Here’s the Anti-Christ. / Presenting the Third Anti-Christ
Amit Kapoor and Meenakshi Ajith
History’s tyrants conquered the world through armies and empires. The French had Napoleon, who marched soldiers wreaking terror and the Germans had Hitler who unleashed blitzkrieg. Today, America has offered us Donald J Trump: A man as allergic to nuance as he is devoted to self-promotion. If Nostradamus spoke of a ‘third Anti-Christ’ we would suspect, he imagined someone with armies and brute weapons. Yet, Trump land wields global dysfunction as its bluntest instrument by freezing billions in aid, estranging allies and unravelling the fragile threads of global cooperation. It is a quieter form of devastation, but no less real. Regardless, Mr. Trump’s name has gone to Oslo as a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. The irony of this candidacy is almost too perfect to ignore. But let’s be fair. Let’s look at Mr. Trump’s “achievements” and see if maybe, just maybe, the world has been too cruel to this peacemaker in a red tie.
For his laurels, let us begin with NATO. Trump bullied the NATO allies like a loan shark, warning them push up their defense target or he will invite Russia to “do whatever the hell they want”. While diplomats around the world called out this extortion, for our peacemaker it was just a simple “leverage”. The leverage did work indeed and at least 22 out of the 32 NATO members not only pushed to 2% and beyond but are murmuring about hitting the 5% target now. Who knew the path to world peace was paved with protection rackets?
Coming to the next big “achievement”; In February, Trump halted more than 90% of US foreign aid and around $58 billion in funding vanished overnight across the world. While the courts argued, aid workers just packed up and went home. Clinics shuttered, vaccines expired, campaigns halted. UNAIDS now predicts 6.6 million extra HIV infections and 4.2 million AIDS deaths if the freeze holds. That’s over 600 preventable deaths per day. Napoleon had his armies, Hitler his blitzkrieg. Trump? He’s managed mass casualties with a pen and a pause button. Efficiency at its finest.
Furthermore, the emerging economies including Brazil, India etc truly felt the aftershocks of economic partnership with the United States. In August, he slapped a 25% tariff on Indian exports, pushing duties near 50%, because New Delhi dared to buy Russian oil. Similarly in Brazil, Trump’s latest tariff move was not about correcting trade deficits or defending industries. It was a tantrum to compel Brazil to drop its prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro for his role in the January 2023 assault on Brasília. Economist and prosperity is built on the principles of free movement, of goods, capital, labour and data. While our proposed Nobel nominee might call this ‘Art of the Deal’, in reality, it is equivalent to setting your own house on fire to smoke out the neighbours.
The true genius in all this lies not in building peace and prosperity but in redefining what peace means. In Trump land, peace exists only when everyone else is too busy cleaning up your mess to start a war. Freeze aid, and diseases surge. Threaten allies, and adversaries smile. Tariff friends, and partnerships fray. This may not be the conquest of territory, but it is an outright conquest of functionality.
Defenders might say he is making America great again. However, his 2025 tariff surge has raised America’s average effective tariff rate to 22.5 percent, the highest since 1909. There has been a 2.3 percent rise in consumer prices, costing the average household $3,800 annually. Lower-income families are hit hardest and are losing $1,700 each year. Trumpland’s real GDP growth is expected to drop by 0.9 percentage points in 2025, and long-term output is projected to remain 0.6 percent smaller. Exports have also declined by 18.1 percent while the prices for essentials have spiked, with apparel up 17 percent and food nearly 3 percent higher. It is hard to say which America he is propelling to greatness.
Once again, defenders will insist he forced NATO to spend more, calmed India and Pakistan briefly, and “shook up the system.” By that logic, hurricanes should be lauded for economic stimulus and job creation. History, though, prefers its own categories. Napoleon wrapped tyranny in liberty. Hitler turned ruin into empire-building fantasy. And Mr. Trump? He dresses pettiness in grandeur and calls the wreckage strength. He hasn’t razed cities, but by freezing global health programs he has let disease spread. He hasn’t invaded nations, but his tariffs have estranged allies. He hasn’t toppled empires, but tantrum by tantrum he has unravelled the world order. So perhaps the Nobel Committee should reconsider. If we are to nominate Donald J. Trump for anything, let it be for the title history seems to have reserved for him all along:
The Third Anti-Christ: “Honoured not for keeping the peace, but for showing how easily it can be broken.”
The article was published with The Statesman on August 30, 2025
