‘Crumble before our eyes’: Scary hint of what Donald Trump will do next
Billionaire Elon Musk wants the US to make a huge and “troubling” change – and the President shows every sign of agreeing.
Billionaire Elon Musk wants the United States to quit the United Nations.
And President Donald Trump shows every sign of agreeing.
Mr Musk has unprecedented influence over the Make America Great Again (MAGA) President’s second term.
He was Mr Trump’s greatest financial backer for the election campaign.
He’s now Mr Trump’s personally appointed Special Government Employee.
And while he holds no official cabinet position or administrative post, Mr Musk’s power appears immense.
The richest man in the world may – or may not – be head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with cutting federal employees and services.
White House lawyers have told US courts he isn’t. Mr Trump says he is.
But Mr Musk hasn’t been shy about telegraphing impending White House policies.
And he’s now quote-posted “I agree” to a social media assertion: “It’s time to leave NATO and the UN”.
Mr Musk has previously called the foreign aid agency USAID a “criminal organisation”. He’s also called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “cruel”, “inhumane” and “evil” in resisting Russia’s invasion of his country.
All are controversial talking points of the Project 2025 plan for the Trump administration, issued by ultraconservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
“The first months of the second Trump presidency have already seen key parts of the current international order undermined. Musk’s position fits a general pattern,” observes University of Auckland international affairs expert Chris Ogden.
“If Trump harnesses these historical and modern forces to pull the US out of the UN, it would fundamentally – and likely irrevocably – undermine what has been a central pillar of the current international order.”
A new age of empires
“In recent years, experts on the Security Council have fretted that decision-makers in both Washington and Moscow have forgotten the body’s value as a safety valve in moments of crisis,” argues UN International Crisis Group (UNICG) director Richard Gowan.
In the first month of his second term, President Trump has already moved to withdraw US influence from several global arenas.
He’s withdrawn from the World Health Organisation.
He’s withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council.
He refuses to recognise the International Criminal Court.
He’s ordered foreign aid funds frozen.
He’s ordered a review of all US multilateral commitments and treaties.
“This is all in stark contrast to the central role the UN has traditionally played within the US-led international order since 1945,” writes Ogden.
“If the Trump regime follows through on its apparent strategy of manufacturing crises to advance its agenda, then leaving the UN entirely is a logical next step.”
It follows a steady deterioration in attempts by the US to uphold the global order it established after World War II. As a result, alliances, cooperative security, rules-based partnerships and multilateral agreements have fallen out of favour.
Under President George W. Bush, the US invaded Iraq in 2003 without the authority of the United Nations. This undermined the global security body’s legitimacy and power as an arbiter of peace.
“The subsequent human rights violations by the US through its use of rendition, torture and detention at facilities such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib further weakened the UN’s credibility,” Ogden adds.
Under President Joe Biden, the US pulled its funding support for the Gaza relief agency UNRWA in 2024 amid unsubstantiated claims by Israel that the body had been hijacked by Hamas.
Under President Donald Trump, the US has – for the first time – backed Russia against the West in the UN. It voted last month against a move to condemn Moscow on the third anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
When might makes right
“Washington … gave a pretty strong hint about how it sees the UN as a potential vehicle for framing big-power deal making and sidelining smaller states,” the UNICG’s Gowan writes of Washington DC’s backing of Moscow.
“The wider UN membership also has mixed feelings over the new US posture. There have been numerous stories of US officials using extremely harsh threats as they lobbied other states not to back Kyiv and the Europeans.
“We cannot allow the fundamental global consensus around international norms and institutions, built painstakingly over decades, to crumble before our eyes.”
Mr Gowan warns that “the most troubling scenario would arise if the United States and Russia do hammer out a ceasefire deal on terms that Kyiv and its regional allies cannot swallow”.
“In a worst case, the UK and France might seriously ponder using their vetoes on such a text … That would lead to a greater trans-Atlantic breakdown.”
Now, Mr Musk’s endorsement of withdrawing from the UN and NATO could signal growing momentum within the White House towards an isolationist foreign policy.
And Elon Musk’s money is where Mr Trump’s mouth is.
“There would be greater unpredictability in global affairs, and the world would be a more dangerous place,” warns Ogden.
“For countries big and small, a UN without the US will force new strategic calculations and create new alliances and blocs, as the world leaps into the unknown.”
It’s a volatile future.
“Vanity would exert itself, as it so often does in international affairs,” predicts Wilson Centre director Michael Kimmage.
“Just as Putin cannot afford to lose a war to Ukraine, Trump cannot afford to ‘lose’ Europe. To squander the prosperity and power projection that the United States gains from its military presence in Europe would be humiliating for any American president.
“The psychological incentives for escalation would be strong.”
When money talks
“Trump’s embrace of Russia’s dictator, his bullying of a weakened Ukraine, his musings about new US territorial conquests, and his dismantling of US democratic institutions would, in any other age, have resulted in his immediate removal from office,” argues Australian National University strategic analyst Matthew Sussex.
“And yet he has succeeded in beating his political opponents into submission, while his cultish following applauds every fresh outrage he visits on America’s friends, and every undeserved boon he grants its enemies.”
President Putin rose to power and maintained his place at the top of Russian politics for a quarter of a century by cultivating a close network of untouchable oligarchs. In exchange for unfettered access to wealth, they have had to display unwavering loyalty to Mr Putin’s leadership. Or die.
“Like the Russian autocrat he idolises, Trump’s main domestic and foreign agendas revolve around his personal fortune, cementing his political power, and creating a narrative that existential forces – as well as internal enemies – are to blame for America’s problem,” states Sussex.
“In this brutal order, the strong do as they will, and the weak do as they must.
“It envisages a world cleaved into spheres of influence, with Russia permitted to run rampant over Eastern Europe, the US dominating the Americas and the East Pacific, and China as a hybrid maritime and continental power exerting hegemony in Asia.”
And US-based global tech entrepreneurs – from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook to Jeff Bezos of Amazon – have quickly displayed their new-found affection for the MAGA movement.
“Equally alarming is the rise of unelected and unregulated ‘tech oligarchs’ who reflect the new global power dynamic,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk stated this week.
He added these modern tech oligarchs “have our data: they know where we live, what we do, our genes and our health conditions, our thoughts, our habits, our desires and our fears … And they know how to manipulate us”.
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as ‘Crumble before our eyes’: Scary hint of what Donald Trump will do next
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