By Randy Alonso Falcon on August 26, 2026
“They bring desolation and call it peace.” – Gaius Cornelius TacitusImperial politics has always been a mixture of arrogance, lies, manipulation and inconsistencies. These are part of its tools of power.
The renowned philosopher and political scientist Hannah Arendt said: “The result of constantly substituting lies for the truth is not that the lies are accepted as truth, but that the sense by which we orient ourselves in the world—the faculty of judgment—is destroyed.”
Fidel would tell us something similar in the 21st century when he spoke of the premeditated intention to nullify our ability to think.
Consistency, obviously, is not the current U.S. administration’s strong suit. It is difficult to expect consistency from President Trump, with all his political maneuvers and upheavals—let alone from his team of sycophants.
Looking at the statements made by imperial leaders in recent days, one can gauge the hyperbole and cynicism of imperial politics, designed to deceive, confuse, and dominate.
Donald Trump’s arguments regarding the purposes of the war against Iran—first, to achieve regime change; second, to contain Tehran’s nuclear program (supposedly destroyed in the June 2025 attacks); and finally, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz (which was never closed prior to this conflict)— are now taking a new turn as the aggression enters its sixth month and the U.S. midterm elections draw near.
Vice President J.D. Vance has just stated that his administration has a new priority objective for the war: to lower energy prices for American consumers, which have skyrocketed precisely as a result of the imperial conflict unleashed by Washington. “That is the number one goal: to keep oil and gas affordable for Americans across our country,” he declared on Fox News.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is doing his part to fuel the imperial desperation over Iran. In recent statements, he unashamedly invoked the sacrosanct International Law: “Iran must act. Iran has violated International Law by blocking the Strait of Hormuz.”
Without missing a beat, his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi retorted: “International Law? Where was that when the United States attacked a school, blockaded Cuba, and kidnapped the president of Venezuela?”
After proclaiming victory in the military war—which everyone knows he lost—the U.S. president now declares that the strategy is an “unprecedented” economic war with all manner of sanctions against Iran. Wasn’t that already the case before the February 28 attacks?
According to the AP, “Whether out of desperation or strategy, the president is refocusing U.S. power on bringing Iran to its knees through an accelerated sanctions campaign against one of the world’s most economically battered countries.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled “Operation Economic Pariah” on Monday, through which the Donald Trump administration is threatening the Islamic Republic with total economic isolation. “We are unleashing an economic catastrophe against Iran’s financial connections around the world. Our goal is to cut off every economic lifeline supporting this tyrannical regime until Tehran is left completely isolated,” he said, without providing details or specific timelines for this “catastrophe.”
In response to the threat, Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi posted on X on Friday a history of U.S. sanctions against Iran, saying: “We’ve seen this movie before. The same bluster. Different bullies.”
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, the White House has launched a crusade—including threats against Congress—to reform the electoral system. President Trump is pushing for changes to voting by mail and the administration of voter registration. To that end, he introduced—so far unsuccessfully—the so-called “SAVE America Act.” According to him, the 2020 election was stolen from him through fraud in voting by mail.
In his speech marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, Trump called for an end to the filibuster in the Senate and for the passage of the SAVE America Act, asserting: “We are not going to lose an election in 100 years”. Blatantly, his institutional reform was presented as a tool to ensure partisan hegemony for a century.
But, surprise!, according to USA Today, voter Donald Trump has just voted by mail again in the Florida Republican primary.
As a man of insight like Winston Churchill once said with typical British sarcasm: “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve exhausted every other possibility.” And often not even then.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Walter Lippmann