THE UNITED STATES BLAMES THE WORLD FOR ITS PROBLEMS

The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has based his meteoric political career and his two victories in presidential elections (2016 and 2024) on a continuous attack on other countries, regardless of whether they are allies or not, as well as on undocumented migrants, blaming both for most of the common problems that Americans face.

While it is true that his main recriminations are directed against the Democratic Party and the politicians and officials who belong to that party, the constant characterization of the rest of the world as a threat against the United States, as well as the permanent assertion that the world has “disrespected” the United States or that it continually “takes advantage” of his country, has permeated his electoral base, which now believes that the United States has been weakened by the incompetence and application of erroneous policies of the Democrats, as well as by the “abuse” of the rest of the world against the Americans.

However, the average American's daily problems are largely related to their lifestyle.

For example, Trump and his followers continually blame immigrants for crime in major US cities.

The most recent homicide figures show fluctuations. In 2020, there was a 30% increase, reaching 21,700 homicides (in 2019, there were 16,669); by 2023, they had decreased to 18,513.

According to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), less than 1% of these homicides were committed by illegal immigrants.

In fact, between 2017 and 2023, of the 180 thousand arrests made by ICE, only 0.7% were related to homicides by illegal immigrants. Most of the arrests had to do with violations of immigration laws (16%), driving under the influence of alcohol (15%), and violation of controlled substances laws (15%).

As for drug trafficking, Trump has promised to designate drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” from day one of his term.

At no point has Trump referred to the drug problem in his country as one of consumption, but exclusively as one of supply.

That is, it is the drug cartels who are to blame for the consumption and overdoses that seriously affect the health of Americans, and not the lifestyle of millions of Americans who have decided that continued drug use is part of their daily way of life.

Thus, according to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 46.3 million people (16.5% of the population) used illicit substances in the past year; and around 20.4 million already had a substance use disorder such as dependence on or abuse of alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription drugs. And of that number, 9.2 million people reported misusing opioids like Oxycontin, fentanyl, and heroin.

Drug abuse has led to an overdose epidemic that in 2022 produced 107,941 deaths; in 2023, 107,500 deaths; and in 2024, 109,000.

Trump and the US political class have to blame someone for these deaths, which far exceed all the deaths the United States has had in the numerous wars and military interventions in which it has participated over 80 years, since the end of World War II.

The cartels and the governments of the countries where they originate (mainly Mexico) are perfect candidates to shift the blame away from the US authorities and its society, which have made the consumption of all kinds of drugs a habit and a way of life for a large part of its inhabitants.

The recent murder of 14 people (injuring 30 more) by a former US soldier in New Orleans, led Trump to blame migrants again for this type of mass crime, even though the perpetrator of this crime was an American citizen, originally from the state of Texas.

In the United States, “mass shootings” or “massacres” such as the hit-and-run in New Orleans are common. In 2023, there were an average of 2 mass shootings (4 or more people injured or killed) per day; and in 2024, there were nearly 400 mass shootings.

In most of these incidents, the perpetrators are American citizens, and many of them are people with mental health problems.

This also reflects the epidemic of suicides in the United States, many of them committed by active or former military personnel who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), such as the soldier who committed suicide on New Year's Eve 2024 in Las Vegas, in front of the Trump International Hotel in a Cybertruck.

The continuous military interventions of the United States around the world, carrying out massacres against civilians and facing the rejection of the populations of the intervened countries, have generated a crisis in the American military, which has been largely expressed in suicides.

Thus, since 2001 more than 30 thousand American soldiers and veterans have committed suicide, a figure that far exceeds the number of military personnel killed in combat in the same period.

The United States government estimates that up to 22 veterans commit suicide every day.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022 there were 49,500 suicides; this is 14.9 per 100,000 people.

Male suicides are four times higher than female suicides.

What is more worrying is that suicide is the second cause of death among people aged 10 to 34.

Another of Trump's favorite topics to attack the rest of the world is the growing US trade deficit.

In 2022, the deficit reached $945 billion; in 2023 it reached $773 billion, and by 2024 it will again exceed $900 billion.

According to Trump, the United States "subsidizes" the world with this deficit, but no one forces Americans to buy products from all continents, and American companies have dedicated themselves to investing in different countries around the world to produce there more cheaply, and then take advantage of free trade agreements to export those goods to the United States itself.

It is a system that was developed and expanded by American capitalism, so blaming the world for its strategy to produce cheaper and obtain more profits from its large corporations turns out to be a hypocritical argument.

Now all that's left is for Trump to blame Italy (for pizza) and Mexico (for tacos and burritos) for the obesity crisis that affects 41.9% of adults in the United States; and if the trend continues, by 2035, up to 260 million Americans will be overweight.

Unfortunately, populist leaders like Trump will continue to use fear and hatred against the "others" to maintain the loyalty of their electoral base, regardless of all the distortions and lies he has to say about the causes of the main problems that affect most of the inhabitants of his country.