Redeveloping the World

I know that everyone was saying that his second term would see Trump trying to remake the world in his image, but I doubt that they thought this would be literal.  But here we are with him apparently intent upon turning the entire planet into a real estate development, as he lobbies to take control of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it into a leisure complex for the wealthy - the 'Riviera of the Mediterranean'.  Trump's witterings about his vision for Gaza throw a new light on his apparent obsession with bullying Denmark into ceding Greenland to the US, ostensibly on defence grounds.  The reality is doubtless that, with global warming doing for the polar ice cap, moving Greenland into a more temperate zone, he sees the island as another property ripe for redevelopment into a holiday paradise for the ultra-rich.  It's probably the same with regard to Canada - annexed to become an outdoor pursuits centre for his wealthy friends.  Because that's what property developers do - they take land, whether by buying it or obtaining it by more dubious methods, then clear everyone and everything already there off of it, before turning it into something that benefits only a minority, but from which the developer can wring maximum profits.  The twist with Trump is that, in the case of Gaza, at least, the demolition of existing property has already been done for him, courtesy of Israel, just leaving those pesky Palestinians to be cleared off the land.

Perhaps that's why Trump seems so keen to seize Greenland by force - bomb the place flat so as to more easily facilitate his redevelopment plan.  Where next for his resort redevelopments?  Perhaps that's his 'peace' plan for Ukraine?  Cut off military aid to Ukraine so that Russia can bomb it into rubble, then buy the resultant wasteland from Putin to turn into a holiday resort for Eastern European oligarchs: the 'Riviera of the Black Sea'?  After all, back in the days of the USSR, the Black Sea coast of Ukraine was the favoured holiday destination of senior party functionaries.  But where do the local population go once they've been cleared off of wherever it is Trump is redeveloping?  Well, doubtless some of them will be required as domestic staff for the new hotels and condos that go up in place of their homes, accommodated in cheap and poorly constructed tied properties.  The majority, though, will have to go somewhere else - maybe that's what he wants Canada for?  There's still a lot of open spaces there, just crying out to be built on - with construction work doubtless provided by contractors owned by Trump, his family or his friends and business associates.  To be absolutely fair, this idea of using conflict as a way of making the world safe for US commerce is nothing new - the US tried it in occupied Germany after the war, for instance, giving exclusive contracts to US companies to redevelop parts of the infrastructure.  General Motors' EMD subsidiary, for example, was given exclusive rights to build and import diesel electric locomotives into the occupied German territories, which resulted in the German railways developing their own, locally produced, diesel hydraulic locomotives, instead.  More recently, there was Iraq, where, even before the Gulf War commenced, numerous US firms were given exclusive contracts to rebuild the country and operate vital parts of the infrastructure.  So, really, Trump is just continuing another American tradition.