How can the leader of the world's most powerful country suddenly become a merchant selling history in exchange for a trade deal? And how can someone sitting in the White House repeatedly make grave mistakes about basic facts, as if they are cheap goods traded without scrutiny? Donald Trump appeared thus, contradictory to the point of scandal — not only in his policies but deep within his psyche and his way of dealing with world leaders, as he measures everything by a single scale: those who offer him deals, and those who open investment doors for American companies.

This was clearly evident during his press conference on December 16, 2024, in the White House, when he spoke about Turkey’s relationship with Syria, saying: “Turkey has wanted that for thousands of years, and they’ve been there for two thousand years, at least, dealing with Syria since that time”【Reuters, Dec 16, 2024】. In one sentence, he condensed the history of Anatolia into contradictory numbers — once two thousand years, and once only a thousand — as if time is just a play of numbers he manipulates at will. By this, he erased entire Islamic civilizations and empires—from the Hashemite to the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ayyubid—reducing them all to the Ottoman State alone, as Erdogan has learned to craft his own historical narrative.

During his meeting with Erdogan at the White House on September 25, 2025, he repeated the same idea with ambiguous wording when asked about Syria, again pointing to “thousands of years” of Turkey’s ambitions, implying that Turkey desires control over Syria for two thousand years. This can be seen as an indirect defense of Ankara’s policies, subtly criticizing Turkey’s ambitions in Syria. Yet this time, he linked the discussion to trade deals: gas, weapons, as if history is only a justification for exchanging interests.

The danger of such reductionism does not lie merely in ignorance or in Trump’s words sometimes straying from diplomatic geography. Its impact lies in shaping the consciousness of peoples and the image of the Middle East in the Western perception. When history with all its complexity and diversity is erased and replaced with a single narrative, it becomes easy to justify dominance, cover-up crimes, and reproduce colonialism under the guise of a “New Ottoman” state. Trump’s words were not just a slip of the tongue; they are an extension of Erdogan’s rhetoric, seeking to restore legitimacy to a bygone empire, consciously sidelining the greatness of civilizations that preceded and laid the foundations for science, thought, and politics. Worse, these slips are accepted by the U.S. president as assumed facts, amidst media and analyst silence, until Trump’s historical scandals become ordinary, eliciting only fleeting smiles, while global consciousness is reshaped according to a false narrative.

The pressing question here is: Are there advisors and history experts around Trump who correct him and guide him before such scandals occur? Or is the truth more than mere ignorance, and does the president not actually need the truth? Perhaps, as I argued in my previous series of articles, Trump was not just an incidental president or a reckless businessman, but a manifestation of the modern deep state and a loyal guardian of giant algorithmic corporations that now control reshaping the world according to their economic interests.

It is true that an ordinary person might commit such blunders out of ignorance of history. But for the leader of the world’s strongest nation to do so goes beyond ignorance—it reveals a contempt for historical truth and a lax attitude toward verifying information. It is indicative of a corporate-minded mentality, one that sells and buys in the political marketplace, more than a statesman leading a global system.

Trump has shown remarkable inferiority before Erdogan, even signing a deal with Boeing so low as to be seen withdrawing his own chair as a companion, in a scene closer to self- humiliation than diplomacy. A similar scene repeated in Saudi Arabia, when he sat next to one of the individuals on the U.S. terrorism wanted list, as if it was meaningless, then repeated in Qatar, where he lavishly flattered the emir—even though his country’s territory is barely larger than Houston. All this reflects Trump’s extreme readiness to make excessive concessions for someone who guarantees him a deal or quick economic gains.

Contrasting with his excessive accommodation to dealmakers, Trump, when dealing with leaders facing aid shortages or humanitarian and economic crises, becomes a rude and harsh man, imposing humiliating conditions and acting with a bluntness far from any humanitarian or political consideration. This was evident with Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, managing the situation from the Oval Office as if it were a commercial negotiation. He eased his stance only when it became apparent that American companies were after the rare mineral resources Ukraine contains. We will explore his stance on the American-Kurdish alliance in a detailed article later.

This contradiction clearly exposes his mental makeup: a pathological obsession with financial power and corporate deals, coupled with arrogance and condescension toward.

Dr. Mahmoud Abbas