Oval Office Becomes Propaganda Theater

Trump’s Oval Office stunt with a racist propaganda video isn’t just reckless; it’s a flashing neon sign of a presidency driven by ignorance, grievance, and dangerously unqualified advisors.

Guest article by Michael Cohen

I used to think I’d seen it all: the late-night rants, the Diet Coke-fueled tantrums, the off-the-cuff decisions that could start a war or tank a market. But nothing—and I mean nothing—quite encapsulates the deranged stupidity of President Trump’s foreign policy like what happened yesterday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Picture this: You’re a head of state visiting the White House. You expect, at the very least, a little pageantry, a handshake, maybe a few vague pleasantries about trade or diplomacy. Instead, you’re treated to a propaganda video—not a briefing, not a fact-based presentation, but a full-blown right-wing fever dream, edited together like a low-budget horror flick, showing images of white South Africans supposedly being “slaughtered” by Black farmers in a fictitious race war.

This is what Donald Trump thinks passes for diplomacy. This is what happens when you elect a man who doesn’t read, doesn’t listen, and surrounds himself with people whose only qualifications are blind loyalty and zero experience.

Let me be blunt: the whole “white genocide in South Africa” narrative is a lie. A straight-up, dangerous, white supremacist talking point that’s been debunked by journalists, human rights organizations, and the South African government itself. But that didn’t stop Trump. Why would it? The man’s allergic to facts and has the moral compass of a broken lawn chair.

And here’s the kicker: he didn’t stumble upon this narrative by accident. No, it was spoon-fed to him by the likes of Tucker Carlson and whatever deranged Reddit thread Stephen Miller is probably lurking in. These aren’t policy experts. They’re arsonists playing with matches in a room full of gasoline. And Trump? He’s the guy who thinks the fire is a spotlight.

Instead of asking his State Department or intelligence briefers for an accurate assessment of land reform in South Africa—which, by the way, is a complex, post-apartheid issue involving centuries of dispossession and injustice—Trump decided to do what he always does: listen to the last person in the room. And if that person is a conspiracy-addled racist, well, so be it. Especially if it means denigrating South Africa, as Trump believes the entire country is nothing more than a shithole.

But let’s talk about what this really means, beyond the embarrassment, beyond the headline fodder. Because this isn’t just about one gaffe, one offensive video, one botched meeting. This is about how Trump, in his second go-around as Commander-in-Chief, continues to weaponize ignorance.

He’s not just uninformed; he’s proudly uninformed. He thinks intelligence briefings are boring, that reading is for losers, and that the State Department is part of the “deep state.” He trusts his gut over centuries of diplomatic tradition, over seasoned foreign policy experts, over literal reality. And his gut, let me tell you, is full of crap.

Now imagine what that looks like on the world stage. Imagine being a U.S. ally, wondering if your next state visit will be hijacked by a racist YouTube montage. Imagine being in the Situation Room, waiting for Trump to make a decision about North Korea, or Iran, or Ukraine—only to watch him pull out his phone and scroll through Truth Social for “intel.”

This is a man who not only doesn’t do his homework—he mocks those who do. He thinks knowledge is elitist, empathy is weakness, and that foreign policy is just a PR game he can win with enough bluster and bullshit.

And don’t get me started on the people advising him. Karoline Leavitt—his press secretary with less foreign policy experience than a barista at Starbucks. Stephen Miller—who couldn’t care less about diplomacy unless it involves deporting someone. Scott Bessent at Treasury, Linda McMahon at Education—it’s like the bad casting of a political reality show that somehow got renewed for another season.

These aren’t advisors. They’re enablers. And what they enable is the steady erosion of American credibility. Every time Trump peddles racist propaganda in a meeting with a world leader, he’s not just humiliating himself—he’s humiliating us. He’s turning the Oval Office into a far-right content farm, one propaganda clip at a time.

Let me leave you with this thought: the world is watching. They watched the first time around, and they watched in horror. Now, they’re watching again—but with the terrifying realization that this isn’t just a phase. This is what America, under Trump, has become: a country where the president learns foreign policy from fringe media and executes it with the finesse of a drunk elephant in a china shop.

And unless we wake up—unless we push back, speak out, and hold this administration accountable—we’re not just going to lose face on the global stage. We’re going to lose the very soul of American leadership.

I saw it up close. I helped build the mythology. And now I’m begging you to see the damage it continues to cause. This isn’t about party. It’s about sanity, stability, and survival. And sadly, we’re running out of time.

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