Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones:
Love Among the Ruins
(c. 1894)

“Better to extend a few mollifying indulgences than mimic the sinner’s self-destruction.”

Trump’s re-election represented the American Brexit. When Britain decided to economically divorce itself from neighboring economies, those economies responded with considerable frustration, as if responding to a toddler’s immature act of independence. The toddler didn’t necessarily register that their neighbor was demonstrating tough love in their response, essentially giving those Tories precisely what they asked for: bureaucratic tangles, logistical nightmares, and a deepening dependence rather than their dreamed-for self-reliance. These complications have helped normalize relations, with Britain somewhat chastened and the Europeans relatively strengthened. The EEU extended Indulgences to Britain for its obvious sins. Rather than seeking vengeance, which might have been fully justified, they insisted upon justice instead and became a different, relatively unexpected ally in the process.

It might have been a testament to our stockpile of goodwill that our trading partners didn’t immediately respond to Trump’s adolescent tariffs with extreme protectionism. They were met instead with remarkable forbearance, little more than threats and grievances. Most seemed to hold onto a faith that these insults might quickly pass and that they would be no use overreacting to. True to already established form, Trump’s administration proved itself incapable of maintaining focus, and those initial tariffs appeared and disappeared as if they were quantum particles. The allies’ forbearances amounted to Indulgences in practice, conditional foregivenesses extended assuming future reforms, not solely based upon then current performance. If Trump’s policies were abhorrent, and they were, our trading partners seemed to bet that they would at worst prove temporary.

Of course, being American, Trump would bring a level of arrogance and cluelessness no condescending Britain would ever imagine bringing to political disagreement. Because we self-sabotage, we would have to continually escalate. What began as mere insult quickly matured into genuine assault, acts of actual war visited upon the weakest among us. In prior times, I can easily imagine countries declaring war and engaging in battle over less than what Trump’s non-administration routinely accomplishes on any odd Tuesday. These days, though, even their more egregious acts seem to receive tacit forgiveness, as if assumed to represent temporary insanity rather than some permanent descent into evil incarnate. Trump’s been living on byes, blind eyes extended as if to pretend that nothing’s really happening.

These Indulgences are not extended cost-free, but as investments. Nor are they simply appeasements. They make good sense when believing some insanity will likely prove temporary. This might not be a genuine threat to world order, but just a passing dalliance. It might be that they extended these Indulgences in self-defense, to preserve a sense of allegiance for what might have passed but hasn’t yet convincingly gone. These might, in some short run, encourage a genuine strongman’s aggression, be seen as placating concessions, and thereby encourage the offending indecency. It’s a calculated risk, but given the logical alternatives, a gamble that might well seem more than worth the potential humiliation if the underlying assumptions prove to have been wrong in the longer run.

Our world dangles from a thread. The threat belongs to those of us who were recently seen as the one essential security. We pray for our administration to rediscover our good senses again, something that could start to happen at any one of these terrifying countdown seconds. Trump’s overreach holds little probability of becoming anybody’s new status quo. I believe we’re right, and our former trading partners are right, to extend considerable forgiveness even though that response might not seem wholly warranted by the present behavior. Trump and his twisted policies will very likely not prove eternal, and seem most likely to spark a generation and more of uplifting renewal. The self-saboteurs always manage to undermine their own initiatives, rendering their former convictions irrelevant in the process. I believe that our allies are wise to extend Indulgences to this latest sinner among them. Yes, the behaviors could ultimately prove so outrageous as to undermine what’s passed for our stabilizing world order, but I can see little benefit in rushing toward that border. Better to extend a few mollifying indulgences than mimic the sinner’s self-destruction.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #EndDays, #PureSchmaltz