drawing by Sonia Mitriala

Trapped in Iran, Trump can only be stopped by the American people!

By Yorgos Mitralias

While, despite the two-week ceasefire, the war continues to rage, claiming thousands of lives and causing widespread destruction in the Middle East (Persian Gulf) and the Near East (Lebanon), everything now indicates that this Trump—battered by the Iranians, raving mad, delusional, trapped by his own hand, and threatened with soon finding himself in a position of… Checkmate (as if by chance, the expression derives from the Persian shâh mât, meaning “the king is ambushed/helpless”), is willing to commit—and to claim! —the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity in order not to lose face and to cling to power. Moreover, everything indicates too that there is no country capable of or determined to stop Trump and his apocalyptic delusions.

Thus, a nearly unanimous realization is taking hold: salvation from the existential threat to humanity posed by Trump can come only from within his own country, from the American people themselves! These American people, who, moreover, not only already overwhelmingly oppose Trump’s wars and policies, but are also beginning to take to the streets en masse across the country to protest against “King” Trump and his nightmarish messianism. And it is no coincidence that the first to acknowledge and take this prospect very seriously is Trump himself. A Trump who is already doing everything in his power to prevent this possibility, which could play out disastrously for him in the highly critical midterm elections this coming November.

So, given everything we already know about the utter contempt Trump harbors for the laws and constitution of his own bourgeois and capitalist class, we can legitimately ask the following question, which is by no means rhetorical: Who would dare to claim that Trump is willing to accept, without reacting violently, an electoral defeat that would result in new parliamentary majorities (in the Senate and the House of Representatives) voting for his “impeachment,” and thus his removal from power?

However, it would be naive to believe that Trump will calmly await the results of these midterm elections before reacting violently. In reality, it is more than likely that, anticipating this disastrous outcome for himself, Trump will not hesitate to do everything in his power to prevent these elections from taking place. How? By inventing a (new) war or any major crisis that would serve as a pretext to declare a state of emergency in the country. This would allow him not only to drastically restrict democratic rights and freedoms, but also to realize his long-held dream: to rule his country—the world’s leading superpower—as a dictator! This, of course, will not happen without triggering a chain of (violent) reactions, particularly within the presidential majority and the already severely fractured MAGA movement.ⁱ Not to mention the U.S. military, where the first calls for disobedience to the White House’s (illegal) orders have been made public; nor the country’s economic elites, now divided; nor the rest of American society—and especially those from below—who may want to settle the score once and for all…

This is no longer a political fiction scenario, nor a distant possibility. Preparations for this showdown are already in full swing, with only eight months to go before the midterm elections. It is clear, then, that the current situation is fraught with unexpected twists and surprises that are blurring the traditional view of the U.S. political landscape, dominated by a two-party system that monopolizes power and the White House. Indeed, the trend observed over the past several years—marked by Americans’ disaffection with the two traditional parties, as well as by the extreme political polarization of American society—continues and is even intensifying to the point of reaching historic highs. But what is perhaps even more significant is that this disaffection is more pronounced among Democrats, even though their party is no longer in power.

Thus, according to a CNN poll published a few days ago, those who say they intend to vote for the Democrats in the midterm elections appreciate their Democratic Party far less than those who will vote Republican appreciate theirs. In short, Democrats will turn out en masse to vote against Trump rather than in favor of their party, which they view as discredited! And the same holds true for those classified as “independents,” who plan to turn out in droves to punish Trump’s Republicans, while also opposing the Democratic Party’s lackluster resistance to the Trump administration.

The lesson to be drawn from the results of this survey—which, incidentally, are confirmed daily by the twists and turns of the country’s political and social life—is that the American two-party system is currently undergoing its most serious crisis, its historic crisis. Above all, the even deeper crisis within the Democratic Party and its “establishment” makes the creation of a third mass party—one that autonomously and independently represents workers and those at the bottom—not only possible but imperative.

However, it must be acknowledged that, for the time being, the voices in favor of creating this third workers’ party in the United States can be counted on one hand. Virtually no one among the leading figures of the independent or semi-independent left within the Democratic Party dares yet to publicly call for either a definitive break with that party or the building of a new major socialist organization. And this is despite the fact that progressive organizations like Working Families and socialist groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) boast more than 600,000 members in the former and more than 100,000 members in the latter. And also, and above all, even though the various political clones of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are multiplying all over the country, following the example of this new rising star of the Democrats in… Texas, the young and utterly atypical pastor James Talarico, who is making a splash by declaring all-out war on “Christian Nationalists,” with very radical views on burning issues ranging from workers’ rights, women’s and LGBT rights to the uncompromising defense of Palestinians against Israel, the denunciation of war against Iran, and the unequivocal condemnation of fossil fuel policies in the name of the fight against climate catastrophe.

However, let us not despair, for this lack of clear and unambiguous positions in favor of the third major left-wing party is likely to be short-lived. Why? Because we firmly believe that Trump will never admit defeat, and, bolstered by that solid 32–33% of Americans who blindly follow him and have supported even his worst “madness” for the past 10 years, he will do absolutely everything to cling to power. And this is true even if he loses the midterm elections, resulting in his impeachment by the new majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. In such a situation, which would foreshadow a veritable civil war, the creation of this third party of workers and all those willing to fight against Trump and his fascist reaction will appear as an almost existential necessity. Therefore, the duty of leftists who are even slightly far-sighted and responsible is not to wait until the last minute, but to begin preparations now for the creation of this great fighting force of those from below. For now every minute counts, and the class enemy is powerful, terribly ferocious, and no longer hides its apocalyptic intentions…

Oaklandsocialist comments
It has been one year now that Oaklandsocialist has been warning about Trump’s plans to steal the upcoming midterm (2026) elections. Even mainstream Democrats are now wringing their hands over these threats, but who, what force, will stop him? The Democrats’ strategy revolves around simply getting out so many votes that stealing the election is nearly impossible. That is a very risky strategy indeed! As for the U.S. military and its members’ oath to follow the Constitution: Trump’s Secretary of “War”, Pete Hegseth is busy weeding out any officers who might even think about following that oath if their orders conflict with it. We see the consequences in the Trump/Hegseth unconstitutional war in Iran. There has not been the hint of a rumor that any members of the military – officer or otherwise – has refused to carry out the illegal and unconstitutional orders to kill Iranians.

Nor is Talarico any Mamdani. Yes, he speaks to “affordability”, but even Chuck Schumer does that. Talarico bases his campaign on being a good Christian. In other words, in an indirect way he mixes Christianity and politics, and if he defeats the Republican (which I hope he does), he will be a very weak voice against MAGA and Trump. The same is true for the overwhelming majority of recently victorious Democrats. Anybody who opposes Trump will be glad they won, but most of them are not “progressives”.

As for the consciousness of the masses of people – working class and others – in the U.S.: we are not so sanguine. Oaklandsocialist recently puublished an article entitled “An Imagined Conversation – or Was It?” In it, we imagined the following scenario:
‘The day after Trump dropped “tactical” nuclear bombs on Tehran and a couple of other targets I asked one of the former Trump voters at work what he thought. “Man, that’s crazy!” he said. Then he got really outraged. “I can’t believe the price of gas went up so quick! You know, it’s already up 25 cents a gallon. I had to spend almost 100 bucks to fill up my tank. I should have topped it off yesterday when I had the chance. I had to tell my son our fishing trip is off ‘cause I can’t afford the gas. I never should have voted for that asshole.” He was fuming.

“Hold on,” I said. “Trump just dropped a nuclear bomb. He’s destroying an entire ancient civilization, murdering millions of people, and your main thought is the price of gas?”

“They should have overthrown that aytolla or whatever he’s called a long time ago and then this never would have happened. Anyway, I can’t afford to worry about those Muslims over there. I have my own problems right here, specially with gas where it’s at.”

The very day after we published this article, a construction worker comrade reported the following: He’d come to work after Trump had threatened to wipe out all of Iran civilization. A co-worker actually said “I don’t care if he kills every single Muslim on Earth if that’s what it takes to bring the price of gas down.” About a half dozen others were standing around and none of them said anything. This guy was not some “extremist” known for his wild ideas. The main reason, beyond all others, that the majority oppose Trump’s savage war against Iran is that it’s causing the price of gas to climb. In fact, that’s the reason Trump got elected in the first place. Everybody heard his call for“mass deportation”. Everybody heard his openly racist rhetoric, for instance about Haitian immigrants “eating your cats and dogs”. Everybody knew that he was coubling down about his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his other crimes. Yet he won the popular vote. Why? Because most voters cared more about the price of a box of cereal than preserving bourgeois democracy. And even on that score, Harris warned them that Trump’s tariffs would increase prices even more, but most voters didn’t care. They were just angry and wanted to lash out. Yes, Kamala Harris ran a weak campaign, but that’s not the main reason she lost. That’s a pretty dismal analysis, but it’s true.

As for the “left” in this country: The great majority of it spent almost all their energy in 2024 campaigning against Harris. That means in effect they were campaigning for Trump. They have learned nothing since then, as this video about the No Kings protest in Oakland shows. It is one thing to oppose the present capitalist dominated two-party system from the point of view of strengthening the working class; it is something entirely different to oppose that system from the pro-Putin point of view, one that aids the Republicans! It is the latter that describes the “left” in the US today. Even DSA is hardly any different. They too failed to take a clear and decisive stand that Trump must be defeated; they too apologized for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and have failed to really support the Women Life Freedom movement in Iran.

A genuine working class revolt could spring up at any time, but at present we don’t hear the rumblings of one. On the contrary, at this time, the main beneficiaries of the opposition to Trump’s war are the Nazi-friendly Tucker Carlson and his sidekick, America Firster Marjorie Taylor Greene. However, I must say that recently I have noticed that a few of my neighbors have started talking more about politics – and Trump in particular.

iSee our article Libertarians vs. Neoconservatives War is splitting the Trumpist leadership! : https://blogs.mediapart.fr/

drawing by Sonia Mitriala