"Shock Therapy": Trumpian Oligarchy and Neoliberal Frailty

19^th Century Methods for 21^st Century Problems 

Following the abduction of  Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, combined with the National Security Strategy (NSS) release in December of 2025, the Trump Era of “Gunboat Diplomacy” consolidated as the world watched on with morose horror. The Trump “Corollary,” as it were, is to represent an abandonment of international good faith and an embracing of the world's brutal dictators, Vladimir Putin and many more across the globe. The violent crackdown on immigration, warmongering and indeed war-starting, and an economic foreign policy model that echoes the tactics of James Polk and James Monroe are sending the United States’ global standing spiralling. As the Atlantic Council sharply iterates, Trump is obsessively concerned with his international appearance: his claims of halting innumerable wars and the feeble creation of the Gaza Peace Panel. His antics have not gone unnoticed, and the world is sceptical about their prospects of managing the new belligerent US. 

Unlike the Monroe Doctrine, the “Donroe Doctrine” of 2025-2026 treats the western hemisphere as its backyard, unbothered by its military intervention in Venezuela and the menacing invasion rhetoric surrounding Greenland. This doctrine functions as a totalising logic of neocolonial extraction that preys upon the world inside and out. Like during Theodore Roosevelt's age, the “big stick” has become even larger, which will only serve to exacerbate already flailing partnerships. A return to the 19^th century would be a major step backwards; focusing entirely on mineral wealth and resource extraction would sacrifice public interest at the altar of corporate greed. International affairs aside, the citizens of the United States are expected to accept that this doctrine demands military hegemony over social welfare. Acting as the “bodyguard” of the Western hemisphere will once again make the United States a “bogeyman” of international policy, and moreover an expensive one: this form of foreign policy has consistently been a massive drain on American taxpayers, while only increasing anti-American sentiment and further disrupting the harmony of the world economy at the direct expense of the very same Americans which the doctrine claims to protect. 

Storm Clouds in November 

What many local politicians and members of the United States Congress are sweating over with the upcoming primary elections in the spring and summer is the absolute failure of the Trump administration to appear a concerned government for its public. Under egregious military raids on blue cities such as Minneapolis, the resulting deaths and fear created by Trump’s uninhibited militia represent a dire threat to the rule of law. The deaths of Alex Pretti (shot January 24^th, 2026) and Renee Good (shot January 7^th, 2026) have come to haunt a country lost as to how to resist the senseless violence orchestrated by ICE. These deaths mustn’t become another casualty of the Trump War Machine, as they mark increasingly real threats to everyday citizens' well-being. The teetering edge that Trump is balancing right now is between a far-right lunatic and a brutally violent dictator; these deaths are absolutely the fault of ICE and the Trump administration, and they don’t reflect any semblance of real law. As Americans lose healthcare, painfully watch their cost-of-living balloon, and worry about a burgeoning war with Iran, ICE is certainly making off quite nicely, with projections at almost 80 billion dollars for the agency to spend over the next four years. 

Art of the Cringe

Americans are naturally more concerned with their state’s functionality than Washington’s global reputation. Nevertheless, the continuation, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, of Trump’s assault on internationalism itself, is coming home across the country. Tariffs – having sundered relationships across the board by robbing states of their competitive trade status with the United States due to confusing backtracking – are now costing the average American household circa $2,000 a year, and around $25,000 on average for small-business owners. It should serve as a stark warning that the world is structurally drifting towards working without the United States, even if it cannot at present. Is this what the American public voted for? A wholesale removal from the global stage in favour of the butchering of the middle class?

Social Investment is Economic Investment 

The late Tony Judt of New York University argued in his book Postwar that the birth of the European Welfare state was not born out of an idealistic utopia, but rather a fear of returning to the horrors of the 1930s and 40s. In the bloodbath of the Second World War, European leaders needed to insulate society in ways that would encourage economic and social cooperation to avoid future conflict. Judt says, “Far from dividing the social classes against each other, the European welfare state bound them closer together than ever before, with a common interest in its preservation and defense.” (Judt Postwar, p. 76). What has held Europe up in the 21^st century is certainly its ability to withstand economic shocks far better than its American counterpart. A union that functions by investing in medicine, infrastructure, and its workforce demonstrates a dedication to the worker and to the state in providing the public goods that preserve our democratic values. Without this dedication to shared humanity, the results are unforgiving in creating the abyss of extremism that Trump has created through his immigration task force.

With the increasing violence caused by ICE and the militaristic threats by the Trump administration, the White House has effectively removed itself as a guarantor of security and, in exchange, has become predatory on the American public. As Judt highlighted in his synthesis of the postwar reality in Europe, he acknowledged that when a state fails to preserve its public doctrine of protecting and caring for the populace, it becomes “predatory.” The carnivorous nature of the Trump-Military Complex has eclipsed the upheaval surrounding the loss of SNAP and healthcare this November, not to mention a continuously flailing job market. The chasm of the 1930s and 1940s displayed the fraying of the social fabric: workers and bosses cooperate, so long as the means of business aren’t challenged and the worker isn’t shafted for a long tenure. When this shift took place, the market ceased to work for the consumer, accelerating the desire of elites to side with the raw power of autocrats who promised unbridled control over their businesses. Historian Sheri Berman concurs with Judt’s assessment that Europe succeeded in reconvening the issues of tyrannical capitalism and manipulated the market to work directly for the consumer through social investment. It has been a significant error on behalf of the United States to fail in achieving this postwar reconciliation, as Europe can safely make innovative plans for the future while also maintaining a healthy and well-cared-for public. 

Moving Forward

Social investment is not merely a tangible goal for the American public; it is the only functional bulwark against a state that has turned predatory both inside and out. In this time of profound uncertainty, where governance in Washington has traded public welfare for 'gunboat diplomacy,' the focus must shift back to the locally-directed success of our communities. By investing in educational success, affordable healthcare, and a market that actively resists the skyrocketing of wealth inequality, we can begin to reassemble the 'puzzle pieces' of a democracy currently being dismantled for corporate benefit. I am biased, of course, as a resident of the People’s Republic of Astoria. Yet it is impossible not to see the localised successes of social investment as the necessary framework to build past the current 'tyranny in Washington'. As Historian Sheri Berman argues, the path forward requires a return to the 'Primacy of Politics' – reasserting that the market must work directly for the consumer, not the autocrat. By believing in governance that makes sense and flatly denying the class-blaming and xenophobia of MAGA, the United States can finally achieve its own 'postwar reconciliation'. As Tony Judt emphasised, the power of community is not just a sentimental ideal; it is the fundamental democratic defence against the 'Shock Therapy' of the predatory state.

Image: Flickr/ep_jhu

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