Trump just flexed his muscles again - you won't believe who he's humiliated this time

Shortly after Venezuelan despot Nicolas Maduro was plucked from his bed in his pyjamas by balaclava-clad US special forces, Donald Trump crowed: “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”

The dictator was forcibly removed from his marital bed in Caracas and snatched, taken back to America to face a litany of drug and trafficking charges.​

​Ever since, Trump has threatened military intervention in Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Iran (again), and even to annex Greenland.

He promised to Make America Great Again, and while domestically that is debatable, with a cost of living crisis and rising unemployment (sound familiar), there is no doubt the US is being noticed on the world stage once more in moves that have both alarmed and excited.

While the Obama and Biden administrations preferred soft power, ​or a laissez-faire​ attitude towards rogue states, Trump's bombastic approach has shaken the world order. His critics - and there are many - say he's talking and acting like the head of an imperial power.

They won't say it, of course, but his actions have infuriated Britain and Europe, while pleasing Moscow and Beijing - countries that have long held designs on their neighbours and have their own empire plans.

We are witnessing the tectonic plates of world order shift once more.

Meanwhile, his decisive actions and unapologetic words have made Sir Keir Starmer and his European brothers-in-arms look like political pygmies while annoying and alarming those who thought they held sway around the world, most notably former prime minister Sir Tony Blair.

Sir Tony, who privately despises Trump and thinks the rise of populism is ​grotesquely dangerous, was forced to swallow his pride and praise the president after he brokered ​what was described as a peace deal in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas.

Why? Because he wanted a plum position on his “peace council”.

But he’s been dropped after dissenting voices from Arab and Muslim nations grew into a cacophony of opposition, convincing Trump it would cause more tension and trouble, if that were possible.

Despite September’s Trump-brokered deal, the war that erupted in October 2023 between Israel and Hamas is ongoing. It is quite something that the prospect of ​a smirking Sir Tony ​arriving as the Palestinian political equivalent of Sam Allardyce had sparked revolt and revulsion​ in equal measure.

And that will rankle.​ A lot.

Sir Tony has been seeking a globally powerful job, one with a spotlight and influence, but after top gigs at the UN and NATO went begging, another one now falls by the wayside.

After a decade in No 10, Sir Tony found himself well remunerated as a consultant for US banking giant JP Morgan and later as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the UN, European Union, United States and Russia.

Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, the same year Sir Tony left Downing Street.

It indicated it would be willing to allow a Palestinian body to Gaza, but has failed to commit to full disarmament and still effectively controls the strip.

Even it was appalled at the prospect of Sir Tony being parachuted in.

Hamas official Dr Basem Naim said: “When it comes to Tony Blair, unfortunately, we Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, and maybe others around the world have bad memories of him.

"We can still remember his role in killing, causing thousands or millions of deaths to innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We can still remember him very well after destroying Iraq and Afghanistan."

Trump said: "I like Tony, I have always liked Tony. But I want to find out that he is an acceptable choice to everybody."

​And while Trump continues to police the world, we now know the answer​ to the question posed by the president.