A fait accompli from French translated in English means a done deal. French, once the language of international diplomacy. A fait accompli refers to a situation that can no longer be changed. It is often used in a negative sense, but that is not what it is. A fait accompli also provides certainty. You know where you stand and can act accordingly. You can base your decisions on it. Whether you like it or not, a fait accompli leaves you no choice.
Take Europe over the past month. The 27 European states are being played off against each other and left in uncertainty whether agreements made previously will be honored. There are threats of import tariffs as high as the Statue of Liberty, etc. The NATO alliance is being made part of the political poker game. Simply by invoking article 5, which was unimaginable even two months ago, and which can now be used as a crowbar in the negotiations about higher contributions from the member states. Threatening that if the Third World War is at the doorstep of the Baltic States, it is questionable whether America will fulfill its obligations, even on a limited scale.
Which brings the old proverb to life: si vis pacem, para bellum. Those who want peace prepare for war. Which endorses the starting point of every diplomatic consultation. Be just as distrustful in every negotiation as the negotiating partner on the other side of the table.
What we are now seeing on the international stage is partly bluffing. A game of arm wrestling that Trump and his team must win within two years, before new elections are held for Congress. This is a risky business due to the large number of floating voters who will judge the current administration based on what they themselves have in their wallets that month. As well as making countless enemies at home and abroad, which will put a price tag on the life of a president.
After a month, it should be clear that you cannot convince or fight a liar with facts or the truth. It requires the same means that the blowhard uses himself. Probably the only means he understands.
Looking at his business career, you can safely say that he was completely unreliable as a businessman. Not to mention his tax payments. It can be said that this politician, like many republicans, will stop at nothing. Why that is, I will leave open to debate. However, I do see the same pattern time and again. These corpses always consist of his creditors, often small businesses that are repeatedly the victims of his six business bankruptcies.
Due to a somewhat strange twist in the typically American way of doing business, in which what counts above all is that you are a self-made man, he is not even resented by lenders.
Is Trump that man? A man who worked his way up from paperboy to millionaire. According to him, of course. But the reality is different. He mainly benefited from the start-up capital his father made available to him. Fortunately, there is an old and wise proverb that offers us a strategy on how to approach the man. Catching thieves is done by better thieves.
Applied to the current situation. With enough lies, you can blind every liar. It is important to always keep one step ahead in the dealings with Donald Trump. Promise everything, but above all, fail to keep those promises in the long run. Little by little, throw sand in the Republican lie machine and sabotage the matter where possible.
Because promising the impossible on your honest word of honor and giving as little as possible makes the red-haired madmen of this world live in expectation of profit!
Ludo 28-02-2025
