Trump: The business of America is business, not global hegemony and war

From Thierry Meyssan's latest article on the Trump Administration, it's clear the Washington political and foreign policy establishments, as well as the U.S. media, are out of their depth about what Trump is actually aiming for in the early days of his presidency. 

Trump is a non-political president, which is hard for Americans to wrap their minds around. And so there is a Twilight Zone aspect to discussions about him that fill the mainstream media. They're seeing what they want to see, what they understand, even though it's not the reality. 
  

Donald Trump inaugurates the « Strategy and Policy Forum » at the White House (3 February 2017)

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Trump - business against war
By Thierry Meyssan

February 14, 2017

Voltaire Network

Thierry Meyssan invites us to observe Donald Trump without judging him by the same criteria as his predecessors, but by trying to understand his own logic. He notes that the President of the United States is trying to restore peace and relaunch world commerce, but on new foundations, completely different from the current system of globalisation.

According to the Puritan ideology, which has been in fashion since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, mixing state policy with one’s own private affairs is a crime – one of the reasons for which a strict separation has been installed between these two worlds. On the contrary, though, during the last few centuries, politics was not regarded from a moral standpoint, but from that of efficiency. It was therefore considered normal to associate entrepreneurs with politics. Their own personal enrichment was not considered to be «corruption» unless they grew fat on the proceeds of the Nation, but not when they developed it on their own.

Concerning his relations with the Great Powers, President Trump approaches Russia on the political level, and China on the commercial level. He is relying on Rex Tillerson (ex-head of Exxon-Mobil), a personal friend of Vladimir Putin, as his Secretary of State - and on Stephen Schwarzman (the boss of the capital-investment company Blackstone), a personal friend of President Xi Jinping, as President of a new consultative organisation tasked with proposing the new commercial policy - the Strategy and Policy Forum, inaugurated by President Trump on 3 February at the White House [1]. 

The meeting brought together 19 top-level entrepreneurs. Contrary to previous practises, his advisors were not chosen according to whether or not they had supported the President during his electoral campaign, nor in terms of the size and influence of the businesses they managed, but rather in terms of their personal capacity as managers.

Thus begins Meyssan's analysis, which is worth close study and not a little deep thought. There is today much criticism of globalization but it's not so much 'bad' as having outlived the imperial and colonial hegemonic ages that shaped it.  With most of the world's societies now pursuing one form or another of democracy, humanity does need an international system of trade that better reflects this.

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