By Frank F Islam & Ed Crego, June 4th, 2026 (Image credits: Tom de Boor, JNCGPT54)

In 1776, with the issuance of the “Declaration of Independence” severing ties with Great Britain, our country’s founders positioned the United States of America to stand alone. Through the centuries and decades since then, the U.S. has evolved to become a nation that led by example, collaborated with partners around the world, and provided assistance to countries and people in need.

In 2026, once again America stands alone. It stands alone because of the abandonment of its democratic values and principles, alienation of our partners and allies, and disregard for the world order.

Donald Trump’s administration has created this condition of isolation and solitude. Instead of America First, it has produced America Alone. Donald Trump, the piece maker, the alienator and the strait talker stands at the center of this dissolution.

The Piece Maker

In his inaugural address, President Trump stated:

My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier.

As is frequently the case, the opposite of what Trump said is true.

During his second term, Trump has been neither a peacemaker nor a unifier. Instead, he has been a piece maker and divider.

Since returning to office, he has shredded our democracy and left the pieces in tatters. See this piece we published earlier this year for the devastating impact he has had upon our democratic republic, its institutions, and the progress made in moving this nation forward over nearly two and one-half centuries.

Trump has claimed that he deserved the Nobel Peace for ending eight wars. In April, The Times published an updated article fact-checking Trump’s claim to having ended ten wars in:

… Armenia and Azerbaijan; the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda; Israel and Iran; India and Pakistan; Cambodia and Thailand; Egypt and Ethiopia; Serbia and Kosovo; Israel and Hamas; and Israel and Lebanon.

The fact-checking showed that while Trump and his administration may deserve credit for helping to resolve some of these conflicts, there is no clear evidence that they were the decisive factor in any of them. This is apparent when among the list of wars that Trump says he helped end were Israel-Iran and Israel-Hamas.

Trump himself, in a March 12 interview with the Washington Examiner, said he was not interested in the Nobel Peace Prize. That response came when he was asked whether the war in Iran he launched would impact his chance of receiving the Peace Prize.

At the beginning of the year, as he was attempting to take over Greenland, Trump wrote Norway’s Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, telling him in a text:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

The Alienator

Norway is not the only country Trump has offended with his alienating language and actions. He has done the same with many others, including Canada, which he has proposed annexing, and all of the NATO nations.

Time magazine reports that:

In June of 2025, Trump proclaimed: “Frankly, Canada should be the 51st state, they really should. Because Canada relies entirely on the U.S., we don’t rely on Canada.

In January of this year, in his address at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, he stated, “Canada lives because of the United States.”

In March of this year in a Truth Social post, he referred to its Prime Minister Mark Carney as “the future Governor of Canada.”

Trump’s derogatory remarks regarding Canada and his tariffs have caused many Canadians to boycott American products and Canadian travel to the U.S. to drop off significantly.

They also prompted Prime Minister Carney to respond to Trump’s Truth Social post and his remarks at the World Economic Forum by declaring, “…Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadians.”

Partly due to his speaking out against Trump and uniting Canadians, it enabled Carney’s Liberal party — which had been “flailing” — to win a majority in the House of Commons in the elections held on April 14.

After that, in an April 19 address to the nation, Carney stated that “our close ties to America have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct.” And “The U.S. has changed, and we must respond.” “It’s about taking back control of our security, our borders, and our future.”

Offending one country such as Norway or Canada was not enough for Trump. Being who he is, he called out our 32 European allies who are members of NATO. Trump’s attacks on NATO date back decades.

Writing for The Hill, Philip E. Auerswald reports that in 1987, Trump ran a full-page ad in newspapers that asked, “Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?”

During his first race for the White House, he referred to NATO as “obsolete.” And during his first term in office, he criticized NATO nations for not spending enough on defense of their countries and Europe.

This year, after our NATO allies did not respond to his request for assistance in the war with Iran, which he began, along with Benjamin Nehtayahu of Israel, without advising them in advance, he called that failure “a foolish mistake.”

And after he met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on April 9, he put out a post in all caps, declaring NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM AND THEY WON’T BE THERE WHEN WE NEED THEM AGAIN.

What Trump doesn’t recognize or doesn’t know is that NATO has been there when we needed them. After we were attacked here in the United States on 9/11/2001, the NATO nations, as required in Article 5 of NATO Treaty agreement, sent troops to join us in fighting back against that attack in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Strait Talker

Put this all together, and Trump definitely calls them as he sees them, which might not be accurate, except to the extent it reflects his feelings and anger.

He did that “strait talking” early Easter Sunday morning when he posted the following extremely vulgar comments:

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day all wrapped in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.

Two days later, he continued his “strait talk” on Truth Social, promising, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

In combination, these two statements revealed Donald Trump at his best, disclosing his worst and who he truly is. His bullying and blustering didn’t really have much of an impact upon Iran.

What did, somewhat, were the air strikes, which hurt Iran militarily, and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which hurt Iran economically. However, as most nonpartisan commentators agree, the pending ceasefire “deal” will produce results that benefit Iran substantially more than the U.S.

It was not just Iran strait talk for Trump in April. He also directed at Truth Social post at Pope Leo XIV.

Pope Leo spent much of Easter week advocating for peace and condemning war. On Easter Sunday he said, “On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil.”

In most of his comments during Easter week, the Pope did not mention any country or person. However, when asked by a reporter if the U.S. should end the war in Iran, he replied that he hoped that the President would find an “off-ramp.”

The Pope’s statements, supported by many other American Catholic leaders, provoked Trump to post an attack on Pope Leo on the Sunday after Easter. Excerpts from that lengthy post follow:

Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.

I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!

I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.

And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.

If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.

Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.

It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!

As is frequently the case in Trump’s “Truth Social” posts, the opposite of what he says is true. The Catholic Church has been unified by the Pope in its commitment to what the pontiff says about war and Jesus’ intent. And the Pope never said it was “OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

In conclusion, Trump is able to talk out of both sides of his mouth. He will say one thing is true, and then the opposite is true within a short period of time. As president, he is the commander in chief and, because of his rhetoric, he is also the contradictor-in-charge.

Peter Baker, White House correspondent for the New York Times, published an article in mid-April in which he observed:

President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.

The most important part of Baker’s article is the ending of that sentence, which points out that Trump has governed this way, and gotten these responses, for more than a decade.

It is who he is. He is an isolationist who believes he is always right and cannot admit he ever made a mistake. He rules for himself alone, and now his words and actions have pushed this country into a corner to exist as America Alone.

This situation must be reversed. In order to survive and thrive for the next 250 years, America must recommit to its democratic values and principles, our partners and allies, and being a leader in establishing a stable world order.