{"id":988,"date":"2026-06-03T23:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=988"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:09:41","slug":"security-expert-explains-how-nuts-trump-put-the-us-in-a-downward-spiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=988","title":{"rendered":"Security expert explains how &#8216;nuts&#8217; Trump put the US in a downward spiral"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>According to distinguished security scholar Phillips P. O\u2019Brien, the leadership of President Donald Trump has set the United States on a downward spiral in which it is \u201c<u>weaker every day<\/u>.\u201d Perhaps even more alarming, the US \u201cmay never come back\u201d from the diminished state Trump will leave it in.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=986\">\u2018This is not normal\u2019: New Trump \u2018chaos\u2019 explodes as DOJ official goes rogue<\/a><\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien \u2014 whose book War and Power is widely cited by strategy experts \u2014 asserts that there are several factors driving the country\u2019s decline under Trump, but the most looming is the president\u2019s decision to launch war with Iran. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe US does not control its own destiny at this point in the war,\u201d writes O\u2019Brien. \u201cIndeed every day the American position is weakening. The US is in a far weaker state than it was when the ceasefire was announced on April 7, and will be in weaker position next week when I write this (unless Trump surrenders)&#8230; Recently we are seeing arguably the greatest example of the growth of American global weakness that Trump has accelerated. Trump has shown that the USA cannot control either Iran or Israel \u2014 indeed that he is panicking as those two states are doing what they want regardless of his threats or wishes. The idea of the USA as either the indispensable partner or unstoppable enemy is gone. It may never come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien says evidence of this weakening can be seen by looking back to June 2025. After the U.S. joined Israel in a bombing campaign against Iran, the Israelis wanted to continue the attack, while Trump wanted it over fast. When he ordered Israel to stop, at the time, the country yielded.<\/p>\n<p>No longer. \u201cIn the last few weeks Trump has tried to do something similar and the Israelis are basically not reacting, but doing what Netanyahu wants to do,\u201d specifically in Lebanon. Israel has not only persisted in attacking its neighbor but has seized sizeable territory, complicating peace negotiations. \u201cThis Israeli military action has been driving Trump nuts,\u201d says O&#8217;Brien, but \u201cunlike last year, however, Trump cannot simply order the Israelis to turn around \u2014 and as such is getting desperate,\u201d lashing out at Netanyahu in a screaming, <u>curse-laden phone call<\/u>. Israel has only continued to step up its military efforts. \u201cThis is what I mean about the USA getting weaker every day,\u201d says O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Trump keeps insisting that a deal is close, even as the Iranians say they\u2019ve cut off talks. And all the while, the president is posting that everyone should \u201cjust sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end \u2014 it always does!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=984\">How the Supreme Court made a controversial ruling even worse: legal experts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook closely at the power imbalance here,\u201d notes O\u2019Brien. \u201cIt is the US government that is desperate to keep up the fiction that the negotiations are going well, that Iran is making major concessions and that a deal is close. The Iranians, on the other hand, are happy to project the opposite image; that they can walk away from the talks and are happy to let this string for longer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, writes O\u2019Brien, \u201cThis weakness ties into what Trump is doing with the GOP and the federal government\u2026People need to ask themselves why Trump is prizing absolute subservient loyalty over anything. It&#8217;s not just that he wants to punish his enemies\u2026 Trump is setting up a parallel system to protect himself and maintain his power, and that is based on total control of the GOP and executive government. This might actually be the thing that makes U.S. decline unstoppable. He is, as always, willing to destroy the country to save himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien points to many domestic circumstances that are weakening the country, all driven by Trump\u2019s efforts, from the collapsing economy, to his electoral revenge campaign, to the appointment of inexperienced, incapable loyalists to key positions, to his wildly corrupt slush fund. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy is Trump doing what seems to be decisions to make himself less popular and less politically secure going forward?\u201d writes O\u2019Brien. \u201cThe answer is not because he is stupid\u2026it is because he is adopting what could be called a scorched earth strategy to protect himself and his power going forward. He wants absolute and total control of the GOP, even if that means he might lose a seat here or there. And he wants a federal government that will do whatever he wants when he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien ends with a dire warning: \u201cIt sets him up to corrupt either the November vote or its results. People are being too blase about this election. Trump has a party that is completely under his sway and a federal government that is staffed by uber loyalists. It gives him terrible and powerful options to subvert democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=982\">Class acts flooding back to Kennedy center after Trump-ectomy: report<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to distinguished security scholar Phillips P. O\u2019Brien, the leadership of President Donald Trump has set the United States on a downward spiral in which it is \u201cweaker every day.\u201d Perhaps even more alarming, the US \u201cmay never come back\u201d from the diminished state Trump will leave it in.O\u2019Brie&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Security expert explains how &#039;nuts&#039; Trump put the US in a downward spiral - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=988\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Security expert explains how &#039;nuts&#039; Trump put the US in a downward spiral - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to distinguished security scholar Phillips P. 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