COLUMN, KOVAČEVIĆ: Why Trump has gone completely off the rails and why impeachment could be his salvation…

While the elections in Serbia were a battle for freedom and the overthrow of a criminal regime, on the other side of the world, in America, last Tuesday’s vote looked more like a market price gauge – or, more precisely, a referendum on the price of gasoline, and diesel too, for that matter.

You may be able to fool and humiliate Americans with stories about taking over Greenland and Panama, annexing Canada, renaming lakes and bays, and doing whatever you please to them, but there is one thing you must never do – don’t mess with the price of gas!

Because that’s what brings governments down!

Trump is lucky these were so-called midterm elections and that his presidential term was not on the ballot. Otherwise, Melania would already be packing her dresses and little hats from the White House closets.

But it’s not as if the situation is much better.

Indeed, following a disastrous election defeat and the loss of majorities in both chambers of Congress, Trump will spend the final two years of his White House term like a grubby little brat who will have to kneel before the overwhelming Democratic majority for every lollipop in the shop window – every law and every decision in the Senate and House of Representatives.

And pray to God that the Democrats do not once again set out to impeach him.

This collapse was hardly unforeseeable. Even before the election, Trump’s presidential approval rating had fallen to a record-low 31 percent, the worst rating for any American president in the past 20 years, including senile Biden, whom Trump (rightly) used to mock.

I mentioned gasoline prices, which were undoubtedly a decisive factor, along with all the other economic consequences they bring: inflation and the high cost of living, which has not been matched by adequate wage growth.

Americans generally do not complain too much when their presidents embark on military adventures, unless those adventures hit them in the pocket, as happened this time.

That is why military interventions are often the best option toward the end of a first term, and many presidents have used them to boost their approval ratings and launch a new election campaign. This time, Trump’s gamble on Iran did not pay off.

The proxy war America waged on the basis of fabricated accusations about Iran’s nuclear program and on Israel’s behalf – a war in which the United States lost far more than it gained, if it gained anything at all – will cost Trump and the Republicans not only their congressional majorities, but very likely the next presidential election as well, regardless of who the candidate is.

One thing we know for certain is that Trump will not be that candidate.

This partly explains the reckless moves he made to strengthen Netanyahu’s position in the Middle East, eliminating all potential threats to his regime, from Syria to Hamas and Hezbollah, while simultaneously watching his own approval ratings plummet at home, from Alaska to Florida.

Money makes the world go round, especially when it is Jewish money coming from the notorious AIPAC, a lobbying group with a budget larger than that of some European countries.

After all, Serbia has also felt the consequences of Trump’s obsession with Israeli money. We signed the Washington Agreement, which took far more from us than it gave, and whose sole purpose was to have both Serbia and so-called Kosovo move their embassies to Jerusalem. Netanyahu turned the city into Israel’s new capital, thereby driving a knife into the hearts of Palestinians and Arabs.

Trump would therefore have far better chances of securing a political position in Israel than in the United States.

Through his reckless foreign policy decisions, he has made his position at home practically untenable, turning Texas, once a Republican stronghold, into a Democratic playground in these elections – something that would have seemed unimaginable until recently.

Whatever happens, Trump faces two years of sheer hell in the White House, years that could very easily pave the way for two terms in office for a Democratic presidential candidate in Washington.

Will this change his behavior or his policies? Unlikely. Except for whatever he is forced to change because of the shortage of senators and representatives on Capitol Hill.

Trump is a political outsider. He did not build his career through party ranks, going through the purgatory of compromises and deals with everyone and anyone.

That is precisely what made him such a breath of fresh air on the political scene during his first term. Back in 2016, many believed that America had finally got a politician and president who would smash the ossified structure of the deep state and its bipartisan deals with the corporate world of bankers, oil barons and arms manufacturers – not to mention the pharmaceutical industry.

But that fairy tale lasted only one term. During his second, Trump has shown himself to be nothing more than another puppet of that same Deep State, while trampling on his most important campaign promise: that America would no longer fight pointless wars far from its borders and that the lifeless bodies of American children would no longer return home in black bags.

At the same time, he has turned the White House and the Republican Party into a MAGA enterprise, where one man alone makes all the decisions and has the final say. This is something familiar to us Serbs, as we have witnessed a very similar arrangement under Vučić and the Progressives over the past 14 years.

As a result, Trump has surrounded himself not with people of integrity and advisers with authority, but with sycophants and yes-men who nod along to every one of his wild ideas, from imposing massive tariffs on the rest of the world to occupying Greenland.

There is no new Kissinger or Brzezinski in Trump’s inner circle, just a collection of faceless cogs who would never question any of his decisions. And that will cost him dearly. In fact, it already is.

Mass deportations and a relatively successful crackdown on illegal immigration – relatively successful because it has cost American taxpayers a mountain of money and freshly printed dollars – are not enough to make up for two years of broken promises and failed policies.

The fixation on securing the border has turned into an economic boomerang. By shutting the door on workers, the administration has undermined the foundations of domestic economic growth and created a chronic labor shortage. Success at the border has come at the price of rising inflation, slower GDP growth and instability in many other areas of life.

When we put all of this on the table and look toward the future, perhaps impeachment would be the best solution for Donald J. Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States.

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