HARARE, January 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has realized the country's long and carefully concealed loss of its former military and economic power, Rangarirai Shoko, editor-in-chief of Zimbabwe's New Ziana news agency, told TASS.
"It seems Trump has realized America's long camouflaged powerlessness - militarily and economically - which the Ukraine conflict has exposed, and is therefore going to focus on trying to re-build this in an attempt to re-assert Washington 's global hegemony," the expert said. "The Ukraine conflict has exposed America not to be as strong as it portrayed itself, in particular as regards military tech. In the conflict, the world has witnessed the huge gap in weapons technology between Russia and the US in favour of the former, and the Pentagon has realised what a sitting duck militarily Washington is against other major powers," Rangarirai Shoko said.
"For long enmeshed in its own self-belief of military superiority, the Ukraine conflict rudely woke the US to its vulnerability and weakness," the expert noted. "The new Trump administration has recognized this and will devote all efforts to try and catch up as part of efforts to maintain its faltering global hegemony. The administration will escalate military spending and 'forcefully' coerce its European vassals to do the same. But in the multipolar world emerging, this is a doubled edged sword for Trump and the US. With cheaply looted freebies no longer easily available from the world, expansion of military budgets and spending could cripple the US economy," the Zimbabwean editor-in-chief said.
De-dollarization threatens Washington
According to the expert, Trump is aware of "the eminent existential danger this poses to the US and will focus on trying to persuade as many countries as possible away from the de-dollarisation bandwagon." This means an existential threat to the US, and Trump will try to convince other countries to abandon de-dollarization, Rangarirai Shoko pointed out.
"Talk of no more US-instigated wars, an end to those raging already, etc, are a charm offensive by the Trump administration to win over countries to continue using the greenback," the expert emphasized. "Planned early overtures by the administration to China and Russia, two nations seen as leading global de-dollarisation efforts, underline America's overall weakness, which Trump desperately wants to address. In the process, the new administration will be forced to take into account the interests of other powers, something the US had stopped doing in its self-belief of Washington 's exceptionalism. Ukraine, Taiwan, and maybe Europe face the first risk of being sacrificed as the US realigns its global strategic geopolitical interests," the Zimbabwean editor-in-chief concluded.