In his work, Fukuyama stated that liberal-democratic capitalism represents the best of possible social systems, and there will be no further development except through its universalization.
However, only three decades have passed, and today we observe a radically different situation: the prevailing opinion is that the liberal-democratic capitalist world order, with its principles caring for basic human rights, has collapsed. Instead, a new, brutal world has emerged, where the strong oppress the weak, and ideologies have lost their significance, leaving room only for pure economic, military, or political power.
Thus, U.S. President Donald Trump did not seek to restore democracy in Venezuela; his actions were aimed at seizing access to the country’s vast oil and resource reserves. Similarly, Russian President Vladimir Putin began the war with Ukraine to expand territory and restore the notion of a "Great Russia," which existed before and after the Bolshevik revolution.
Realism without illusions has become the dominant worldview.
According to this view, if you are a small country, you must resign yourself to the necessity of living in fear. If you have the opportunity to wield power, do so, keeping in mind that ideals do not matter. In the modern post-ideological world, as many emphasize, the mask of human rights and respect for sovereignty has disappeared.
However, this is not true. Our post-liberal world is even more permeated by ideology than the liberal-democratic order.
Trump's idea of "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) represents pure ideology, despite the constant contradictions of his actions. Steve Bannon, the chief ideologist of Trump's populism, calls himself a Leninist seeking to dismantle state structures. Nevertheless, under Trump, the U.S. state apparatus has strengthened and become more authoritarian, often violating laws and interfering in democratic processes. In the context of MAGA, "freedom of speech" becomes a tool for the strong, allowing them to humiliate the weak (immigrants, non-whites, and sexual minorities), rather than a means for the oppressed and exploited to express themselves.
A similar situation is observed in Israel and Russia. Israel, gripped by Zionist fundamentalism, uses the Old Testament to justify the brutal colonization of Gaza and the West Bank. Putin justifies his power with Eurasian ideology, opposing Western individualism and allegedly valuing traditional Christian values, where the community is prioritized, and individuals must sacrifice themselves for the state.
In this context, Alexander Dugin, Putin's leading ideologist, formulates the main characteristics of Homo putinus with his supposed "selfless nature": "For us, life itself seems less significant than for people in the West. We believe that there are things more important than mere existence. This is essentially the foundation of any faith."
In these cases, we are far from a true understanding of the world: the prevailing "realism" ignores the necessary ideology to maintain the status quo.
This tension is one of the key features of modernity: more and more states rely on criminal groups to strengthen their power. Haiti, suffering for over 200 years after a successful slave revolution, represents an extreme example of a "failed state," where gangs control 80% of the territory. Similar situations are observed in Ecuador (where gangs openly occupy urban areas) and in regions of Mexico that are completely under the control of drug cartels.
It is also necessary to mention the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran's moral politics, which act as ideological police and often create awkward situations for the government. An example is the murder of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. It is also worth noting the Wagner Group, which the Russian government used to conduct military operations abroad, but ultimately turned against Putin's regime.
A striking example is the Israeli settlers who openly threaten Palestinians in the West Bank. They act as an independent movement committing crimes, from arson to physical violence. The Israel Defense Forces merely observe, intervening only in cases of resistance from Palestinians. Thus, the criminal actions of these groups are supported and even encouraged by the state, which seeks to maintain plausible deniability.
And let’s not forget about Trump. Previously, he was the instigator of an uprising against constitutional authorities in the U.S., and now he is conducting internal colonization by sending armed agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (rather than the National Guard) into democratic cities to intimidate their residents. ICE has increased its numbers by 120% since Trump returned to the White House, hiring 12,000 new agents and officers armed after just 47 days of training. Masking their faces, they act like Trump’s settlers in the West Bank, illegally invading people's homes without search warrants. A Mexican priest working in Minneapolis called ICE a worse organization than the drug cartels in his country.
However, there is an important distinction: unlike Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Putin, Trump does not distance himself from his criminal group. He is their direct leader, who orders to ignore democratic institutions and the opinions of local authorities.
Thus, Trump, as head of the executive branch, acts simultaneously as both the chief executor of U.S. laws and as a gang leader. This creates parallels with G. K. Chesterton's thought that "Christianity is the only religion that believes omnipotence makes God incomplete. Only Christianity recognizes that for complete divine existence, one must be not only a king but also a rebel." It can be ironically argued that Trump is trying to play the role of a rebellious god: de facto king of the U.S. who governs the country through decrees while simultaneously opposing the state.
Trump's recent actions highlight this paradox. He has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, demanding $10 billion in compensation from the federal agency he himself oversees. Claiming that he has been insulted, he seems intent on deciding for himself whether he will settle and what that settlement will be.
Some Republican lawmakers have also expressed doubts about the lawsuit in which Trump is both the plaintiff and the defendant, and he acknowledged his "strange position" in which he needs to "negotiate with himself." Democratic Senator Adam Schiff commented that "his audacity in this fraud deserves respect. It’s just brazen."
We have already seen something similar not in real life, but in cinema: in Woody Allen's early film Bannanas (1971), the main character plays the role of his own lawyer, aggressively questioning himself and answering. Half a century later, reality has caught up with this joke.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2026. www.project-syndicate.org
Slavoj Žižek
The entry "Trump as a Symbol of Rebellion: The Collapse of Liberal-Democratic Capitalism" was first published on K-News.
