Despite the fact that the chronicle daily disproves both the anti-apocalyptic confidence of the relativists and normalisers of the Maga phenomenon and the enthusiasm of the apostles and apologists of the new American Messiah, the prevailing attitude in the ruling classes of the former Euro-Atlantic West continues to be that of waiting for the flood of Trump’s fury to pass or for the oligarchs in his circle to bring him to his senses or for the trend of the stock market indices to persuade him not to overreact.

So yesterday the markets around the world self-convinced themselves of a scoop that was perhaps a telegraphed fake or perhaps wishful thinking, before the White House let it be known that the President has no plans at all to stop or at least suspend the special economic operation against the globalist system.

Under the illusion of meeting his supposed ends – which are instead those that the former allies sew onto the Trump they wish he was and is not – one arrives at the grotesque paradox of considering each of his threats and violence as evidence of dialogue, even recognising extortion as a negotiating legitimacy and a ‘good intention’.

Yet, it should be clear. It is entirely irrelevant to ask whether Trump is insane or sane, lucid or altered, in the grip of an ideological hallucination or a narcissistic delirium, fanatical or purely business-minded… The only thing that is relevant is the reality of a nihilist design deployed in an open and entirely predictable manner, because it is widely anticipated not only in its intentions, but also in its means. Trump is what he seems and seems what he is.

Half the world (and more) is making the same mistake with him as it did with Putin: not believing the evidence. Not believing an infinitely uglier reality than the one feared and therefore impossible because it is unacceptable. Not to believe that if one speaks like a mafia boss and behaves like a mafia boss, he cannot have allies, but only henchmen, and cannot rely on a negotiated and shared system of rules, but on balances of power analogous to those of a dome in which the affairs of the various ‘families’ are regulated with hugs or gunfire.

One has to believe that the White House is worried about the possible collapse of the US domestic consensus and is keeping a close eye on the popularity and approval polls. One can be sure, on the other hand, that they are not worried at all about the economic collapse of the world, because this is not a side-effect, but is exactly the goal that Trump proposes, to assert US primacy according to a canon that is not egalitarian, but imperialistic.

The willingness to believe that this war has only one real enemy – Xi Jinping’s capitalist-communist China – and that former allies would be spared if only they agreed to pay the White House the price of protection (‘paying a lot of money’ ) is the ultimate refuge of the ostriches of the post-West.

If Trump ever fell, things would change – sure. But otherwise there is no point in telling a better story than it is.