Chaos Around The World
Published on August 28, 2026
Part B It's Getting Worse
Just as it seemed that the damage Trump and his sycophants could inflict on the U.S.’s international standing, news started hitting the street of a new onslaught. The Guardian reports: “Trump cuts US-South Korea military drills citing ‘good relationship with Kim Jong-un’....Trump explained: the drills were costly and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a country that, as long as Donald J Trump has been president, has been unthreatening and respectful”.(1) There goes a linchpin of America’s role defending the Pacific against the hostile regimes of China and North Korea, not to mention Russia.
Today’s newsletter from Paul Krugman fleshes out the story, weighing in on “the incredible rash of stories about how Trump and company are eviscerating the military....the immature, insecure guys [who] think that war is about acting tough and looking cool.” Krugman weaves together the stories about disastrous conditions on the US’s ships; our military’s exposure in the Pacific and depleted store of munitions due to losing effort against Iran; and Trump’s orders to spend billions to construct a whole new class of ships that look like those in World War II movies to ask “why is this happening?” He identifies several strands: Trump’s physical and mental deterioration, the collapse of the Republican party, and Pete Hegseth’s incompetence to conclude with Hannah Arendt’s observations on authoritarianism.
First: “If you elevate one person to a position of untouchable authority, and if that person loses it...there is no recourse.”
Second: Totalitarian regimes “actively dislike competence. Because someone who is competent, someone who knows what they’re doing, might stand on their dignity, might refuse to follow instructions from above. You need third-raters or worse.”(2)
This is where we are.
(1)https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/first-thing-trump-cuts-us-south-korea-military-drills-relationship-kim-jong-un
(2)https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-misery-will-continue-until-morale