DRUNK WITH POWER

DONALD Trump returned to the White House vowing dominance, discipline and delivery.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

A year later, his second term reads like a catalogue of recklessness, broken promises and self-serving ego.

The dangers are multiplying fraying alliances, deepening domestic unrest and a looming electoral reckoning that could yet end his presidency altogether.

Trump has governed as though the US presidency were a personal instrument rather than a public trust.

Executive orders have poured out at record rates, institutions have been hollowed out and allies have been treated as obstacles to be bullied.

The president boasts of having ended wars. The claim collapses under scrutiny. He has plunged into global conflicts armed with economic threats, declaring peace where none is secure.

Trump has undermined Nato, treating collective defence as a protection racket. That sense of transactional brinkmanship was underlined by his attempt to now claim Greenland.

He authorised a direct operation that removed President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela. Sold as law enforcement and liberation, it treated a sovereign nation as a problem to be solved by force.

Venezuela holds the world's largest proven oil reserves and Trump has never hidden his belief that power belongs to those who take it.

In the Middle East, he has taken credit for de-escalation without delivering durable settlements.

At home, Trump detonated the global trade system with tariffs. Prices have risen, supply chains buckled, and households absorbed the shock.

Inflation climbed again.

Polls show around two-thirds of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy.

Job growth has slowed.

Manufacturing has shed tens of thousands of jobs.