{"id":33394,"date":"2026-10-18T11:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=33394"},"modified":"2026-10-18T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:04:24","slug":"tomdispatch-president-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=33394","title":{"rendered":"TomDispatch: President Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"wp-block-intercept-editors-note\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-intercept-editors-note__content\">\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">Twenty-five years ago<\/span> \u2014 as the U.S. prepared to invade Afghanistan \u2014 Tom Engelhardt launched this publication as a form of pushback. TomDispatch began as an informal listserv offering commentary and collected articles from the global media to a select group of Tom\u2019s friends and colleagues. A year later, it gained its signature moniker and has been providing \u201ca regular antidote to the mainstream media\u201d ever since.<\/p>\n<p>As TomDispatch evolved into a proper publication, it became a stalwart of the independent media ecosphere and a clearinghouse for critical voices, from Barbara Ehrenreich and Chalmers Johnson to Andrew Bacevich and Ann Jones. It served as a syndication service for the left side of the internet, providing thousands of articles to sites like Alternet, AntiWar.com, Common Dreams, The Nation, Salon, and many others.<\/p>\n<p>Devoted to well-crafted, longform writing and typified by tough-but-measured commentary and hard-hitting essays, TomDispatch was a throwback to an earlier era of old-fashioned American muckraking journalism and iconic publications like I.F. Stone\u2019s Weekly. It succeeded because Tom understood something fundamental about writers, about readers, and <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/09\/11\/bin-laden-september-11-trump-america\/\">about the world after 9\/11<\/a> and what people needed to navigate it.<\/p>\n<p>A longtime book editor with a preternatural skill to slip, like a ghost, inside a good manuscript and turn it to gold, Tom used those same skills to publish three polished essays a week for more than two decades. He made good writers great and great writers better. His most astonishing feat may have been turning the ramblings of a grad student with a penchant for run-on rants into something readable. That was me, and because of Tom, I\u2019m writing this intro today. Tom turned over the reins of TomDispatch to me back in June, but you can still read excellent commentary from him, twice weekly, at his <a href=\"https:\/\/tomengelhardt.substack.com\/\">Substack<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tom has been fighting the good fight for his entire adult life, employing the written word \u2014 as a reporter, an essayist, an editor \u2014 in the service of making a better world. He deployed those skills against a criminal war in Vietnam when he was still a student. He did so as an editor and the author of a fantastic history of the Cold War, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/the-end-of-victory-culture-cold-war-america-and-the-disillusioning-of-a-generation-thomas-m-engelhardt\/d6c98df376c81c8a?ean=9781558495869\">The End of Victory Culture<\/a>.\u201d He did the same against the forever wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and so many other conflicts, at TomDispatch. And he continues doing so today, against the criminal conflict in Iran and the war on the planet itself. You don\u2019t hear the term public intellectual very much anymore. Nor national treasure. Tom is both. It\u2019s deeply gratifying to have him back at TomDispatch today.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2013 Nick Turse, editor of TomDispatch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/><!-- BLOCK(tipline)[0](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22TIPLINE%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22SHORTCODE%22%2C%22optional%22%3Atrue%7D)(%7B%7D) --><!-- CONTENT(tipline)[0] --><\/p>\n<p class=\"tipline-shortcode\">If you haven\u2019t yet,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/dispatch\/\">sign up to receive TomDispatch in your inbox here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- END-CONTENT(tipline)[0] --><!-- END-BLOCK(tipline)[0] -->\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-winner-on-a-losing-planet\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Winner on a Losing Planet<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do I even faintly believe the times I\u2019m living in?\u00a0 The simple answer is: no.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every now and then, I try to imagine going back in time to tell my long-dead parents about the world of President Donald Trump, which just happens to still be mine as well. Of course, they simply wouldn\u2019t have believed it, not for a single second.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To put it in the context of their time on this planet, the only equivalent I can imagine would be if Sen. Joseph McCarthy, that <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/01\/12\/house-jim-jordan-church-committee\/\">anticommunist nightmare-and-a-half<\/a> of the 1950s, hadn\u2019t flamed out, been censured by the Senate, and died young but somehow had made it to the White House. But even he undoubtedly would have fallen short in terms of chaos and cruelty, if judged by the standards of Trump World. A President McCarthy might have been catastrophic for America, but Trump is on another level, an apocalyptic one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump\u2019s capacity for ushering in world-wrecking havoc is made possible by a character constructed almost entirely of flaws. His second term has been defined by global aggression and hostility. Yet he recently complained bitterly \u2014 and in a fashion it\u2019s hard to imagine any other politician ever doing \u2014 because he wasn\u2019t awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. As he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/US\/2026\/10\/10\/trump-nobel-peace-prize\/3861791662498\/\">put it<\/a>, \u201cThe United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel peace prize, but didn\u2019t. And this is an indelible stain on the country of Norway, and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-ft-photo is-style-default alignright\">\n<div class=\"photo__container\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9781608469017.webp?fit=600%2C923\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9781608469017.webp?w=600 600w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9781608469017.webp?w=195 195w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9781608469017.webp?w=540 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1300px) 650px, (min-width: 800px) 64vw, (min-width: 500px) calc(100vw - 5rem), calc(100vw - 3rem)\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"923\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption class=\"photo__figcaption\">\n      <span class=\"photo__caption\">\u201cA Nation Unmade by War,\u201d by Tom Engelhardt<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"photo__credit\">Available on <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/a-nation-unmade-by-war-tom-engelhardt\/76de0abe73d730a3?ean=9781608469017&amp;bkshp-astro=t\">Bookshop.org<\/a><\/span>    <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not only a petty man, but also a delusional one. As president, Trump has presided over <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/03\/30\/trump-secret-wars\/\">more than 20<\/a> military interventions, armed conflicts, and outright wars who nonetheless swears that he \u201csettled\u201d eight conflicts and should have \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/117414533410378018\">won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes, not just 1<\/a>.\u201d This includes a war between Egypt and Ethiopia that, of course, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2026\/02\/19\/donald-trump-8-wars\/88754488007\/\">never happened<\/a> and a failing war with Iran that drags on to this day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re going to \u201cend\u201d a war with bombs and missiles, then there are, of course, going to be casualties. A <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/08\/18\/iran-war-civilian-deaths-families-infant\/\">few thousand<\/a> or more <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/08\/31\/iran-war-environment-toxic-chemical-exposure\/\">Iranians killed<\/a>, obviously, and tens of thousands injured, not to mention <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/12\/iran-war-casualties-death-toll-accuracy\/\">ever-rising<\/a> American casualties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frighteningly, the Iran war may not even be enough for him. He\u2019s already starting to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-saudi-war-yemen\">hint<\/a> (if there even is such a thing as \u201chinting\u201d in the all-too-blunt world of Donald Trump) that he might join Saudi Arabia in taking on the Houthi rebels in Yemen. \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at it\u201d was how he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/10\/10\/nx-s1-5997512\/saudi-arabia-riyadh-airport-bombing-attack\">put it<\/a>. I should really have added \u201cagain\u201d there, since he essentially <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/March%E2%80%93May_2025_United_States_attacks_in_Yemen\">began his second term<\/a> in office by attacking those same Houthis \u2014 killing <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/10\/28\/trump-yemen-strike-civilian-deaths-rough-rider\/\">large numbers of civilians<\/a> in the process. But after the U.S. burned through $1 billion and failed to even achieve air superiority in Yemen, Trump ended the stalemate. Despite having vowed the Houthis would be \u201ccompletely annihilated,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/KCplebZOivM?si=LLo9NV2Jjwq-Tscd&amp;t=100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> a cessation of hostilities last May, leaving the group in control of most of Yemen\u2019s populated areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given American history \u2014 think the wars in Korea, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/04\/30\/vietnam-war-anniversary-landmines-bombs\/\">Vietnam<\/a>, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among other places \u2014 there\u2019s nothing faintly strange about <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/07\/17\/spencer-ackerman-lindsey-graham-iran-war\/\">endless<\/a> American military operations thousands and thousands of miles away from Washington, D.C., even for a president who said, upon taking office in 2025, that he would measure success by \u201cthe wars we never get into.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-embed flex-col items-center print:hidden\" id=\"third-party--article-mid\" data-module=\"InlineNewsletter\" data-module-source=\"web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\">\n<div class=\"-mx-5 sm:-mx-10 p-5 sm:px-10 xl:-ml-5 lg:mr-0 xl:px-5 bg-accentLight hidden\" data-name=\"subscribed\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-light uppercase text-[30px] leading-8 text-white tracking-[0.01em] mb-0\">\n      We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us.    <\/h2>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/now\/?referrer_post_id=525603&amp;referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2026%2F10%2F18%2Ftrump-president-apocalypse-war%2F&amp;source=web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\" class=\"border border-white !text-white font-mono uppercase p-5 inline-flex items-center gap-3 hover:bg-white hover:!text-accentLight focus:bg-white focus:!text-accentLight\" data-name=\"donateCTA\" data-action=\"handleDonate\"><br \/>\n      Become a member      <span class=\"font-icons icon-TI_Arrow_02_Right\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n  <\/div>\n<div class=\"group default w-full px-5 hidden\" data-name=\"unsubscribed\">\n<div class=\"px-5 border-[10px] border-accentLight\">\n<div class=\"bg-white -my-2.5 relative block px-4 md:px-5\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-body text-[30px] font-bold tracking-[0.01em] leading-8 mb-0 xl:text-[37px] xl:leading-[39px]\">\n          <span class=\"group-[.subscribed]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Join Our Newsletter          <\/span><br \/>\n          <span class=\"group-[.default]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Thank You For Joining!          <\/span><br \/>\n        <\/h2>\n<p class=\"text-[27px] mb-3.5 font-bold text-accentLight tracking-[0.01em] leading-[29px] font-sans xl:text-[37px] xl:leading-[39px]\">\n          <span class=\"group-[.subscribed]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you.          <\/span><br \/>\n          <span class=\"group-[.default]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?          <\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/now\/?referrer_post_id=525603&amp;referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2026%2F10%2F18%2Ftrump-president-apocalypse-war%2F&amp;source=web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\" class=\"group-[.default]:hidden border border-accentLight text-accentLight font-sans px-5 py-3.5 inline-flex items-center gap-3 text-[20px] font-bold\" data-action=\"handleDonate\"><br \/>\n          Become a member          <span class=\"font-icons icon-TI_Arrow_02_Right\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"font-sans text-accentLight text-[10px] leading-[13px] text-balance [&amp;_a]:text-accentLight [&amp;_a]:font-bold [&amp;_a:hover]:underline group-[.subscribed]:hidden\">\n<p>By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/privacy-policy\/\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/terms-use\/\">Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(newsletter)[0] --><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-grim-presidency\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Grim Presidency<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You would <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/15\/ilhan-omar-raid-corporate-media-coverage\/\">hardly know it from the mainstream press<\/a> but one of those 20 Trumpian conflicts is the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/03\/07\/pentagon-somalia-africa-terrorism-failure\/\">forever war<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/02\/04\/trump-airstrike-somalia\/\">Somalia<\/a>. And that war has an increasing domestic component. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/oct\/12\/federal-agents-ilhan-omar-home-raid\">raided<\/a> the home of Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar in the Washington, D.C., area, aiming in some fashion or other to discover information that might help denaturalize her and so make it possible to eject her from this country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the president put it on Truth Social, Omar \u201cleft Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars.\u201d Of course, who would know better about such things than the president of the United States who, in these years, is estimated to have made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/08\/17\/nx-s1-5935368\/if-you-can-keep-it-how-trumps-getting-rich-as-president\">literally billions of dollars<\/a> while in <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/07\/13\/gillibrand-crypto-trump-profit-clarity-act\/\">office<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And yet, the never-ending war in Somalia, the nearby conflict we may reenter against the Houthis, and the failed war in Iran should be considered the lesser of the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/12\/ilhan-omar-raid-ice-trump\/\">potential disasters<\/a> that will sooner or later be associated with Trump.\u00a0After all, he clearly has the urge to do nothing less than<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/09\/18\/naomi-klein-astra-taylor-ai-religious-apocalypse-doom\/\"> end this very world of ours<\/a>, at least as we\u2019ve known it, even if in a distinctly slow-motion fashion.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"promote-banner\">\n    <a class=\"promote-banner__link\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/tomdispatch\"><br \/><span class=\"promote-banner__image\"><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TomDispatch_logo-promo-banner.jpg?fit=300%2C150\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TomDispatch_logo-promo-banner.jpg?w=500 500w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TomDispatch_logo-promo-banner.jpg?w=300 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/>        <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"promote-banner__text\">\n<p class=\"promote-banner__eyebrow\">\n            Read Our Complete Coverage          <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><br \/><\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not even thinking about nuclear weapons (although <em>he<\/em> admittedly <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/trump-condemned-for-invoking-nuclear-attacks-on-us-cities-to-defend-iran-war\/\">still is<\/a>). No, I\u2019m thinking about the president who, at the United Nations in 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/trump-called-climate-change-a-con-job-at-the-united-nations-here-are-the-facts-and-context\">called<\/a> climate change \u201cthe greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.\u201d And since then, he has indeed done everything he could think of to ensure that this planet would get hotter yet.\u00a0His Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2026\/oct\/01\/us-states-cities-trump-epa-climate-emissions\">repealed<\/a> \u201crules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.\u201d\u00a0And that\u2019s just to start down a long list of what should truly be considered Donald Trump\u2019s ultimate war on this planet of ours \u2014 including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/sep\/22\/california-new-york-trump-wind-energy\">blocking wind power<\/a> development and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2026\/07\/30\/trump-admin-blocking-clean-energy-and-raising-costs\/\">doing the same<\/a> with solar power.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of this is happening as <a href=\"https:\/\/yaleclimateconnections.org\/2025\/09\/climate-change-is-accelerating-scientists-find-in-grim-report\/\">global warming<\/a> reaches unprecedented levels, sea level rise is accelerating, northern forests and tundra are releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb, the Greenland ice sheet has lost about <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/10082026\/global-warming-record-high-temperatures\/\">129 gigatons of ice<\/a> (or roughly 129 billion metric tons), and other major ecological systems like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pik-potsdam.de\/en\/news\/latest-news\/global-warming-must-peak-below-2degc-to-limit-tipping-point-risks\">tropical coral reefs<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-026-10456-0\">Amazon rainforest<\/a>, and Antarctica\u2019s ice sheet are being pushed toward catastrophic tipping points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Trump campaigns for eight Nobel Peace Prizes, his war on humanity\u2019s only home continues unabated, a slow-motion destruction that threatens us all. My parents couldn\u2019t have imagined a leader in the White House who would put McCarthy to shame and push the country \u2014 and the world \u2014 to the precipice of doom: a commander-in-chief worthy of the name President Apocalypse.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#TomDispatch #President #Apocalypse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-five years ago \u2014 as the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}