The phone call

The Week America Stopped Pretending

There are moments in history when the facade cracks so completely that everyone can see what lies beneath. This past week was one of those moments. Donald Trump, the man who promised to make America great again, spent seven days demonstrating just how diminished American power has become. He surrendered a state to local Democratic officials. He backed down on Greenland after European mockery. And then, in what might be the defining image of his presidency, he picked up the phone and called Vladimir Putin to ask—politely—if Russia could please stop bombing Ukrainian energy infrastructure for a week.

Let that sink in. The President of the United States calling the leader of Russia to request a favour. Not demanding. Not threatening. Asking. And Putin, magnanimous as always, agreed. Just this once. As a gesture of goodwill.

This is how empires end. Not with dramatic declarations of surrender, but with phone calls where the supposed hegemon has to beg for small mercies from rivals they once claimed to dominate. The mask didn’t just slip this week—it fell off entirely, and there’s no putting it back on.

Minnesota: The First Capitulation

Let’s start with Minnesota, because it perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with Trump’s second term. After weeks of buildup, the administration launched what it called immigration enforcement operations but what looked increasingly like a military occupation of Minneapolis. DHS agents in tactical gear, faces masked to avoid identification, conducted raids across the city. Trump threatened criminal prosecution for any local officials who interfered. The message was clear: federal power would be imposed, resistance would be crushed, and Minnesota would serve as an example to other blue states.