American families scramble for groceries, but Trump throws a blowout at Mar-a-Lago. The theme? “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody.” It’s straight-up in-your-face provocation.
Maybe Trump’s not lying. The American Dream—he’s just exposing the ugly truth. In America, only the moguls get to dream. Everyone else? Forget it. That party at Mar-a-Lago? Luxury everywhere, feathered hairpieces sparkling, and champagne flooding the room. Dancers in flapper dresses swirling through the crowd, acrobats splashing inside giant golden martini glasses. It's pure Gatsby—vintage 1920s glitz.
Haruki Murakami, the famed writer did the Japanese version of “The Great Gatsby”, nailed it: 1920s was America’s “Jazz Age”. It was Fitzgerald’s playground, his prime. The book and a string of ten iconic short stories put him in the American classics club. Missed the Mar-a-Lago bash? Catch Leonardo DiCaprio’s Gatsby flick of 2013 and get swept up in that old-school dream.
The point is, Fitzgerald’s classic dropped in 1925. Back then, nobody saw the storm brewing, but the bubbles were stacking up beneath the surface, waiting to explode.
The Great Depression and the New Deal
“From 1929 to 1933, America took a nosedive. Factory output tanked by a third. Prices dropped twenty percent, and debt got even harder to pay off. Unemployment spiked from 4% to a whopping 25%. One-third of workers got shoved into low-wage, temp jobs. By the end, half the country was sitting idle.” Wikipedia spells it out. Sound familiar?
However, Fitzgerald was never there to see the brutality of life himself. After 1930, his writing days faded fast, and he died at the age of 44. “The great American writer” spent his final stretch trapped by booze, anxiety, and heartbreak.
But oh did God bless the United States. Roosevelt steps in during ’32, rolls out the “New Deal” a year later. Let’s call it what it is—Roosevelt gave the USA its first taste of socialism. If you think about it, Deng Xiaoping wasn’t the pioneer of mixing systems after all.
The New Deal rewires finance to block another meltdown like the Great Depression. Social Security comes online, labor standards get locked in, minimum wage, max hours. The SEC and FDIC show up to police Wall Street and protect bank deposits. America goes full “big government,” especially in the economy. Then war breaks out, and the New Deal taps out. That’s when American capitalism catches its second wind.
America and the never-ending War
Eisenhower holds the White House for eight years. Before leaving in ’61, he warns: “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience… In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” But look what happened next?
According to Xinhua, between WWII’s end and 2001, there were 248 armed conflicts in 153 regions worldwide. America started 201 of them. Since 2000, the US has unleashed its military everywhere—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria—selling the world “freedom, democracy, and human rights.” The result? The American war machine sets countries aflame, leaving over 900,000 dead, millions wounded, tens of millions running for their lives.
“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody.” That’s rich—while moguls and celebrities toast behind the velvet ropes of Mar-a-Lago, the rest choke on the fumes of old mistakes. Eisenhower warned about the war machine, but America’s elite ignored the alarm.
So here we are: the evil mist rolls in again, thick with class arrogance and broken dreams. The champions of decadence pick Halloween for their masquerade, parading shamelessly through the wreckage—then call it destiny.
Deep Blue
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Boys will be boys, I suppose. Diario AS captured the moment that stunned everyone. Marc Cucurella walked off in slides, hauling away the World Cup trophy his teammates had bled for, stuffed inside a see-through plastic bag. What was that about?
Rewind to the trophy ceremony itself. Trump handed the World Cup to Spain's captain Rodri, then simply refused to step aside and let the players have their moment. Online users mocked him for "clinging to the stage." FIFA President Gianni Infantino eventually had to physically steer the US president to the side of the podium. Nothing like it had happened in the World Cup's 96-year history.
Here is a theory, purely speculation. The Spanish players were furious but dared not say so out loud. So back in the locker room, they may have drawn lots to pick someone to speak for the team. Cucurella, whose curly hair sets him apart from Dutch legend Ruud Gullit in his own distinctive way, drew the short straw. He answered with a piece of postmodern performance art, mocking the graceless guest of honor.
For real, both Cucurella and Trump share a certain eccentric streak, so who else would it be when a stunt like that is to be pulled off? Before the final, Cucurella had already promised that if Spain won, he would get head coach Luis de la Fuente's face tattooed on his body.
Calling this a national embarrassment might be a stretch. But the numbers back up at least part of the charge. A survey that has drawn global attention just landed. The Pew Research Center reported last week that in 25 of the 36 countries and territories surveyed, most respondents view China more favorably than the United States, and that group includes Canada and Mexico.
Pew ran the poll between February and May, right as the United States and Israel were at war with Iran. Who tanked America's image? The answer is written on the wall.
A Pew spokesperson said this marks the first time in 20 years that global respondents rated China more favorably than the United States. Views of the two countries had crept close before. A clear tilt toward China, though, is new. The spokesperson noted the shift is unfolding as Covid-19 fades from memory and America's global image keeps sliding.
It all adds up. This has all played out during Trump's presidencies 1.0 and 2.0, a genuine wake-up call.
Listen to what the Pew spokesperson actually said. There is a link between the outbreak of war, the sense that the United States is not contributing to peace and stability, and falling confidence in Trump. On top of that, Trump's push to annex Greenland, the US military's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and Washington's handling of the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas have all dragged America's approval ratings down further.
America's approval could still fall further. Why? Voters, through an indirect one-person-one-vote system, elected a president with the mental age of a five-year-old. Things were bound to go wrong. You and I both saw this coming, so there is little left to say. For reference, the countries that still hold a favorable view of the United States include Israel in first place, followed mainly by Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines, and Poland. Even in those countries, however, favorable views of the United States have been weakening in recent years.
One postscript. After Spain's victory, reporters asked Cucurella when he would honor his tattoo pledge. His reply: "I'll definitely get it somewhere visible!" Good, very good. The most important thing is not to embarrass yourself. Above all, do not fail on the tattoo and then serve up a TACO, "Trump Always Chickens Out," as a substitute payment.
One more thing. Within less than 24 hours, Cucurella's trophy-in-a-plastic-bag moment had already outshone Messi in online popularity.
