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The United States finds itself on the verge of a wider conflict and potential economic downturn. The current leaders of the U.S. empire and their followers have doubled down on their adherence to illusions and delusions, reminiscent of an evangelical couple reaffirming their vows at a mega-church event.
My writings since 2025 have aimed at highlighting this shared commitment to unreality among Americans and their leaders, as well as the escalating challenge of sustaining our shared misconceptions. It appears that I have no choice but to continue this examination.
An element of this chaos is the belief that if the Democrats regain control, everything will miraculously improve. Yesterday, I addressed this notion, particularly criticizing Barack Obama whilst applying the religious test Jesus provided for assessing prophets.
Surprise, surprise: Obama does not measure up.
Today, however, our focus shifts to the figure of Donald Trump and those who follow him into the realm of fantasy.
Trump in ‘Deciding Mode’ on Iran
On a day when his feed on Truth Social contained unmistakable imperialist rhetoric:
POTUS Trump informed Fox News’ Trey Yingst of his thoughts, saying, “My question is, when and how do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave.”
According to the NY Post’s summary of the conversation:
Trump indicated that “very big things are going to be happening” soon, having left a retreat at Camp David a day earlier to return to the White House. In the discussion with Trey Yingst, he outlined three potential courses for Iran: negotiate a deal with the U.S., face economic decay, or see the regime vanquished entirely.
“He remarked to Fox News that he is in a ‘deciding mode’ and that significant developments will transpire soon,” Yingst recounted.
It’s surprising Trump even had the bandwidth to contemplate Iran, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia while spearheading a much more immediate initiative: banning CNN, MSNow, and Politico from the White House press pool. Priorities!
Moreover, there was this intriguing announcement:
At the United States Military’s strong request, I have agreed to transform the long-planned Triumphal Arch at the Receptive Circle near the Arlington Memorial Bridge into an advanced Military Complex/Triumphal Arch. This facility will house and store a large quantity of drones and ammunition while enabling rapid operational capabilities. Washington, D.C., is notably the only major city globally that lacks a Triumphal Arch, but it will soon feature the greatest of them all! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Fortunately, the crisis unfolded on a Sunday rather than a Friday, although MBS placed his call on Thursday, allowing Trump an entire weekend for consideration.
Just Kidding: Trump Flounders Again
The New York Times provided further insights:
On Sunday, the president hesitated but eventually decided against participating in combined strikes with Saudi Arabia against the Houthis in Yemen; however, he still requires the kingdom’s collaboration in his operations against Iran.
Trump demonstrated a masterclass in indecision:
On Thursday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urgently called the president to once again seek assistance against the rapidly advancing Houthis. Trump had met with his advisors the previous day and expressed disinterest in military action. However, following his conversation with the crown prince, he instructed the Pentagon to prepare for strikes against the Houthis. Yet by midday Sunday, he seemingly reversed that decision, opting against immediate U.S. airstrikes.
I must also criticize The Times for consistently labeling Ansar Allah as “the Houthis” and for blaming them for reigniting the conflict with Saudi Arabia:
The president had wavered for weeks regarding Saudi requests for assistance in fighting the Houthis, who capitalized on the regional instability and rekindled their war with the kingdom this summer.
Despite this, the mainstream media is not without merit, as they have collectively chosen to boycott (even Fox News has joined in) Trump’s White House pressers until CNN, Politico, and MSNow are welcomed back, according to USA Today:
Major television networks have halted their White House pool coverage, refusing to send camera crews for Trump’s events, standing in solidarity with CNN following Trump’s access denial to reporters from three outlets.
With President Xi of China scheduled to visit on Thursday, one must wonder: if the media doesn’t cover Trump, does he even exist?
But we’ll leave that existential quandary for Deranged Donny to ponder, as it’s not just Trump who is operating under a delusion. His military leaders appear equally misguided.
Raisin’ Caine: Deeply Deluded, but Hedging His Bets
On the 16th, General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference and stated (quote at 14:03):
“We must ensure that the United States of America can strike anywhere globally at the time and place of our choosing, continually sustaining that force.”
While Raisin’ Caine’s overall statements may not be completely detached from reality, some of the other claims from his speech raise eyebrows:
Future conflicts will necessitate operations without the assumption of unrestricted access or secure support lines. We must presume our formations will face autonomous threats, suffer jamming across the spectrum, and remain under real-time surveillance.
Contrast Caine’s declarations on sustaining force with the questionable state of U.S. military resources in West Asia (noting that officials have contested stockpile reports):
| Item | Figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| THAAD interceptors | ~80% expended | Against pre-war inventory |
| Patriot interceptors | ~50% expended | Since the war began |
| Munitions, first 16 days | 6,000+ | Offensive and defensive combined |
| Patriot replacements | ~3.5 years | FY27-budget rounds to the front line |
| Tomahawk replacements | ~4 years | Contract-to-delivery lag is 2–3 years |
| Virginia-class subs | 1.1–1.2 / yr | Funded at 2 per year since FY2011 |
| DDG-51 destroyers | +25 months | Delay growth over three years |
| Golden Dome, as sold | $175bn | Operational by 2029, per Trump |
| Golden Dome, per program manager | $185bn | “Way out into the 2035 timeframe” |
| Golden Dome, per CBO | up to $1.2tn | Over 20 years; CBO finds a true cost “impossible” to ascertain |
Interestingly, Caine’s remarks about modern warfare disregard the tactics employed by Ansar Allah during their recent successful breaches of Saudi and Emirati defenses in South Yemen, which took place over six days, culminating on the 16th — the very day of his speech.
According to History Legends, the assault involved stealthy infantry maneuvers rather than mechanized combat. Six-to-seven-person teams advanced on foot while utilizing drone reconnaissance, machine guns, and terrain advantages to bypass stronger defensive positions.
Meanwhile, the PLC’s own advertised offensive — a 180 km advance across open desert from Marib toward Sanaa — stalled at Sirwah on September 9, restrained by anti-tank missile fire.
I wonder if anyone has informed General Dan that the forces responsible for blocking Bab al-Mandab accomplished their feat through foot-soldier tactics, deftly outmaneuvering their U.S.-equipped adversaries.
Zero Chance Pete Hegseth Follows the Tactical Deets
In stark contrast, Secretary of Defense War Pete Hegseth seemed set on distorting a passage from the Book of Isaiah in a speech at Texas A&M on the 19th:
@SECWAR “This is our first stop on what we are calling the SEND ME TOUR. If you know your Book of Isaiah, Chapter 6, Verse 8, the Lord said, ‘Whom shall I send?’ Isaiah responds, ‘Lord, I AM HERE. SEND ME…’
For 250 years of this country, there have been men and women who RAISED… pic.twitter.com/inmpL5Dm6D
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) September 19, 2026
The DOW also shared an amusing highlight featuring Jake and Logan Paul, social media influencers turned combat sports professionals, addressing military personnel:
Last Thursday, we welcomed Logan and Jake Paul to the Pentagon to meet with our warriors. pic.twitter.com/NiRJVWb2Rc
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) September 20, 2026
This certainly evokes images of Bing Crosby rallying the troops during WW2 (podcast audio link), doesn’t it?
Explaining the Irrational
Kit Klarenberg from Grayzone and Bryce Greene from American Exception appeared on Professor Karim Bettache’s BettBeat Media show for a discussion titled, “The Empire Is Speedrunning Its Own Collapse,” offering insights that are quite revealing:
Bryce Greene: The American military-industrial complex primarily serves to enrich a handful of individuals in Northern Virginia with luxurious lifestyles. It is not designed to produce effective battlefield weaponry.
Kit Klarenberg: Many have internalized the erroneous belief that the U.S. is an invincible hegemon when, in reality, it absolutely is not.
Greene: We are standing at the edge of a precipice, and while some are beginning to recognize the danger, the true depth of that cliff remains largely unacknowledged.
Klarenberg: Attempts to achieve these misguided objectives signal a rapid acceleration toward self-destruction for Israel and the Western nations that support its existence.
There’s also a hilariously absurd anecdote from Klarenberg about Neil Bush (son of George H.W. Bush and brother to George W. Bush) during his visit to Kosovo in the 1990s. Neil struggled to understand how people there identified as Albanian and needed to be informed of their Muslim identities:
Klarenberg: “Can you picture visiting a foreign nation where your relatives are regarded as deities, akin to a cargo cult, and being utterly oblivious of their identities? That encapsulates the imperial mindset.”
However, both Greene and Klarenberg caution that the most influential figures within the Trump military hierarchy may be the most desperate and irrational.
The Pentagon is drafting a nuclear strategy that revolves around expanded options — moving away from strategic weapons targeting an adversary’s arsenal toward tactical nuclear weapons for regional conflicts. Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, has pushed for years to maintain the capability for limited nuclear warfare and is currently reevaluating nuclear engagement protocols with StratCom’s Adm. Richard Correll, seeking “rationally employable, limited options.” The results of their review will remain classified.
It’s essential to understand that U.S. allies are led by equally unhinged elites.
What Exactly Does MBS Think He’s Doing?
This question lingers following the Saudis’ decision to break their four-year truce with Ansar Allah after the Ayatollah’s funeral.
Lebanese journalist Laith Marouf joined former UK diplomat Ian Proud to discuss Yemen’s successes against the Saudis, expressing confusion over Mohammed bin Salman al Saud’s seeming irrationality.
Marouf argues that a rational leader would have concluded the Yemen conflict to protect oil and gas exports from the Red Sea; instead, Riyadh is “poking the hornet’s nest” at a time when American presence is waning. His verdict: “not an act of a rational player, but of a total vassal that cannot prioritize its national interests or survival.”
Laith Marouf: The Saudi regime is going to suffer the consequences of this war more than any other vassal regime, primarily due to its sizable population of 40 million. Despite its wealth, Saudi Arabia faces entrenched poverty and homelessness even before this conflict.
With significant investments in Western economies, their access to vital resources is compromised. Their regime faces existential threats, as their vast population cannot be easily managed like that of smaller Gulf states.
How can this regime endure when every segment of its society is becoming increasingly alienated?
Even with knowledge of MBS’s controversial rise to power, I can muster a measure of sympathy for him. His financial contributions to the Trump family’s fortune speak volumes:
| What | Amount | When | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi-financed lobbying firm books ~500 nights at Trump’s DC hotel | $270,000 | 2016–17 | Paid |
| Payments to Trump properties during first term | $615,422 | 2017–18 | Paid, amount established |
| PIF commitment to Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners | $2,000,000,000 | Jun 2021 | Committed |
| Management fees from it (1.25% through Dec 2024) | $87,500,000 | 2021–24 | Paid |
| Additional fees scheduled through to Aug 2026 | ~$90,000,000 | 2025–26 | Contracted |
| LIV Golf hosting fees at Trump venues | ~$6,000,000 | 2022–26 | Forbes estimate |
| Dar Global licensing fees | $15,900,000 | 2025 | Disclosed to OGE |
| Announced value of Trump-branded Saudi pipeline | $10,000,000,000 | 2025–26 | Project value |
| Total fees and payments traced to the family | ~$200,300,000 | 2016–2026 | Sum of all above |
Nevertheless, one significant challenge looms over these deals from Trump’s perspective: the projected deficit in Saudi Arabia’s 2026 budget of 165 billion riyals ($44 billion). Oops.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of Ansar Allah, mockingly sympathizes with MBS:
😭 He cooking Saud pic.twitter.com/ovm9KkgolT
— COMBATE |🇵🇷 (@upholdreality) September 20, 2026
Transcript of the English translation:
The milk cow — they’ve milked her so much,
her udder now aches, it pains her.
For milking, that is one brutal grip.
How their king looks at Trump with those broken eyes
the day he visited Saudi Arabia.
He gazes at Trump like this — that same broken look.
He forces and strains himself to get up and dance for him.
And at times he prays to Allah seated,
yet he forces himself up on his feet to dance for Trump.
What a strange state of affairs.
Prof. Bettache highlighted another aspect of MBS’s mental state that Marouf may have overlooked:
I observe ongoing discussions in independent media about why MBS remains irrational. Why does he persist in fighting the Yemenis? If he were to make peace with them, perhaps he could secure his own position. I maintain that he is deeply entwined in U.S. imperialism, rendering peace impossible. If he were to acknowledge a group like Ansar Allah, he would face revolt within his own kingdom. He simply cannot afford to do that due to overwhelming material pressures.
However, let’s not dwell on MBS; let’s consider a possibly even more craven set of U.S. allies.
What Planet Are European Elites Living On?
Simplicius recently published a comprehensive piece titled “War Mania: Security Crisis Announced.” He argues:
A fresh wave of world-war hysteria has emerged, engulfing Europe in a frenzied panic. The continent’s security situation is deemed “deteriorating,” and the war sirens are rapidly escalating. Much of this turmoil stems from two recent European summits: the NATO Military Committee Conference and Zelensky’s “Carpathian Eight” Summit, involving leaders including Poland’s Tusk.
Media narratives across the West uniformly propagate sensationalist war-mongering, despite many supposed “attacks” actually being the work of Ukrainian drones or saboteurs, facts systematically ignored.
It exemplifies military sophistry: when your nation is collapsing amid losing a significant conflict, there’s a mad call to invade the largest military alliance globally to snatch victory from defeat. This is what European puppet leaders are pitching to their gullible citizens!
This is indeed absurd. None of the NATO countries in Europe possesses the military, industrial, or moral capability to genuinely confront Russia.
What are they thinking?
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the George W. Bush administration, explains the perplexing behavior of European leaders during an August interview:
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: I am acutely aware of the impact we had on Europe. I know how meticulously the CIA, SIS, MI6, and at times even Mossad operated in forming relationships. We essentially taught them how to react, investing billions in their political infrastructure. We bought media outlets, labor union heads, parliamentarians, and cultivated entire nations to ensure they adhered to U.S. and NATO policies since 2002. This process weaponized “liberal democracy.”
Wilkerson has previously clarified that U.S. efforts to control European leadership intensified after France and Germany declined to support the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2002-2003.
Such a coercive framework of think tanks, scholarships, blackmail, and compromise enables American influence, ensuring European leaders succumb to U.S. directives.
In summary, their actions aren’t motivated by true belief; they are products of intimidation and financial coercion.
As for Trump and his entourage, their motivations for clinging to these delusions seem far more intricate.
What do I know? I’m just documenting these calamities.
Stay safe, everyone.
For more of my work, follow and support at NatWilsonTurner.com.
Related Posts:
- Interregnum of Unreality 2008-???
- The Twin Pillars of the Interregnum of Unreality Are Under Stress
- The Mask of Unreality Slipping?
- Delusion, Deception and Dipshittery: Hasbara on the 8th Front
- Who’s Delusional, Who’s Drugged, Who’s Disinformed? It’s Hard to Tell
- Doomsday Delusions, Iran Eschaton Edition
- Narrative Wars as US Media Struggles to Manufacture Consent
- Censorship, Surveillance, and Spin: EU, UK, and Ukraine Aim to Control the Narrative
- Self-Dealing and Self-Deluding: Two Aspects of Trump and His Associates
- Iran War: Ansar Allah Takes Mocha and the Bab el-Mandeb Islands, Putting Both Chokepoints in Play
- Iran War: Narrative Dissolution as Ceasefire Continues Except in Lebanon
- Iran War: Rising Tensions, Problematic Negotiations, PsyOps, and Alarming Developments
- Iran War: Trump in China, Ship Seized in the Strait, War Powers Vote Approaches, Saudis Make Peace Moves
- Iran War: Inflation Impacting U.S., More to Come, Don’t Inform Mr. Market
- Hegseth, Altman, and Zuckerberg: Elite Impunity Gone Awry
