Truth, Whole, and Nothing But

Chapeau big time to French Senator Claude Malhuret. The text of his speech to the French Senate in the Luxembourg Palace in Paris will be useful in the impeachment and court proceedings (including those in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice) when Trump and his gang are dragged before them, as they should be. Here is a transcript:

“Mr President, Prime Minister, Ministers: in February 2022 a dangerous madman drunk on power set alight a powder-keg in Ukraine which disrupted world order. The war was intended to last a week and is now in its fifth year. In February 2026 another dangerous madman lit another flame in the Middle East, which again threatens world order. This war was also supposed to last one week. One month later the whole world is asking, What will happen? The answer – simple, precise and short – is, God knows. One year ago in this same place I compared Trump’s presidency to Nero’s court. I was wrong. It’s the Court of Miracles. An antivaxxer ex-heroin-addict is Minister of Health. A climate-change denier is Minister of Ecology. An alcoholic TV host is Minister of Defence. A former Qatari agent is Minister of Justice. A Putin fangirl is Minister of National Security.

“A Turkish proverb says that when a clown takes over the palace he doesn’t become king; instead, the palace becomes a circus.

“This dream team decided to create a rival to the UN. Since his ‘Board of Peace’ was set up, Trump has started more military strikes than Biden in his whole term. Each time the Epstein files resurface, bombs explode somewhere in the world to divert attention. Bomb more to earn more. There isn’t a country that Trump hasn’t taken advantage of to make himself richer – never forgetting his family either. His own personal Boeing gifted by Qatar, investments in the Gulf and elsewhere, manipulating stock prices benefitting a few insiders. Any one of these conflicts of interest would have set off immediate dismissal proceedings. But we are not here; we are in MAGA America, conducting public affairs for the benefit of private interest.

“After tariffs, Greenland and abandoning Ukraine, humiliating allies, the ineffective round-trip to Venezuela, and so much more, a new senseless adventure begins. Don’t get me wrong: I’d be the last person to condemn taking out the regime of the mullahs and the first to call for freedom for the Iranian people. But what is the strategy to achieve this? And the collateral damage notably for Iranians – have they been calculated? The answer is: there is no strategy, and collateral damage is subordinated to profit and loss – just as in January when Trump called on Iranians to take to the streets only to leave them to be massacred by Iran’s security forces.

“After the pretext of the imminent Iranian atomic bomb, contradicted by the head of US intelligence herself, then the pretext of regime change, it was Marco Rubio who finally spit it out: we did it because we were following Netanyahu. In other words: ‘we have no aim of our own’. Trump rode roughshod over the warnings of the few brave enough to tell him what was going to happen: the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, war spreading to the whole Middle East, repercussions all over the world.

“In his last manipulation, the only aim of which was to calm oil prices and falling Stock Markets, Trump announces that negotiations are underway. The President of the Iranian Parliament denies it mere hours afterwards. It’s the first ever international negotiation where one of the sides discovers it is negotiating by watching TV news.

“Petrol tankers are stuck in the Gulf, the Emirates close their airspace, influencers on the beaches of Dubai beg to be brought home, refineries and oil fields are on fire. After assembling the most powerful army in the world, failing to win a war against a medium-sized power, blowing up the price of oil and gas, and giving rambling speeches, the Mar-a-Lago golfer admits shamelessly to being taken aback by the Iranian response – despite it being so easy to predict – and calls for help from his allies who he was insulting only yesterday. They reply: you didn’t consult with anyone, you have no plan, and we have no reason to follow you blindly into the fog.

“Trump is the only bull in the world who walks around with his own china shop. He now has only two possible solutions, each as bad as the other: to withdraw humiliatingly while claiming, without convincing anyone, that he has achieved his objectives; or, to escalate the situation with results we know already in advance, from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan - getting bogged down and in the end departing in shame…”