T&T must tread carefully with Trump

2026-03-02 - 01:37

Given United States President Donald Trump’s stated intent to establish his presidency as the “greatest ever,” the bombing of Iran, which reportedly killed the Supreme Leader of the Islamic State, the 86-year old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was inevitable. It’s a continuation of President Trump’s quest for territory, oil and world hegemony, all in the objective to “Make America Great Again”, unrivalled in economic superiority and in military might. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.” Trump has made known, not only the immediate objective, but also where the US military, accompanied by that of Israel, intends to take this war on Iran. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. A vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” said the US President. Responses, including those from US Democratic lawmakers and legal constitutionalists, are that President Trump’s engagement in war, without first getting the permission to do so from the US Congress, is a violation of the constitution. His response is to claim that his decision is based on an “imminent threat to the US.” He has, however, not produced the evidence of the threat posed by Iran — a country completely without the capacity to match US and Israeli firepower. Of significance is the fact that at the end of last Friday’s talks to achieve an agreement between the US and Iran to eliminate any possibility of Tehran being able to produce nuclear weapons, the report from Oman, host of the negotiations, stated that “significant progress was made.” While Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there has been “good progress” in the talks, scheduled to continue today. No comment came out of the US team at the talks but the reported killing in Saturday’s attacks by the US and Israel of Iran’s Supreme Leader has reportedly attracted great religious and national concern in Iran, and among Muslims in the Middle East. The prediction now is for a retaliation which can quickly ignite passions leading to deep and prolonged conflict. In respect of this country’s position on the attack against Iran, the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs has expressed its support for the continued actions of the United States “for its continued aim to prevent oppressive regimes from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities that would jeopardise international peace and security.” That unconditional positioning of itself alongside the US is yet another indication of Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s unquestioning support of President Trump since the receipt of an OFAC licence from Washington for American transnational corporations to process Venezuelan gas in T&T. The US President has set out on a course of illegal and imperial “taking-down” of presidents and governments which stand against his ambitions. The outcome is a process along a path to eventually strike down the rules-based international order of