The political assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has raised new concerns in the realms of global politics and statecraft. Following Khamenei’s killing, a sense of anxiety has spread globally, questioning what the future of the world will become if America — led by a frenzied ruler like Donald Trump and bolstered by a dollar-based economy — is prepared to go to any lengths. Mainstream American media, including CNN, have already highlighted the unpredictable consequences of this grave situation. In the first two months of the new year, the world witnessed the extent to which ‘Trumpism’ would go to destabilise and subjugate resource-rich nations (including oil-rich ones) by claiming they are threats to the survival of the U.S. and himself. First, in oil-rich Venezuela in Latin America, ruler Nicolás Maduro was seized overnight and transported to America, and a puppet government was installed in his place. Now, in Iran, the government’s Supreme Leader Khamenei has been killed in an airstrike carried out in collaboration with Israel.
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It is a usual practice of the United States to overthrow elected democratic governments. Creating opposition or rebel uprisings within a country to change the regime, infiltrating the military to carry out coups, and influencing elections to install puppets in power — these form the modus operandi of the US administration. The ousting of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran in 1953, the assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm in Vietnam at the hands of the military in 1963, and the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973 were all part of this pattern. However, Western media point out that directly entering another country to kidnap or attack and kill a ruler is a first-of-its-kind occurrence in modern history. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein was captured and subjected to a mock trial by a local “kangaroo court” before being hanged. In Libya, Muammar Gaddafi was killed during a military operation by rebels supported by NATO.
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Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, these kinds of secret operations were altered. The U.S. Congress granted the President the authority to enter any country and eliminate anyone declared a threat or a terrorist. It was on this basis that America killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011, and Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani on January 3, 2020. However, the current rampage of Trumpism — which has overstepped even these established norms — has led to the present situation which the world fears could escalate into a wider war.
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Following the Cold War, Executive Orders signed by three U.S. Presidents — Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan — at various times prohibited the United States from participating in political assassinations. And the Reagan document remains in force even today. Discarding all of these, Donald Trump set out against Iran by portraying Tehran as a threat, citing its nuclear interests and missile capabilities. Casting aside all precedents and ignoring the American Congress and the House of Representatives, Trump is relying on a new autocratic manifesto called Project 2025 to lead America according to his own whims.
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Project 2025, also known as the “Presidential Transition Project,” is a blueprint designed by the far-right conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, for a future Republican administration. Designed in 2023 by over fifty right-wing writers and intellectuals “for the next conservative president", this policy document was published during the 2024 presidential election. This manifesto, which seeks to make the U.S. Congress irrelevant and vest all powers in the President, is Trump’s foundation in his second term. Beginning with domestic control by amending immigration laws, Trump is now formulating programmes to bring world nations to heel through unilateral tariff wars and to plunder their resources. This follows in the footsteps of Project 2025, which does not recognise racial or national diversities and seeks to nullify scientific institutions, systems, and procedures. The document has its sights set on countries including Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea. Trump is attempting a power dynamic that involves destabilising Venezuela and Iran to take control of them while keeping the other three under pressure. This is precisely why world nations view the assassination of Khamenei with such concern. Former President John F. Kennedy once warned that playing with the heads of foreign nations is unwise and that the consequence would be Americans collectively becoming targets. But who will convince Trump who, consumed by a lust for power, has set out to dissipate the world?