In A Trump State of Mind

Donald Trump was a reality TV show host and the longest State of the Union address ever on Feb­ruary 24, clocking 1 hour and 48 minutes, was a sales pitch with the midterms in mind. Asking lawmak­ers to stand up to show support for an idea was part of it, if not the icy (no pun intended), no-smiles, hand­shake with Chief Justice John Roberts who authored the Supreme Court’s tariff verdict.

The rhetoric of “golden age” or “our nation is back” apart, fact checkers were kept busy. Inflation in November-December 2025 was 2.6 per cent, not 1.7 per cent.Gasoline at $2.30 is available only in Oklahoma (in theory); the national average is $2.95.Unemploy­ment was actually up at 4.3 per cent in January 2026 than 4.1 per cent in Decem­ber 2024. Zero illegal aliens were admitted if Trump meant immigrants released into the US from custody; but along the southwest border, there were more than 6,000 apprehensions just last month. And yes, Trump didn’t get $18 trillion investment commitments from abroad; according to the White House itself, that figure is $9.7 trillion. The chief concern for the“great Republican patri­ots in Congress” remains the great American public buying that America is “winning again”, with a president rated below 40.

 President Courage and His Nemesis

 On the fourth anniversary of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remained defiant that Ukraine will win—not under present circumstances but over time, as he told BBC’s Jeremy Bowen. US President Donald Trump’s peace plans have, from the start, put pressure on Kyiv rather than Moscow. Trump would like to see Ukraine cede territory over and above what Russian troops occupy. But Zelensky isn’t budg­ing. Conditions in Russia, meanwhile, have worsened as the economic growth trig­gered by military industry ended in 2025. The flight of foreign investment coupled with sanctions is biting. Food inflation is officially above 18 per cent according to Rosstat; fruits and vegetables (imported) are 15 per cent costlier, and dairy products (local) 41 per cent. Inflation-hit pockets have taken the shine out of the ‘Special Military Operation’ even as oblasts along the border get littered with drone shelters and villages mourn thewar dead. Zelensky could cut his losses and agree to a ceasefire as Trump demands. But he has Europe’s ears when he says Vladimir Putin isn’t going to stop with Ukraine. After all, the man who has held power since the last day of the last century said last year: “Wherever a Russian soldier puts his foot, that’s ours.”

 Mexico’s Muddle

The death of a drug lord usu­ally changes little in Latin America. But the violence un­leashed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) after the killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka ‘El Mencho’ has not only exposed Mexico’s predica­ment, caught between Trump and the cartels, but also jeopardised the run-up to the FIFA World Cup being co-hosted by the country. Mexico’s second city Gua­dalajara, for instance, hosts one of the matches and has been burnt badly. CJNG had benefited from the collapse of the Sinaloa cartel after the extradition of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán but President Claudia Sheinbaum’s real test is salvaging the peace and keeping it.