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Let’s start with the key take away: Manifest Destiny reaching the stars. Literally.

Trump 2.0 – the greatest show on earth – did start with a (big) bang: “We will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars.” And that means planting the American flag on Mars. The real thing. Not a Netflix flick. No wonder platinum sidekick Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, achieved instant rapture.

Welcome to Interplanetary Exceptionalism. Literally. As in the land of the free, home of the brave, in this new golden era, will be “far more exceptional than ever before”. Imperial decline is over. Embrace the new, brutally benign Empire. Or else.

In practical terms, it all started, predictably, with a flurry of executive orders – like a psychedelic vortex.

Time to send troops to the southern border (El Paso is already blocked) to stop the illegal immigrant “invasion”; declare drug cartels as terrorist organizations; and rename the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America”.

Add to it declaring a state of emergency to boost energy production: “We’re going to be using our emergency powers to allow countries and entrepreneurs and people with a lot of money build big plans, AI plans. We need double the energy that we already have.”

That’s code for the Empire necessarily exercising total control on AI and massive, energy-consuming AI data centers.

In between, Trump 2.0 will suspend every “foreign aid” scheme for 90 days to assess their “consistency with U.S. national interests and foreign policy goals” (Translation: Kiev, run for cover.)

Trump 2.0 will recognize only two genders – male and female; get “wokeness the hell out of our military immediately and make it like it used to be”; and “take back” the Panama Canal (“American Canal”, anyone?)

And never forget the intimation of a Big Trade War: possible 25% tariffs slapped on Canada and Mexico starting February 1^st, to force negotiations. And further on down the road, the target will be the EU: Brussels is already on deep freak out mode.

Tik Tok, who’s there?

On the domestic front, one of the most intriguing gambits is the Tik Tok dossier: “U.S. Tik Tok deal may be worth a trillion dollars”, the President said. Buying 50% of Tik Tok might be a joint venture. With essential input by Trump’s son Barron, Tik Tok de facto helped Trump and Republicans to gain no less than 36% of the youth vote.

The possible Tik Tok deal essentially forces China to split 50% of ownership with American shareholders – so it may continue to sell ads in the U.S. This is all about financial gains linked to advertising.

The equity structure of Tik Tok is quite intriguing. 20% is held by the founder, Zhang Yiming. Other 20% is held by Tik Tok’s employees around the world. The remaining 60% is held by three American funds. So the U.S. in fact has long held more than 50% of the shares.

The difference now is that Trump/the U.S. government want to force founder Zhang Yiming to sell his shares.

Now imagine a parallel world where Brussels would force 50% of YouTube or X to be bought by a European oligarch so it would be allowed to do business in Europe (this in fact might even actually happen one day).

Now let’s hit the foreign policy cauldron.

Ukraine. Trump was evasive: a potential timeline for solving the proxy war in Ukraine could be discussed during an upcoming phone call with Putin (“soon”). When it comes to keeping the sanctions on Russia, Trump defined them as “tariffs”.

NATO. Gotta pay. A lot more: “NATO has to pay 5 percent. We are in the Ukraine war by $200 billion more than NATO. It’s ridiculous because it affects them a lot more. We have an ocean in between. And we’ve spent $200 billion more on Ukraine than NATO has spent. And they’ve got to equalize.”

NATO head, the Dutch Rutti-Frutti, seems to have got the message even before the inauguration; he’s already spinning the 5% for all European citizens like a mad dog. What if health care and social services need to be cut: it’s for the greater (imperial) good.

EU. The brutally benign message to the EU – which Trump did not even mention – is that these chihuahuas belong to the U.S. sphere of influence. Trump imperially ignored them.

With one spectacular exception. Asked about a possible 100 percent tariff “on those countries like Spain”, Trump’s answer was a pearl: “As a BRICS nation, yes.”

Someone forgot to tell Madrid they are now on BRICS. Yet the key point remains: Trump threatens to impose 100% tariffs on all BRICS nations going the de-dollarization way. Incidentally, 95% of payments between Russia and China are now in rubles and yuan.

Missile Defense. Trump: “I will direct our military to begin construction of the great Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will all be made in the U.S.A.” Well, the Pentagon should ask the Houthis for some input.

Venezuela. An intriguing twist: Trump envoy Ric Grenell is setting up direct talks with Caracas. Venezuela Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello is encouraging “rebooted” relations. And the Attorney General is willing to restart cooperation on smothering criminal gangs – extradition included.

None of that means that regime change will be discarded. All that oil and all those minerals, the brutally benign Empire badly needs them.

Cuba. Back to the list of “state sponsors of terrorism”. Havana originally made it during Trump 1.0, in 2021. And now with Marco Rubio in the State Dept., prospects are bleak. Havana will always resist.

Gaza. Trump was asked how confident he is about the Gaza ceasefire: “I’m not confident. That’s not our war, it’s their war.”

But the best was saved for last: “Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is, it’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way […] Gaza’s interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea, best weather […] It’s like some beautiful things could be done with it.”

Never underestimate This Year’s Model: the Golden, Exceptional, brutally benign Empire. No other entity can rebrand a genocide into a great real estate opportunity in a “phenomenal location”.