What Trump’s defeat means for US imperialism

When Trump returned to the White House, the liberal media lamented the “return of imperialism”, as if the rules-based order had been free of it. Now that Trump has been crushed in the midterms, the same voices are telling us that a return of the Democrats will bring a more peaceful era. But that is not the case…

In this episode of Against the Stream, Victor Murray is joined by Jorge Martín of the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International to look at what Trump’s weakening means for US imperialism around the world.

In the Middle East, Israel has become a toxic brand in American politics, and the US is left with no good options in Iran: accept a humiliating deal, restart a war it cannot win, or keep up economic pressure that Iran can withstand longer than America can withstand high oil prices. In Ukraine, peace talks are going nowhere while a string of corruption scandals – from solid gold toilets to a businessman with a live crocodile in his office – go completely unreported in the Western media. In Latin America, the so-called “Trumpification” of the continent is already unravelling.

But the Democrats are no alternative. From Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs to Obama’s sanctions on Venezuela and Biden’s blank cheque for the genocide in Gaza, the record shows that US imperialism has always been bipartisan.

Meanwhile, the other side of the coin is unfolding across Europe, with general strikes in Spain, France, Italy and Greece, and a youth strike against militarism on 20 November. Far from things cooling down, the perspective is one of the accelerating crisis of capitalism, and further waves of class struggle.

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📖 Recommended reading 📖 JD Vance’s midterm post mortem https://x.com/JDVance/status/2118004988433641835?a=djGSOYyzurIrWKSbNeo&s=20National Security Strategy | The White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf After midterm losses, AIPAC appears to have become a liability in many races | The Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-midterm-losses-aipac-appears-to-have-become-a-liability-in-many-races/Iran ’s Theory of Victory | Foreign Affairs [mistakenly referenced as Foreign Policy in the show]https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/irans-theory-victory Ruben Gallego on X: "No that’s the beauty of this, we can pay the Ukrainians to kill the Russians."https://x.com/RubenGallego/status/2119932831317283086The Trumpification of Latin America – what next? | Revolutionary Communist International https://marxist.com/the-trumpification-of-latin-america-what-next

⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️ 0:00 Introduction 2:11 Trump, Israel and the midterms 12:56 Iran: America has no good options 24:11 Ukraine: peace talks and internal crisis 43:27 The Trumpification of Latin America unravels

48:06 Will the Democrats bring peace?

53:09 Europe’s wave of general strikes 🫵 Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm 📚 Marxist literature: https://wellred-books.com/ 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68nGNHz5lB8UZXICGIDMva?si=682ef70551644443 📱 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-stream/id1777793987 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/ 💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/