Trump's Belligerence Runs on Empty Arsenals and Class War

In the Middle East, President Donald Trump said negotiations between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz are "moving along", even as Iranian lawmakers move to bar U.S. and Israeli ships from the waterway under a joint venture with Oman to reopen it to commercial traffic (The Hill). Simultaneously, Republican Senator Ted Cruz urged Trump to arm Iranians to "let them overthrow their own government." The administration pursues diplomacy and regime change at once — two faces of the same imperial fist.

A Washington Post report reveals Trump privately raged at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, demanding to know why he'd been caught off guard by depleted munitions stockpiles. The leaks expose Trump's own serious screw-ups: he wrongly concluded the nature of the shortfall. The commander-in-chief discovers his war machine runs on hollowed-out logistics.

In Europe, NATO says its fighter jets were scrambled more than twice as often in July than during the same period last year to intercept Russian aircraft. The alliance's tempo accelerates while its arsenals shrink — a mismatch that puts pilots and ground crews at risk for geopolitical posturing.

The administration's economic war undermines its own industrial base. Trump ordered a 15 percent tariff on polysilicon, the critical feedstock for solar panels and microchips, primarily produced by China. The White House calls it protection for domestic supply chains. In reality, it raises input costs for manufacturers and installers, slowing the energy transition workers need while lining up the next round of corporate subsidies.

Workers bear the costs across every front. Munitions stockpiles sit depleted. NATO's scramble tempo has more than doubled. Tariffs on polysilicon raise input costs for domestic manufacturing. Meanwhile, wildland firefighters face deaths and close calls in an intense wildfire season that strains an already on-edge workforce (NPR). Insurers warn Europe faces a growing "protection gap" in wildfire cover as disaster recovery costs outpace insurance coverage — the climate bill comes due, and capital offloads it onto the public.

Domestically, the ruling class tightens discipline. A court-appointed UAW monitor stripped an organizer of membership for two years and barred him for life from union office after a death threat against a reform candidate (World Socialist Web Site). The labor bureaucracy polices its own ranks while the administration targets birthright citizenship by executive order after a Supreme Court loss (Los Angeles Times). In Tennessee, a Trump-endorsed incumbent lost a primary (Politico) — fractures appear in the coalition.

The contradictions pile up: an empire that cannot supply its own guns, a trade war that taxes the green transition, a climate crisis that burns through firefighters and insurance markets alike. The administration's bluster masks a hollowing state. Workers and the organized left see the seams splitting. The task is to widen them.