This was the year of Donald Trump 2: the Revenge

If this year was a film, it would almost inevitably be dubbed Donald Trump 2: The Revenge. To borrow the phrase made popular by the UK’s Queen Elizabeth, 2025 was truly an annus horribilis, not just for the Trump regime’s malicious and crude impact on its own citizens but also across the world. 

Having won 49.8% of the popular US vote in 2024, Trump and his cronies took revenge not just on those in the US who opposed (or annoyed) them but also on many millions of entirely innocent people worldwide: victims of their toxic ideologies on wealth and power, imperialism, science, democracy and autocracy, human rights, sexual politics, health and immigration.

2025 was the year when the ugly American rose to the surface once again and strutted himself (for it is a “him”) across the world stage killing, maiming and fermenting a culture of fear, loathing and hate. Sowing discord and division accompanied by delusions of inferiority and superiority (key emotions in the lexicon of racism and fascism).

2025 was not just the year of Trump but, more disturbingly, the year of the many Trumpist fellow travellers and enablers – those who have been lurking in the undergrowth of politics and culture and who have now been given new vigour by this US regime. 

Witness Netanyahu, Orban, Erdogan, Fico, Milei, Weidel, Netanyahu, Putin and a host of TV, radio and social media echo chambers where much of the very worst bigotry and vitriol is not only permitted but actively encouraged.  Witness Trump’s own Truth Social (“the real voice of America”).  

Those interested in reflecting on history and its lessons would do well to read the regime’s new official (but very old and very worn) National Security Strategy – a 29-page imperialist’s manifesto.  In truth, it should be mandatory reading.

It’s hard to do it justice in one paragraph but it includes such gems as “... the restoration and reinvigoration of American spiritual and cultural health”, “…growing numbers of strong, traditional families that raise healthy children”, “…US must be preeminent in the western hemisphere”, “…unapologetic about our country’s past and present “, “…identify strategic points and resources in the Western Hemisphere with a view to their protection and joint development with regional partners”, “…the Anglosphere”, “…restoring Europe’s civilizational self-confidence and Western identity”. 

Having derided international interventions by previous US administrations, the strategy promises to back European “patriots” - populist hard-right parties whose “growing influence … gives cause for great optimism.” It insists that attempts to oppose such parties is anti-democratic. The strategy proclaims that “our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory”.  

The strategy document has been praised for its vision by the Kremlin. Greater detail and clarification can now be accessed at the menacingly rebranded Department of War (www.war.gov). There’s a lot more of the same available at the click of a mouse. Much of it is chillingly reminiscent of Western Europe in the years immediately preceding 1933 and all that followed it.

Apart from grand strategy and policy documents from the 2025 edition of the Trump gang, the year will also be remembered by the many deranged mutterings and insults hurled at anyone or anything the President doesn’t like at any particular point in time. 

It has now become common practice to ignore these while pronouncing on his more official edicts, statements and policies, letting on they don’t exist. Yet, these postings tell us a huge amount about the man who would be emperor and about those who surround him. They form an essential element in understanding the nature and intent of Trumpist style racism, misogyny and proto fascism. 

He talks of ‘shithole’ countries, refers to Somali immigrants as scum and garbage, claims immigrants have murder in their genes, that the New York Times is a threat to national security, describes critical media sources as illegal, insults women in general and female journalists particularly by referencing their body parts, and praises a convicted rapist.   

On any given day, we can access his crude and threatening rants on a host of individuals, places or issues.  Rants we are supposed to ignore or are (we are “officially” told) quoted out of context or should just be indulged because, well, he’s the President.

And, like all wannabe dictators throughout history, Trump continues to lavish praise upon himself - his acumen, his brains, his ability and his beauty. Witness his fawning over the award of the patently ridiculous FIFA Peace Prize. 

In 2025, Trump and his cronies directly attacked the UN, the EU, Canada, NATO, Denmark, multilateralism, the World Trade Organisation, environmental science, gay and trans people, those with disabilities of one kind or another and inevitably (and unforgivably) Palestinians and Ukraine and most publicly its President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. 

And all of this while also attacking thousands US citizens legally and militarily.  His regime has introduced kidnapping, illegal incarceration and deportations. 

Trump, like all menacing tyrants, will fall (the signs are already there), but the toxic undergrowth his regime has fostered will continue to flourish as long as the rest of us continue to grovel or to feign either indifference or disinterest.

For me, this will be one of the major challenges we face in 2026.