DONALD, ‘Disgrace of New American Leadership Doctrine’:  TRUMP, ‘The Recklessness of Untamed and Misguided Policy 

Bola A. Akinterinwa 

A Yoruba proverbial saying has it that “Ilé l’anwò ki a tó s’omo l’oruko,’ meaning ‘it is the home that is considered before naming a new child.’ Consequently, every Yoruba name has an original meaning. Home, in this regard, can be a reflection of family tree or the challenges encountered at the time of birth of a child. For example, my name ‘Akin’ refers to a very courageous, perseverant, brave and bold person. My family name, ‘Akinterinwa,’ is derived from ‘Akin’ and ‘Terinwa,’ which means ‘Akin is from Erin’ a town. ‘Akinterinwa’ therefore means a brave and bold man… from Erin. But I am a citizen of Ile-Oluji in Ondo State by ius soli and by ius sanguinis. This is in spite of the fact that the early generations of Akinterinwa family who left ‘Erin’ settled in Ile-Oluji and Ondo city.

Unlike the Yoruba tradition of naming culture, Europeans and Americans have different naming cultures. Spain and Portugal use two surnames, first, father’s and then, mother’s. Generation, Godparent influence, and Saint Names are the naming factors. Iceland largely underscores naming after grandparents while in Eastern Europe and Balkans naming includes patronymic elements that are coined from the father’s name. Eastern Europeans have the culture of not naming their children after living relatives. In the U.S., naming is regulated: Many States limit the number of characters that can be used for reasons of official record keeping. Some States also ban the use of obscenity, numerical digits, or pictograms.

More interestingly, Wikipedia has noted that ‘in 2013, Tennessee judge Lu Ann Ballew ruled that a baby boy named Messiah must change his name to Martin, saying “it’s a title that has only been earned by one person, Jesus Christ.’ Even though the court judgment was later overturned, President Donald Trump is not only presenting himself as the Messiah of the U.S. but has disgracefully circulated a video in which he presented himself as the new Jesus Christ. This prompted global condemnation, especially from the Catholic and Protestant churches. Donald Trump is thus living according to his interpreted name: Donald as ‘Disgrace of Notorious and Lawless Doctrine’ and Trump as ‘The Ruins of Misguided Policy.’ Why does Donald Trump not have any respect for people, and even for the Pope of the Catholic Church?

DONALD: Disgrace of Notorious and Lawless Doctrine 

Political governance under President Donald Trump is guided by the doctrine of ‘America First’ (AF) and ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA). AF is more concerning at the external level than at the domestic level.  At the external level. AF is about competition with rivals of America. It is about the refusal to accept the subjection of the conduct and management of international political governance to the whims and caprices of the U.S. With the policy of AF, non-acceptance of the whims and caprices of the U.S. carries a modicum of sanctions against recalcitrants: withdrawal of U.S. membership of ‘enemy’ international organisations, non-payment of assessed dues to some international organisations, etc. As good and patriotic as the doctrine of AF may be, it has generally been challenged differently by rivals of the U.S. The universally-acknowledged good image of the United States has been soiled.

As regards MAGA, its implementation is by manu militari, as illustrated by the Israelo-U.S. war of aggression on Iran. The launching on 28 February, 2026 of Operation Epic Fury by the U.S is much concerning. The operation was carried out in collaboration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who described his own operation as ‘Operation Roaring Lion’ which was personally given by him. The set objectives of the operations were the destruction of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, naval facilities, and missile sites. The destruction of military infrastructure, in itself, was condemnable because the rationale for it was driven by fear of Iran developing nuclear capability over which both the U.S. and Israel may not eventually have control. However, and most unfortunately too, the destruction did not stop at the level of military assets. It also included the brutal killings of perceived leaders and intellectuals responsible for ‘Making Iran Great Again’ (MIGA). Iran had earlier been attacked by the U.S and Israel and kept under severe international sanctions but Iran survived the hostility. This prompted the second aggression of 28 February, 2026 in which more than 40 government officials were targeted and killed in a special raid on the residence of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Several leading physicists were specially targeted and killed. 

In the eyes of Donald Trump, the destruction of military arsenals and killing of people is ‘justice for the people of Iran’ as well as for ‘all great Americans’ that had been killed by Iranian leaders considered as ‘thugs.’ As noted in “A World Divided: Global Reactions to the Iran War,” published in the India’s World of April 6, 2026, Donald Trump told the Iranian public as follows: ‘seize control of your destiny. Take over your government. It will be yours to take.’ This is an unnecessary interference in the political governance of Iran and one reason why Donald Trump’s AF and MAGA are disgraceful in implementation, notorious in design, and lawless a doctrine in outcome. This act is not in any way a surprise: the U.S. and Israel had no due regard for international humanitarian law that compels all Member States of the international community not to target civilians and internationally-protected people for killing. Hospitals, educational institutions, non-combatants, etc. are legally and internationally protected. However, they were indiscriminately killed. This cannot be helpful to any good image-making for a surviving super-power.

And perhaps more disturbingly, the US is on record to have been signing critical international agreements but have not always ratified them. In 1996, US signed the nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty but never ratified it. The implication is that the U.S. is not obligated by the nuclear weapons non-proliferation agreement. The same is true of the Rome Statute governing the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC does not prosecute States but individuals. It is a court of last resort. In this regard, what beauty is there for the United States refusing to accept the Rome Statute but is compelled to be lobbying signatories to be able to protect U.S. soldiers accused of war crimes? What is the meaning of not ratifying the nuclear non-proliferation treaty but asking others to comply with the same treaty?

The policy attitude of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is more notorious than AF and MAGA, especially in relationship to the war with Iran. At the Israeli domestic level, the battles with Iran have only temporarily come to an end, but the war is still far from being concluded. The fruits of intellectual capability in Iran have not been destroyed. What have been destroyed are products of the intellectual capability. Even if the perceived physicists responsible for the manufacture of the destroyed military arsenals have been killed, it cannot but be a matter of time for a new generation of physicists to emerge. For as long as Israel is opposed to the UN recommendation of a Two-State solution, Israel should be permanently prepared to live under fear, especially that the likelihood of another Donald Trump that will buy into Israeli genocidal machinations for the purposes of self-survival, is not likely in the next century.

It should be remembered that it took decades of Israeli monitoring of uranium enrichment in Iran without being able to stop the enrichment. True enough, Netanyahu has been warning about Iranian nuclear weapon development since 1995. Netanyahu said in 1995 that Iran would have a nuclear bomb within 3 to 5 years. He noted in 1996 that the clock was running out; and, in 2006, that Iran was capable of producing 26 nuclear bombs. In 2012, Netanyahu told the UNGA that Iran was 6 months from having a nuclear weapon. In 2015, he said Iran was weeks away from a nuclear arsenal and needed to be bombed immediately. In 2018, Netanyahu reiterated the same warning; and in 2025, he said Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. How short is the time: weeks, months, or years? In the thinking of Netanyahu, it cannot be a matter of years but weeks, not to say months. The fear that if Iran is not forcefully and immediately neutralised on time, Israel’s hegemony in the region, and particularly its opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian State next to it as a contiguous neighbour, might be easily thrown into the garbage of history. This largely explains the need to mount pressure on Donald Trump to accept to launch the pre-emptive attack on Iran on 28 February 2026. 

The pre-emptive aggression has come and gone but the aftermath has become more complex to manage than the conduct and management of war strategies. It now requires more battles to ensure Iran gets to table. Donald Trump is currently singing the songs of victory but has not bothered to ask himself at what cost, and particularly, asking how much it will cost to keep Iran permanently at bay. The situational reality as of today is that the hitherto international respect for the U.S. has drastically declined. The traditional allies of the U.S. are turning their back on American. TRUMP is ‘The Ruining of a Misguided Policy.’ Donald has become synonymous with ‘Disgrace of New American Leadership Doctrine,’ while Trump ow means ‘The Recklessness of Untamed and Misguided Politics.’ 

TRUMP:  The Recklessness of Untamed and Misguided Policy 

At the U.S. domestic level, there is the reported blatant refusal of some U.S. Generals to comply with the war directives of President Donald Trump to engage on total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The Generals reportedly re-interpreted the directive as a non-targeted interdiction of specific vessels and a complete shutdown of the waterway. They talk about re-interpreting the order and mutiny and came out with a war plan, quite different from that of Donald Trump. 

In this regard, instead of stopping all vessels trading with Iran regardless of their origin, the Generals opted to arrest only vessels originating from Iran, in the strong belief that President Trump is not making rational decision and not operating with a cognitive judgement. They not only noted that his decisions are increasingly reflecting decline in rational decision-making, but also that his instruction is unworkable, especially that the U.S. blockade is about 300 kilometres from the coastlines of Iran. The long distance makes it possible for Iranian vessels to unload and still transfer its goods to another vessel, as well as change the bills of laden and go elsewhere, especially to UAE, to offload. In fact, the Generals think that President Trump cannot be trusted anymore to give sound military orders. And inquisitively enough, what does President Trump want by instructing that U.S. nuclear bombs be tested? Does he want to try another Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Iran? Without any jot of exaggeration, any nuclear weapons test in Iran cannot but be the commencement of a Third World War which all Americans will have to carry as a heavy burden but which their necks may not be able to carry.

At the international level, the AF and MAGA are good in design but reckless and ruinous in implementation. A first comprehensive manifestation of the ruin was given by the Travel Guides & Travelogues (vide www.travelandtourworld.com) on April 18, 2026: escalation of maritime tensions; flight disruptions, airport restrictions, and closure of key airports in the region; serious repatriation challenges of stranded nationals; restricted airspace difficult evacuation of citizens; more than 400,000 French to be evacuated in the region; Italy similarly had about 50,000 citizens to be evacuated; blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by the U.S., after Iran had ended its own blockade following the Islamabad ceasefire accord; disruption of the passage of 20% crude oil and energy, etc.

A second manifestation of the AF and MAGA in the United Kingdom is the controversy surrounding the closure of the Foreign Office Unit which had been tracking breaches of international law by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon under the pretext of seeking to cut down on the overseas aid budget to 0.3% of gross national income. The problem is not simply about the need to cut down on spending, but the twin problem of respecting or not respecting international law, on the one hand, and why the closure of the Foreign Service Unit at this material time, on the other hand.

As reported in The Guardian (London), Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, said that ‘it might be tempting to think that international law and the role of international frameworks are out of date, and that in championing them, we somehow cherish rules over national interests. Well, I reject that view, because we’re not just defending the status quo.’ Additionally, Cooper reportedly said, ‘the role that rules-based frameworks play is vital, and respect for the rule of law is a core British value that supports our national interest, underpins our economic stability, makes us a reliable place for international investment, while the whole world spins around us and underpins our security and prosperity.’ And perhaps most significantly, Cooper made it clear that ‘it’s in Britain’s interests to be a dependable power, a country that keeps its word, a stable base for investment and a partner of choice.’ 

As valid as the concerns of Yvette Cooper might be, the U.K. Director of Human Rights Watch, Yasmine Ahmed, has asked why there should be a cut in the funding of the Foreign Office Unit ‘when there were continued significant violations of international law and atrocity crimes being committed across the world.’ Put differently and interrogatively, is the respect for international law a British national interest? If it is, is it more important than other British national interests? Why is the closure of the Unit coming immediately on the heels of Yvette Cooper’s promise about three weeks ago to respect and support international law? Has the UK not been infested by Donald Trump’s virus of disrespect for international law? The truth here is that the closure of the Foreign Office Unit necessarily cuts and removing funding and support for the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) which, in the words of Patrick Wintour and Sinéad of The Guardian, ‘is the only programme in the UK that collects, verifies and analyses human rights and conflict incidents in Israel and in the occupied territories.’ Why should a Unit warning about potential atrocities be closed down? Why should Britain prefer to lose access to a database of 26,000 verified incidents in the Middle East’?

A third critical manifestation is the new tension between the U.S and the European Union (EU), on the one hand, and within the EU, on the other. The EU is opposed to the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Iran. The opposition is consistent with the requirements of international humanitarian law. President Trump has not helped the matter by again using foul language to insult many European leaders and governments to the extent that a coalition of 22 signatories to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are currently considering a new plan to restructure the NATO in which the US will be excluded from the command structure. Canada and Australia are part of the new coalition, whose essential strategy is to make the strategic control European-led and operate independently of the Pentagon and the White House (vide Frum Report on “Generals Stopped Trump; Reel by Frum Report facebook.com). 

Reportedly, the rationale for this is a resultant from President Trump’s telephone discussion with the Finish leader, Alexander Stubbe, who, after the discussion, said Europe is now prepared to accept responsibility for its own safety and security control. Perhaps in anger and unexpectedly, President Trump replied that the NATO was never for the US defence, which is a white lie. It is a white lie because, under Article 5 of the NATO, which is on collective defence, the clause was invoked only once and that was in 2001, to defend the U.S. in Afghanistan, following the 911 saga in 2001.

The most ruinous manifestation of the AF and MAGA is apparently the unintended effect, which is anti-America new policy stand. Hungary under Viktor Orban (the closest ally of the US, has just been voted out of power apparently in protest against the US and the NATO. In fact, the new Hungarian Prime Minister, Peter Biargar Magyar, has said seeking to speak with Donald Trump is not his priority and that if Donald Trump telephones him, he would pick up his call and speak with him in the spirit of diplomatic independence. This suggests that Europe’s diplomatic independence is on the increase.

For instance, Spanish Prime Minister has already gone to Beijing while France is said to be repositioning its diplomatic relationships. Germany, is now more committed to the EU strategic autonomy. Saudi Arabia has also decided to formulate policies based exclusively on its own national interests. Saudi Arabia is also prepared to sell its oil in non-dollar currencies, especially in Yuan and Rubbles. The fate of the US dollar as an important international currency is therefore at stake. The dollar has been a major instrument of U.S. self-projection, but which may no longer be. 

And questionably, can there really be an end to the war? The Islamabad ceasefire talks have no good future: Iran said at the end of 21 hours of negotiations between US and Iran that

the maximum concession it was prepared to offer on its nuclear programme is 5-year delay and not at all dismantlement, not surrender of its existing enriched uranium. It is after the 5-year delay that further enrichment at whatever level can be determined. The U.S. still finds this unacceptable. This is a situation of order and counter-order, possibly amounting to a disorder. The U.S. negotiators are the Vice President, JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Whitcomb. The Iranian delegation is led by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Speaker in the Parliament. Other members are Abbas Arachi, the Foreign Minister; Ali Bagheri Kani, Deputy to the National Security Council; and Abdolnaser Hemmati, the Central Bank Governor).

Grosso modo, the implementation of AF and MAGA in Iran has generated a global inflation rate of 6% while the economic growth rate has been predicted by the IMF to be only 2% in 2026. The situation cannot but worsen with Iran’s consideration to possibly extend the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea. 

As such, Donald Trump graciously came up with a patriotic doctrine of ‘America First’ and ‘Make America Great Again,’ but ungraciously bastardised the doctrine. He made the doctrine disgraceful and notorious in implementation to the extent that the U.S. of hitherto enviable and respected people are now seen with discontent, disrespect, and don’t care attitude.  Even if the U.S. wins the battles and the war, the international image of the U.S. has been tainted. U.S is no more seen as democratic, it is seen as a very dishonest broker in international relations. What the U.S. and Israel cannot achieve through democracy and diplomacy, they wrongly believe in the use of force to achieve it. War on Iran is a very myopic strategic miscalculation, especially by not addressing the major dynamic of the conflict, which is Iran’s nuclear capability aspiration. True, Iran already has nuclear capability know-how. This is why Benjamin Netanyahu has been warning to no avail about Iranian nuclear weapon development. Most unfortunately, Donald Trump has given the whole world the opportunity to understand the meaning of his true name: DONALD meaning “Disgrace of New American Leadership Doctrine.” And TRUMP, meaning “The Recklessness of Untamed and Misguided Policy. There is nothing wrong with AF and MAGA but several things are fundamentally wrong with the mania of implementation of the policies, especially the aspect of braggadocio that has come to characterise it. If some countries are assisted to acquire nuclear capability, others seeking to acquire it by themselves should not be prevented. This is what AF and MAGA must first resolve in the spirit of fairness and justice if the U.S greatness and respect is to be restored and meaningful.