperialism — which, as former President Bill Clinton once stated, had existed in the past but was no longer present by the end of the 20th century.
But naturally, that admirer of a female intern was mistaken; capitalist imperialism is stronger than ever and is now driven by large transnational corporations that have significantly intensified the processes of capital concentration and centralization, processes that are reflected in the creation and consolidation of massive megaprojects.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, along with the return to capitalism of its former satellites and of the People’s Republic of China, was welcomed with joy and celebration by opponents of what is known as real socialism, yet such enthusiasm is unfounded. Once freed from its adversaries in the Cold War, the already consolidated transnational capitalist class viewed itself as unrestrained in imposing the most advanced project of global domination. This, however, has resulted in a planetary catastrophe, as it involves the repeated outbreak of wars, ecocide, ethnocide and intensified exploitation and oppression of the working classes, while simultaneously seeking to eliminate part of them through automation and artificial intelligence.
This has resulted in social conflict becoming far more intense than it was during the Cold War. Karl Marx argued that the proletariat would seek a socialist revolution because they owned no property and possessed only their labor power; today, the transnational capitalist class has placed the planet’s stability at risk through its imperial policies. It is even ushering in the early stages of an era in which the human species itself could face extinction; as a result, the dystopian visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley now appear almost like childish daydreams.
In many countries, the most extreme conservative and reactionary forces are gaining ground, laying the foundations for a new form of fascism. In subsequent articles, we will explore what William Robinson describes as “global Trumpism,” and how it both inherits from and goes beyond the legacy of Adolph Hitler. Thousands, and perhaps millions, of people believe there is no way out of this devastating tsunami. I believe that such a way out does exist, and we will return to this issue.
However, I see a significant weakness in Kent’s reasoning: He treats the United States and Israel as allied yet essentially autonomous actors. While it is true that Israel is not merely a satellite of the U.S. political establishment, nor does it mechanically submit to Washington’s directives, it nonetheless functions as a key collaborator in the contemporary imperial strategy advanced by the transnational capitalist class, whose ideological foundation is neoliberalism — an ideology that is neither novel nor genuinely liberal.
As former U.S. President Harry S. Truman stated in 1948, the United States needed an enclave that would serve U.S. policy, and that entity became the State of Israel. Although the governments of both countries display certain contradictions and disagreements, they come together to consolidate a project of global domination, since their leaders believe that a favorable opportunity exists following the end of the Cold War with the collapse of so‑called real socialism; the decline of the welfare state, which had produced social reforms partially benefiting the working classes in order to curb attraction to socialist movements; and the marked weakening of the organized left as a whole, along with the growing fragility of nationalist‑oriented popular movements.
Historically, the delusion of world domination has existed for many years, and recalling this irrational impulse brings to mind figures and forces such as Napoleon Bonaparte, the Victorian British Empire, German Nazism, and U.S. imperialism — which, as former President Bill Clinton once stated, had existed in the past but was no longer present by the end of the 20th century.
But naturally, that admirer of a female intern was mistaken; capitalist imperialism is stronger than ever and is now driven by large transnational corporations that have significantly intensified the processes of capital concentration and centralization, processes that are reflected in the creation and consolidation of massive megaprojects.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, along with the return to capitalism of its former satellites and of the People’s Republic of China, was welcomed with joy and celebration by opponents of what is known as real socialism, yet such enthusiasm is unfounded. Once freed from its adversaries in the Cold War, the already consolidated transnational capitalist class viewed itself as unrestrained in imposing the most advanced project of global domination. This, however, has resulted in a planetary catastrophe, as it involves the repeated outbreak of wars, ecocide, ethnocide and intensified exploitation and oppression of the working classes, while simultaneously seeking to eliminate part of them through automation and artificial intelligence.
This has resulted in social conflict becoming far more intense than it was during the Cold War. Karl Marx argued that the proletariat would seek a socialist revolution because they owned no property and possessed only their labor power; today, the transnational capitalist class has placed the planet’s stability at risk through its imperial policies. It is even ushering in the early stages of an era in which the human species itself could face extinction; as a result, the dystopian visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley now appear almost like childish daydreams.
In many countries, the most extreme conservative and reactionary forces are gaining ground, laying the foundations for a new form of fascism. In subsequent articles, we will explore what William Robinson describes as “global Trumpism,” and how it both inherits from and goes beyond the legacy of Adolph Hitler. Thousands, and perhaps millions, of people believe there is no way out of this devastating tsunami. I believe that such a way out does exist, and we will return to this issue.
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