On April 2, 2026, the world watched without much surprise or astonishment as the American president addressed, first and foremost, the American nation, and secondarily, the “free world” and its designated enemies.
Mohamed Lamine KABA
The patriotic mirage
The speech by the leader of the MAGA coalition will go down in history as the final syllable of an empire in its death throes of denial. In this performance, Donald Trump attempted to present a narcissistic and aggressive nationalism as the solution to the deep contradictions of American power. He did not reassure; he projected the image of a president completely disconnected from the reality of the world he claims to “defend.” When he speaks of the “security of the free world,” it is not freedom he is promoting, but rather a kind of worn-out ideological testament that serves primarily to justify military interventions that, paradoxically, further weaken the security of the very peoples he claims to protect.
It is imperative to abandon the illusion of a pro-American unipolarity and to work towards creating a truly multipolar architecture of international relations, where nations of the Global South can trade, invest, and secure themselves without depending on a single dominant power
In his bellicose appeal, Trump attempted to legitimize a war against Iran that, far from being over or contained despite his lofty pronouncements of victory and his cascading promises to reduce it “to the Stone Age,” has left global markets strained, oil prices soaring, and pump prices weighing heavily on economies in both the Global South and the Global North. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggered by the conflict, has demonstrated how the actions of Washington and Tel Aviv exacerbate economic and political risks rather than alleviate them, and their effects are already being felt in all energy-producing regions, including Asia.
What Trump calls security is merely a costly and ineffective “securing of the American hegemonic status quo,” diverting the state apparatus from its essential missions while fueling cycles of violence and resentment. He spoke of victory in Iran while the Iranian military’s actual capabilities remain intact and Tehran’s promised attacks against American and Israeli forces continue to have deadly consequences. Paradoxically, like the birds in Charlie Chaplin’s film, American soldiers and their commanders in the Middle East are hiding to die.
Freedom sold at a discount
The “free world” – a hackneyed phrase repeated without nuance – has never been synonymous with genuine freedom. For decades, it has been an ideological label concealing an architecture of dependencies and asymmetrical obligations imposed by Washington and its allies. The aim is not to promote open, democratic, or sovereign societies, but to ensure privileged access to markets, resources, and geostrategic positions that primarily serve American and Western interests.
This logic has been tested everywhere, whether in the proxy conflict in Ukraine, where the United States has encouraged a confrontation that is draining the resources of European societies, all while causing immense human suffering for uncertain geopolitical results. It has also been tested in the growing tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, where the bellicose rhetoric of Washington and its allies is fueling a dangerous escalation with Beijing. All these machinations give the “free world” the appearance of defending the international order, when in reality they are primarily about maintaining American hegemony over strategic maritime routes and markets.
Meanwhile, the American operation in Venezuela involving the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, raises questions for MAGA. The incarceration of the Venezuelan political figure, presented as a “strategic triumph,” has left the population in uncertainty and fear while sending a threatening message to all Latin American governments: no one knows if tomorrow, under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking or defending human rights, another “liberating” intervention will be deployed on their doorstep.
In these examples – Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela, tensions in East Asia – the “free world” is not a space of effective freedoms but a playing field for unilateral strategic interests that feed on a discourse of freedom while imposing forced dependencies and alignments.
The strategic disconnect
In his April 2nd address, Trump touted global stability as the guarantor of Western order, but what he actually revealed was a strategy that conflates power with domination, ignores the dynamics of other major players, and disregards the real aspirations of the peoples of the Global South. As the war in Iran intensifies, its outcome uncertain for Washington but likely controlled by Tehran, the White House has once again demonstrated its lack of a coherent vision for extricating itself from a costly and dangerous military quagmire, or for easing the tensions it is helping to create.
Moreover, the crises around Taiwan and in the South China Sea have become areas of constant friction, where the American policy of containment towards China is sold as a defense of “free values,” when it only serves to justify the American military presence and the arming of the littoral states in a game of escalation that could have devastating consequences for the entire region.
On another front, the proxy war in Ukraine, of which the United States is one of the main instigators, has prolonged a conflict that no one in the MAGA illusionists’ lodge knows how to resolve. This conflict is causing massive losses while simultaneously undermining the resources of European societies, which are suffering from both inflation and the economic disruptions linked to this power struggle between Moscow and the West. The people involved have gained nothing: only bloc politics have been reinforced, without any stable political outlook and without any consideration for the interests of the people in these regions.
Economic warfare as a doctrine
Trump still imagines that protecting American hegemony requires wielding military and economic threats almost constantly, but this strategy has glaringly demonstrated its limitations. The war in Iran has not increased regional stability or the security of global energy supplies; on the contrary, it has exposed the dependence of economies on resource flows that a conflict can disrupt instantly. The American economy, already battered by inflation and chronic deficits, will not emerge stronger from this chaos, and societies in the Global South – from Africa to Latin America and as far as Asia – are also bearing the brunt of the repercussions of these wars and geopolitical tensions.
The other face of the “free world”
This “free world” that Trump invokes in every speech has never been anything more than a veneer for a unipolar world order directed by Washington. Financial sanctions, military interventions, and economic pressure have become the norm under this banner, destroying the legitimacy of the United States and fueling growing distrust of the West everywhere. Societies in the Global South are now seeing the obvious: the promised freedom is merely a mask to impose unilateral strategic and economic interests.
The extreme of myopia
Trump has completely missed the point of the changing world. He still believes that strategic isolation, protectionism, militarism, and diplomatic blackmail can revive a worn-out model, but all signs show that power is no longer measured by the ability to impose one’s will by force but by the ability to build equitable cooperation that respects the sovereignty of peoples, promotes autonomous development, and stabilizes international relations rather than fragmenting them.
Consciousness regained
The countries of the Global South – from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean to the Gulf States – must now recognize that they are no longer mere extras in the Western hegemonic narrative. The world that Trump still nostalgically imagines – a world centered on Washington, ruled by Washington, defended by Washington – is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. The nations of the Global South must awaken, realize that their future lies neither in automatic alignment with the West nor in resignation to military or economic threats, but in a strategy of emancipation, of regional and global cooperation, based on shared interests rather than imposed domination.
The triad of success: unite, cooperate, co-create
It is imperative to abandon the illusion of a pro-American unipolarity and to work towards creating a truly multipolar architecture of international relations, where nations of the Global South can trade, invest, and secure themselves without depending on a single dominant power. This implies strengthening autonomous regional institutions, promoting South-South trade networks, investing in independent financial platforms, and fostering cultural and scientific exchanges that value indigenous knowledge. It is this strategic cooperation that will make it possible to uproot American-Western hegemony and build a world order based on mutual respect and the autonomy of peoples.
In conclusion, the speech of April 2, 2026, was not simply out of touch with reality. It was a caricature of a strategy that stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the obvious: the old hegemonic model led by the United States is dead, and Trump’s posturing will not change that. What the West still calls “freedom” is nothing more than an ideological veneer that masks the logic of domination and interference. At a time when the real world is recombining around multiple centers of gravity, the nations of the Global South must unite to build a genuine pluralism based on cooperation, not on servile alignment or perpetual confrontation.
Trump’s strategic genius in his war, and Netanyahu’s, against Iran lies in having brilliantly succeeded in replacing Khamenei with Khamenei, depriving the United States of Gulf oil, sabotaging the very foundations of the petrodollar, and, to top it all off, further cementing the Moscow–Beijing–Tehran axis. In other words, a masterful demonstration of how to lose on all fronts while pretending to win.
Trump is the Epstein-class magician who will carry on his conscience for the rest of his life the murder of more than 160 innocent little girls, shot in cold blood at school in Minab.
Mohamed Lamine KABA, Expert in the geopolitics of governance and regional integration, Institute of Governance, Human and Social Sciences, Pan-African University
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