Donald Trump’s Self-Serving Nature Shows Beneath His Thinly Veiled Words
Donald Trump’s justification for his incursions into countries abroad, on the surface, sounds somewhat well-meaning by asserting that he:
1. helped to negotiate a cease-fire agreement between the Israeli government and warring factions of Hamas in the Gaza Strip because he wished to reunite families and end the killing,
2. is attempting to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine to prevent any further casualties and property damage,
3. ordered U.S. military forces into Venezuela to bring down a ruthless drug-trafficking regime that rigged the election to remain in power, and to rebuild that country’s oil industry and mine its valuable resources and return the wealth these produce back to the Venezuelan people,
4. may militarily engage against the repressive theocratic regime in Iran to stop the slaughter of civilians and bring freedom and democracy long fought for by the Iranian people.
We know Donald Trump well enough by now that he does not have an empathetic ounce of compassion or humanity anywhere in his vapid soul. Instead, Donald Trump functions transactionally based on what is best for Donald Trump.
In addition to his obsession with achieving the Nobel Peace Prize, we understand his motivation for working to achieve a ceasefire in the Middle East is his incessant need to increase his wealth. Here, he intends to build structures outside of Gaza to resettle Palestinians so he can bulldoze the entire Gaza Strip and construct elite high-priced Riviera-style homes and resorts throughout the area with a stunning Mediterranean view.
He sent envoys to meet with Russian and Ukrainian officials on several occasions to impress and side with Vladimir Putin’s objective of incorporating as much of the territory of Ukraine as he can from that sovereign country.
Maybe because his daddy and mommy refused to give little Donnie the set of tin soldiers that he wanted for his eight birthday, now as President of the United States and Commander in Chief, he can feel real tough and super masculine by ordering his military to explode defenseless small boats in the Caribbean, bomb and invade Venezuela, kidnap its dictator and wife for trial in the United States, and threaten military action for a second time against the leaders of Iran.
It seems obvious that Donald Trump has no intention of returning any profits from stealing Venezuelan oil reserves and untapped resources but instead, he most likely will be reaping the riches for his oil industry donors and for himself.
But if we suspend our knowledge and understanding of Trump’s self-serving motives and devious character, and if we take him at his word that he is acting on the international stage for well-intentioned reasons, we need to ask the essential question:
“How can Donald Trump promote human rights and democratic freedoms in other countries while terminating human rights and destroying democratic institutions domestically?”
The great World War II correspondent, journalist, and personality for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Edward R. Murrow, places this paradox into perspective:
“We cannot defend freedom abroad when we desert it at home.”
Since the citizen protests began in cities throughout Iran on December 28, 2025, tens of thousands of people have been arrested, and an indeterminate but very high number have been seriously injured and killed.
“The message is they’ve got to show humanity,” Trump said at an auto factory in Michigan on January 13, of the Iranian government. “They’ve got a big problem,” he added. “And I hope they’re not going to be killing people.”
Directing his comments directly to the people of Iran: “Iranian Patriots, keep protesting and take over your institutions if you can,” Trump said. “Save the names of the killers and abusers that are abusing you. You are being very badly abused.”
In his remarks on Iran, Trump led a clinic on irony and psychological projection. While cheering for the protestors and voicing his contempt against the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship of Iran (and Venezuela), Trump has unleashed his military and I.C.E gestapo on the residents of the United States. Trump certainly has never shown his humanity.
He characterizes Iranian protesters as “patriots.” Chief officials of Trump’s regime, however, including Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Kristi Noem, and Kash Patel have libeled slain protester of I.C.E.’s invasion of Minneapolis as a “domestic terrorist,” a “violent rioter,” and a “professional agitator.”
They argued that she had “weaponize[d]” her vehicle to run over an officer even when most on-site videos do not confirm this and before any in-depth investigation had been conducted.
At the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance claimed that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis is “protected by absolute immunity.” Most legal scholars dispute this.
While supposedly promoting civil and human rights abroad, from the first day of his first term in office and continuing through his second to this point, Trump has worked strenuously to reverse the rights that We the People have fought long and hard battles to obtain.
Among other areas, he decimated the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice, ended Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs within the federal government and private companies, attempted to reverse the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and eliminated Affirmative Action policies,
Trump has effectuated an intense redirection in our country’s focus on civil rights by promising to end so-called “anti-white” racism rather than attend to historically marginalized groups.
“I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed,” Trump said during a lengthy interview with Time magazine in April 2024.
Vice President JD Vance urged white men to file race discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency established under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Back In the U.S.
Unfortunately, the United States has never lived up to its billing as “the land of the free,” though it always has been and continues to be “the home of the brave.” This is especially true in this time of Trump’s attempt to terminate our nation’s great democratic experiment of self-government.
Human and civil rights protections are now unacceptable within the former party of Lincoln! Of all of our constitutional protections, Trump has attempted to circumvent all but the Second Amendment.
Though Trump allegedly has been working for peace and democratic values in the Middle East, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Iran, he is waging war on his own people, especially brown and black people and immigrant families.
The German word, Anschluss, translated into English means “connection.” The Anschluss, also known as the Anschluß Österreichs, was the forced annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
Following the authoritarian playbook, Donald Trump has threatened his own Anschluss by grabbing and annexing Greenland, the largest island that is not a continent on the planet, which exists as a semi-autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark.
Though Trump argues it will be of great benefit for the estimated 57,000 people of Greenland to become a part of the United States, and Trump’s stated reason for acquiring the island is to increase our “national security,” Trump’s grifting nature is showing beneath his thinly veiled words, for he desires the wealth of riches available in Greenland’s rare-earth minerals.
As in the Middle East, Ukraine, Venezuela, Greenland, and other places internationally,
Trump’s policies are based on cruelty, and his means to effectuate this policy is through fear and intimidation, with its intended purpose of gaining unlimited power, control, and kleptocratic grifting. There is never enough wealth, power, and control for Trump. He demonstrates compulsive signs that he’s an addict, and his disease is progressing!
Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld is author of Responding, Teaching, and Learning Race & LGBTQ Topics as Acts of Resistance in a Declining Democracy: An Activists’ Guide
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F22DKG4T?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520