2026 has so far been a year of war, chaos, economic crisis, and imperial overreach. The United States under President Donald Trump continues to wage an illegal and failed war against Iran that threatens economic devastation across the globe and escalation into a war far beyond the region. In Europe, many governments are caught, on one hand between the insanity of the United States, and on the other the absolute stupidity of their own policy—as seen with Germany’s new military strategy which pledges to build the strongest army in Europe in preparation for war with Russia. The disintegration of global institutions and norms is proceeding at a record pace.
All the while, the specter of war and the danger of catastrophe is skyrocketing. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres opened the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference on April 27 by warning: “For the first time in decades, the number of nuclear warheads is on the rise. Nuclear testing is back on the table. Some governments are openly mulling the acquisition of these horrific weapons.” After reminding the world of the danger of nuclear weapons, he commented that, “Today, a state of collective amnesia has taken hold.” Similarly, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that global military spending has reached a new record of almost $2.9 trillion in 2025—the 11th consecutive year of growth—all while poverty rates around the world are on the rise and populations in every country are facing increased costs of living.
However, even this grim outlook pales in comparison to the outrageous welcome given by President Trump to Britain’s King Charles III in Washington this week. Trump hosted the British King for a grandiose state visit, complete with formal ceremonies, a small military parade, and even an invitation to address a joint session of Congress. Despite his recent harsh words and aggressive tone toward British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump showed the world that these are only surface-level disagreements, and expressed his belief that, at its core, the U.S. is heir to Great Britain’s “majestic inheritance.” Shamelessly, Trump praised the British Empire’s “culture,” “character,” and “creed,” and even claimed that “our ancestors would surely be filled with awe and pride that the Anglo-American revolution in human freedom” has spread across the world (emphasis added).
Anyone who knows the true history of the American Revolution knows this is a travesty against the United States—made all the worse by occurring on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Not only did Trump praise the history of the bloody British Empire—the same empire which starved to death three million Indians during World War II and brutalized tens of millions of others under its colonial rule—but he falsely claimed that Britain’s intellectual and philosophical influence created the United States. The same points were made King Charles in his address to Congress, to which he received repeated standing ovations from the amnesia-ridden officials.
In defiance of the British liberal philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Adam Smith, who justified slavery one’s “right to property,” as well as the positive law concept of the Magna Carta, the United States’ Founding Fathers insisted that the foundation of any government is natural law. Human beings are not solely driven by their personal wants and desires, leading them into perpetual conflict with each other and necessitating a ruler, or “commonwealth” to keep them all in check. Rather, all men and women are created in the image of the Creator, and endowed with the ability to knowably “do Good” and advance mankind’s mastery over nature. Or, as Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen put it upon returning from the Moon: “Humans are just great people in general. We don’t always do great things… but our default is to be good and to be good to one another.”
Perhaps it is such a spirit, increasingly gripping the world as the vestiges of the dying British imperial system become more evident, that is driving the creation of a new global system today. Perhaps the world is finally rejecting the depraved view of humanity embodied in the arrogance displayed in Washington, and exemplified in waging destructive wars of aggression in the name of “peace.”
Either way, it is past time to bring such a world into existence, and kick out the unnatural king-like thinking for good.
