Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Source in Yemeni Ministry of Defense to SABA: Yemeni "missiles will not cease targeting the criminal Zionist entity until the aggression is halted and the siege on our people in Gaza is lifted"
Source in Yemeni Ministry of Defense to SABA: Our missiles are designed to fragment if intercepted, hitting more targets
Source in Yemeni Ministry of Defense calls on investors, companies operating in the Israeli entity to leave immediately: SABA
Iranian foreign minister: The Omani Foreign Minister made a short visit to Tehran and delivered the US proposal to us, which we will respond to in a manner that guarantees the interests of our people
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: The points stipulate a willingness to hand over the administration of Gaza to the Community Support Committee and the occupation's withdrawal to the pre-March 2 borders
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: The clauses also stipulate a demand for a five-year truce
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: The clauses agreed upon by the factions include sending aid into Gaza in accordance with the humanitarian protocol agreed upon on January 17
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: We agreed to release 10 captives in separate batches in exchange for a number of our prisoners to be agreed upon through mediators
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: The [Palestinian] factions agreed on points that stipulated obtaining American guarantees for a complete cessation of the war and the full entry of aid
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: We agreed to release 10 captives in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners to be agreed upon through mediators

Star power or superpower? When politics becomes a reality show

  • Fra Hughes Fra Hughes
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 18 Apr 2025 16:37
  • 1 Shares
5 Min Read

With celebrity-driven politics and Western imperialism, US policies under figures like Trump risk global instability while empowering BRICS and the Global South.

Listen
  • x
  • Star power or superpower? When politics becomes a reality show
    America is the greatest danger to the “rule-based order” they have championed for so long (Illustrated by Zeinab al-Hajj; Al Mayadeen English)

We have seen in recent years the crossover from the entertainment business to the business of politics.

Zelensky was a comedic clown in Ukraine prior to his anointment as President on April 22, 2019. He promised an end to the conflict with the secessionist oblasts in eastern Ukraine, only to be persuaded by Boris Johnson, then-British Prime Minister, to withdraw from a peace deal with Russia in April 2022, thus exacerbating the war, leading to the deaths of reputedly over one million Ukrainian soldiers. The catastrophic conflict was originally reignited when Zelensky launched an attack on eastern Ukraine in December 2021.

Trump gained huge exposure with the American populace through his appearance on a TV reality show “The Apprentice”, which he co-produced with British television producer Mark Burnett from 2004 to 2017. His catchphrase, “you’re fired”, became his main contribution to the show.

He fronted the programme for 17 seasons.

Clint Eastwood, former actor, was a mayor of “Carmel by the sea” from 1986 to 2001, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected congressman for California in 2003, and let's not forget the man who ushered in “Neo liberal austerity" alongside British PM Margaret Thatcher, another product of Hollywood’s soft power, Ronald Reagan. Can we ever forget his epic film “Bonzo” where he starred alongside "Peggy” the chimpanzee?

I draw your attention to this crossover of well-known popular personalities as an indication of not just where politics is going, but where it is going wrong.

Politicians, a group that I neither respect nor vote in favour of here in the west, spend decades raising a profile with the public, in some cases not succeeding, in order to promote themselves with the public at large in the hope of placing themselves front and centre for a corporate-financed run to the top of the political pole.

Like monkeys scrambling for bananas, they climb the tree and try to snatch the sweetest fruit.

Celebrities, on the other hand, already have a huge public following and use their influence through television and newspaper interviews, book sales, and social media to promote their vision for society and their personal brand of non-party affiliated politics.

In a world where politics has become a dirty word, where politicians in the imperialist West are viewed as nothing more than corrupt corporate-bought and -financed stooges whose policies are in favour of the rich to the detriment of the poor and who use sound bites in place of policies... They tell us one thing in opposition: using “populism” to woo the voters, then do the exact opposite once elected. Is it any wonder people vote for a new way? They elect someone who claims to stand against the prevailing orthodoxy, an anti-establishment figure who promises peace but then accentuates war?

Trump promised peace between Ukraine and Russia and, by implication, an end to the genocide being visited upon Gaza when he courted the Islamic vote in 2024.

Related News

Reluctant to be refugees in the US, some Afrikaners demand their own two-state ‘solution’

Trump’s 'god complex' and self-serving policies: From divine assertions to political power plays

He has not brokered a deal that Russia is inclined to endorse, and he has doubled down on bombing the civilian population of Gaza and now Yemen.

America is the greatest danger to the “rule-based order” they have championed for so long, and indeed, it is a terrorist cabal of elites invested in the military-industrial complex and world indebtedness through the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and others.

Chumps tariffs, I mean Trump’s tariffs might backfire spectacularly and cause inflation and recession in the USA.

He is not an economist, nor does he appear to be taking advice on the reaction that his tariffs might create.

Are the chickens coming home to roost?

Trump is a businessman.

He is using the art of negotiating a deal as his premise for the presidency.

Plunging the world into even deeper chaos might suit his compatriots in government, the technocrats, the securocrats, and the globalists, but there is a danger - where they see opportunity in financially destabilizing other sovereign nations - that these tariffs, which, are in fact, sanctions being placed on the world’s economy may well drive BRICS to new heights as more sovereign nations wary of American exceptionalism may endeavour to persevere with a new global economic reality, where mutual respect trust and cooperation could well become the norm as a rising tide lifts all boats.

BRICS has the potential to reorder their “new world order."

It has the propensity to reignite the economies of the Global South, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

This is indeed a game of chicken as to who will blink first, but more importantly, it will be the economies that have resilience built into their system that can diversify and realign to the new economic reality that will survive, and this would be China and not America.

Interesting times lie ahead.

Let us hope they include the end of western imperialism, their ruled-based new world order, and the demise of the American war of terror on any and all sovereign nations who do not adhere to their white Anglo-Saxon supremacist vision of a world ruled by them and fooled by them and where everyone is governed via their exported white racist values; where people of colour have a place at the dining table and that place is to serve the food.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • US President Donald Trump
  • Multipolar world order
  • tariffs
  • BRICS
  • World Order
  • Trump
  • Volodymyr Zelensky
  • Ukraine
  • Ukrainian president
  • zelensky
Fra Hughes

Fra Hughes

Journalist, author, and activist.

Most Read

All
Although the background information does not indicate direct US involvement, considering the broader geopolitical context, it is plausible that the US would have an indirect impact. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Did 'Israel', US fight a proxy war with China in South Asia during the India-Pakistan escalation?

  • Feature
  • 19 May 2025
The two countries need to sit down and resolve the crisis with maturity, to consider carefully that they could be being manipulated to be easily dominated. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Algeria and Mali, divided and almost conquered

  • Opinion
  • 25 May 2025
The spirit of Bandung: 70 years on

The spirit of Bandung: 70 years on

  • Opinion
  • 18 May 2025
Trump and Biden both pretended to be fighting Netanyahu

Trump and Biden both pretended to be fighting Netanyahu

  • Analysis
  • 28 May 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

More from this writer

All
Even if America really did reduce its military budget by half, it would still dwarf monies spent by its own “perceived adversaries”. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The Russian Trap: Putin to demilitarise while Europe rearms?

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the revolutionary who fought for the oppressed

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the revolutionary who fought for the oppressed

2024 a year in review from Gaza to Lebanon, from Syria to Yemen, from Iraq to Iran

2024 a year in review from Gaza to Lebanon, from Syria to Yemen, from Iraq to Iran

While Sinn Féin members and elected representatives attend and even organise or control some of these rallies calling for a ceasefire, they have publicly asserted their intention to go to Washington. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Arwa Makki)

Ireland’s shame: The betrayal of Palestine

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS