Chapter 2, Section VII. Conclusion: The Coordination Collapse of the West Begins with One Man
- john raymond
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
Trump's presidency was never just a national crisis. It is an international rupture. To understand his true strategic significance, one must look past the noise of daily scandal and recognize the pattern: Trump, the chaos agent, doesn’t just disrupt the American system—he disrupts the entire postwar alliance structure of the West. This wasn’t incidental. It is the strategic outcome of asymmetric warfare, with Trump functioning as a high-value asset in a global game of disinformation, mistrust, and authoritarian resurgence.
The Byzantine Generals Problem, long understood as a computer science parable, is now the lived reality of the West. Can multiple allied powers coordinate when one of their leading generals—in this case, the American president—is compromised? Can NATO coordinate if Washington sends mixed signals? Can democratic publics remain unified when one leader undermines the press, the courts, the elections, and the very notion of shared truth?
These aren’t hypothetical questions. They are the crux of our strategic crisis.
Trump doesn’t need to believe in Putin’s ideology. He doesn’t even need to know the full plan. He simply acts in predictable self-interest, lashing out at enemies, undermining institutions, flattering dictators, and embracing grievance. All of this aligns with the Kremlin’s objectives. He pulls America inward, encourages NATO to fracture, and models autocracy for other rising strongmen. His every impulse—to attack allies, sow mistrust, praise authoritarians—is a weaponized disruption.
This is how asymmetric warfare works. Its battlefield is trust. Its goal is disorientation. Its strategy is to make coordination impossible. And Trump, the traitor general, is devastatingly effective at it.
What makes this more than tragic farce is the broader geopolitical stakes. We may already be in the early stages of World War III. Russia wages brutal war in Ukraine. China eyes Taiwan and the Pacific. Iran strikes at Israel and U.S. allies. In every theater, coordination is the key to defense. And in every theater, the West’s coordination is fraying.
That fraying starts with Trump. His betrayal is not an aberration. It is the mechanism of collapse. One selfish actor, placed high enough, can ruin everything. His lies become poison in the information stream. His narcissism becomes leverage for foreign powers. His refusal to respect democratic norms becomes permission for others to do the same.
In this way, Trump doesn’t just harm America. He dismantles the Western project itself. He makes global coordination impossible at precisely the moment coordination is most needed. He is the reason the West hesitates, the reason alliances wobble, the reason Putin can gamble for victory.
We do not need to wait for historians to tell us this. We are living it. The collapse of the West begins with one man—a traitor general, ignorant of strategy, obedient to selfishness, and eager to please his Kremlin master.
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