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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, May 07, 2026

OpEd: Thousands of miles from the Persian Gulf, economic and political shrapnel from the Iran war has left longtime American allies nervous about the staying power and stability of their partnerships with the United States.

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More from the OpEd ...

... The most recent spillover from the war has come in Europe: last week's sudden decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw 5,000 American troops from Germany.

But it's also been buffeting allies in the Asia Pacific, an area of the world Mr. Trump has made a primary foreign policy priority, ahead of his scheduled visit to Beijing later this month for talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Even before the war, Mr. Trump's use of tariffs to secure U.S. economic interests and his insistence that partners in both Europe and Asia significantly increase defense spending had made it clear the terms of engagement with the White House were changing.

But allied leaders were hopeful of being able to deliver the kind of loosened American commitment Mr. Trump wanted. And they were assuming U.S. officials would recognize that this transition would inevitably take time.

The Iran war -- launched alongside Israel without consulting other U.S. partners, and hitting their economies far harder than America's -- delivered a jolt of an entirely different order. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-05-07 03:51 PM | Reply

Even if Trump is alive when his term ends and he does actually leave office, the wreckage he has created and has yet to create will remain.

And amid that debris you will find this nation's credibility. After all, the US is a nation inhabited by people who live within a culture that voted to put a creature like Trump at the helm not once but twice - once after he attempted to stage a coup.

That will not be forgotten, and it will count.

"Don't mention the war!"
Fawlty Towers, "The Germans" (1975)

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-05-07 04:17 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

@2 Hi Doc Sarvis: That's exactly why California Gov Gavin Newsom's (D) words at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year rang so hollow:

"Don't give up on America. Trumpf's temporary-- he's gone in three years." [sic]

The lasting damage inflicted on America and the world will not simply disappear on 20 Jan 2029.

Moreover, the oligarchs, Republican senators, ICE, SCOTUS, airports and streets named after Dummkopf Trumpf or Charlie Kirk will all be here on 20 Jan 2029.

US currency will have Trumpf's name on it and US passports will bear his horrible visage.

Worse, tens of thousands of people will have needlessly died because USAID was dismantled and the BBB's pauperization of our social safety nets.

And the next non-Republican administration will have less money to work with and even less public lands or natural resources.

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-05-07 04:27 PM | Reply

Yup.

#4 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-05-07 04:35 PM | Reply

How very sad.

What a great gift we could do the world by impeaching and convicting Trump, and others in his cabal for insider trading.

I always told my wife, "mark my words. Trump will end up going down as the most reviled figure in American history."

I believe that will come to pass. Joe McCarthy is doing the happy dance.

#5 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2026-05-07 04:44 PM | Reply

In Europe, and now Asia, confidence in US support wavers

Good.
This is what I voted for.
--Boaz

#6 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-05-07 04:46 PM | Reply

US currency will have Trumpf's name on it and US passports will bear his horrible visage.

Fortunately, I've read that's only going to happen in the D.C. area. I wouldn't carry a passport with his image on it. Immediate cause for immigration agents in other countries to act adversely towards anyone with Trump on their passport.

Worse, tens of thousands of people will have needlessly died because USAID was dismantled and the BBB's pauperization of our social safety nets.

As you know, "soft power" has been America's strength, even after 9/11 as U.S. Marines and others went into villages in North Africa and elsewhere to help by doing everything from drilling wells to fitting people with glasses, some for the first time in their lives. We've lost our greatest tool.

And the next non-Republican administration will have less money to work with and even less public lands or natural resources.

America seems in the mood for massive tax increases on the 1%. Especially since almost everyone now knows megalomaniacs like Musk and Trump and Bezos have gotten away with paying practically $0.

Posted by C0RI0LANUS

#7 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2026-05-07 04:51 PM | Reply

Hi AU:

We're enjoying Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" (No 8 in B Minor) as I cook dinner and check in on drudge.com.

The next non-Republican administration will have a daunting task ahead of it and Congress will have to pass those taxes on the oligarchs.

Sadly AU, I'm not optimistic.

The next non-Republican administration should have NOBODY from Weimar Republic 2.0 that brought us to this calamity that we are all suffering through.

NOBODY.


#8 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-05-07 05:13 PM | Reply

@#8 ... NOBODY. ...

Even if that becomes the case, the damage is going to take a long time to repair. Trust is broken in a day, but takes months, sometimes years, to fix.

Combine that with our [former?] allies being quite aware of the MAGA electorate here in the US, and that any changes made buy a non-Republican administration could easily be wiped out if MAGA takes hold again.


#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-05-07 05:20 PM | Reply

#8 Coriolanus says, "...and Congress will have to pass those taxes on the oligarchs."

The only way that Congress will be able to pass those (much needed/much deserved) tax increases on the uber-wealthy is if the next Democratic president will have at his/her back a Congress that has absolute Congressional power

Absolute Congressional power in Washington DC = an absolute majority in the US Congress:
  • An overwhelming majority in the US House (more than a sliver) = the larger the Democratic victory in US House elections, the more power they have as proven by the vote of the American people (Gerrymandering be dammed). Once there are 290 Democrats, any Trump veto can be overwritten;

  • An overwhelming majority in the US Senate = the closer to 60 votes ensures that all Democratic-inspired legislation withstands any rightwing/GOP filibuster; the number 67 or greater ensures that both any presidential veto can be overwritten and any impeachment from the US House has a chance for conviction
For me, I am doing all I can in 2026 to promote and encourage any and all Democratic candidates - from the local to the federal level - - to beat their Republican opponent, to at least begin to put a check on the Trump and his administration.

That's what I am doing to help defeat MAGAism.

You?

#10 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-07 05:43 PM | Reply

#8 Coriolanus says, "...and Congress will have to pass those taxes on the oligarchs."

100% yes, Yes, YES...

How about we start taxing the uber-wealthy who have, for the past 40 years, been able to dodge their financial responsibilities that provide them with a country that protects them and their money and their property?

Not to mention the fact that this country has given them, the uber-wealthy, a nation of publicly educated wage-earners who can afford to buy their products/services?

How about that?

Afterall, ingratitude is a Cardinal Sin.

#11 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-07 05:47 PM | Reply

And on 21 Jan 2029, foreign interference in our politics will still bedevil the US.

What will stop it between 7 May 2026 and 20 Jan 2029?


#12 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-05-07 06:13 PM | Reply

#12 "And on 21 Jan 2029, foreign interference in our politics will still bedevil the US."

Why, yes it will.

"What will stop it between 7 May 2026 and 20 Jan 2029?"

Stop it?

I, and I suppose many, many people, would like American politics to turn on a dime.

Here's a dime, buy a clue

But it doesn't.

Nope. It is changed, one Congressional District (from red to blue) to another Congressional District (from red to blue).

It isn't exciting, turn-on-a-dime results... American politics does that rarely... 1974, 1980, 1992, 2006, 2008, 2010 (shellacking), 2018.

No, as I keep advising, look at the Powell Memorandum to the US Chamber of Commerce, and the concept behind the Overton Window.

If liberals and progressives are going to turn this ship of state around from the shoals upon which Trump/Republicans/"conservatives"/MAGA have stranded America...

... then we're going to have to do it together. Politics in America is a zero-sum game. My bet is on the Democratic Party and its candidates.

Anything else helps Trump/Republicans/"conservatives"/MAGA.

#13 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-07 06:28 PM | Reply

"I'm not Participating in the Elections.

Nobody in either party represents me.

If that helps the Republicans, I don't give a ----.

I'm not voting for people who help Killers.

It's that simple.

#33 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-05-03 04:43 PM

If that helps the Republicans, I don't give a ----.
If that helps the Republicans, I don't give a ----.
If that helps the Republicans, I don't give a ----.

Is that your belief, Coriolanus?

That if it helps the Republicans, you don't give a ---.

Is that your belief, Coriolanus?

If I didn't respect you I wouldn't care.

I care.

#14 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-07 06:51 PM | Reply

Close the 900+ US foreign military bases.

#15 | Posted by Petrous at 2026-05-07 08:57 PM | Reply

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