It is a study in the most jarring of contrasts. On one side of the world, President Trump is projecting himself as a globetrotting peacemaker. He kicks off a week-long Asia tour by performing his signature dance move in Malaysia, presiding over the signing of an expanded ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia. He is, in this carefully curated image, a statesman.

Back at home, he is waging a “war on his political enemies,” and the American people are the collateral damage.

This is the chaotic “split screen” of a nation in crisis. As the president hobnobs with world leaders, the United States government is deep into its 26th day of a grinding shutdown. This is not a distant political squabble. The consequences are immediate and devastating. Millions of Americans are bracing for their SNAP benefits—their food money—to end on November 1st. This is the cold, hard reality for families, for women, infants, and children, who are watching their lifelines get severed not by necessity, but by political choice.

According to analysts, this choice has a name: “vengeance capitalism.”

This is the term one political analyst used to describe a pattern of punitive actions that go far beyond a simple shutdown. It’s a deliberate strategy of targeting “countries that he doesn’t like, states that he doesn’t like.” We are witnessing the cancellation of massive infrastructure projects, projects that represent years of work for construction crews and contractors, simply because they are located in “Democratic cities and states.”

While the administration attempts to dodge recent economic data that “doesn’t really paint a very pretty picture,” the pain for everyday Americans is becoming impossible to ignore. The White House wants to “cherry-pick” its data, pointing to a stock market at a record high. But economists are quick to point out this growth is an illusion for most, concentrated in just seven or eight massive companies.

For everyone else, the story is about rising prices. The cost of living is climbing, largely fueled by tariffs that “make prices go up and they make it harder for companies to invest.” As one commentator noted with bleak humor, “I just bought two hot dogs in the street… it wasn’t cheap.” When the “dirty dogs” on the corner are no longer a cheap meal, you have a bellwether for an economy that is failing the people it’s supposed to serve.

This domestic chaos is made all the more surreal by the president’s simultaneous “peace agenda” abroad. That agenda, however, appears just as erratic and punitive as his domestic one. In a baffling move, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was forced to defend the president’s decision to abruptly break off trade talks with Canada—America’s second-biggest trade partner—and slap on new tariffs. The reason? The president “doesn’t like” a television ad the government of Ontario ran, an ad that featured former President Ronald Reagan.

The administration labeled the Canadian ad “propaganda against US citizens.” But the real propaganda, critics argue, is the image of a peacemaker while waging a targeted economic war at home.

As the shutdown grinds on, the political class is being lumped together in the public’s blame. But analysts stress a crucial distinction: this is not a failure of “both sides.” This is a crisis orchestrated by one man. “He is the force causing the problem,” one guest stated. He has the opportunity to negotiate, to fund nutrition assistance, to get the government running. Instead, he is “out there… dancing and getting the red carpet treatment” while outsourcing the salaries of the US military to private donors because Congress won’t do its job.

Congress, in this narrative, is “toothless” and “powerless.” The president, it seems, is relishing the chance to be an “all-powerful chief executive,” making Congress look silly while he pursues his own agenda.

And that agenda is now expanding from economic warfare and institutional erosion into something far more chilling: a literal, undeclared war in the Caribbean.

While the nation is distracted by the shutdown, the Trump administration has been ordering the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier strike group to the region. It has confirmed ten known strikes on “alleged drug carrying boats” since September.

In a statement of shocking candor, the president dismissed the need for any legal authorization: “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them.”

This has set off alarm bells even within his own party. Republican Senator Rand Paul forcefully condemned the action on Fox, labeling it in no uncertain terms: “At this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings.”

The legality is “batshit,” as one panelist put it, but the administration is pushing forward, testing the very limits of executive power. These strikes are occurring on the “high seas,” in international waters, which legal experts warn is a potential violation of international law. The administration is testing “how far does the United States’s jurisdiction go” without the declaration of war that is constitutionally required to come from Congress.

The question on everyone’s mind is why. Experts on the show believe this has little to do with drugs and everything to do with a “pension for regime change.” The “holy grail” of this new conflict, they argue, is Venezuela and its massive oil reserves.

To justify these “extrajudicial killings,” the administration is deploying a new, dangerous phrase: “narco-terrorism.” This language is a deliberate echo of the post-9/11 “war on terror,” which “was an open catchall blanket do whatever you want.” By labeling cartels as “narco-terrorists,” the administration is attempting to designate them as “enemy combatants,” a legal framework that would allow them to be killed on sight, bypassing all legal and judicial processes.

This entire military adventure is being orchestrated while the administration is also systemically dismantling the legal guardrails at home. A firestorm is erupting over the appointment of interim US Attorney Lindseay Halligan. Lawyers for New York Attorney General Leticia James are moving to dismiss charges on the basis that Halligan was “unlawfully installed.”

This is not a technicality. It’s part of a pattern. The administration is accused of repeatedly “circumventing the process” of Senate confirmation. The law allows for an interim appointment for 120 days. But the administration is “cycling new people in there” to “permanently circumvent the constitutional process.” This has happened before with former attorney Alina Haba and in key federal prosecutor posts across the country.

As if the illegal appointment weren’t enough, Halligan is now at the center of her own “Signal snafu.” She was caught texting a Lawfare senior editor about an active case, telling the reporter, “You have the facts wrong, I’ve seen the evidence you haven’t.” This, Tish James’s lawyers argue, is a “violation of rule 6E”—the sacred rule of grand jury secrecy. It is a stunning breach of Justice Department protocol.

We are left with a terrifying, comprehensive portrait. A president dancing in Asia while his people face food shortages. An economy of “vengeance” that punishes citizens for their political leaders. A Justice Department being filled with “unlawfully installed” loyalists who break protocol. And a new, undeclared war, justified by “extrajudicial killings” in a hunt for oil.

The question is no longer just “Can they do that?” The question is, with Congress rendered “toothless,” who is left to stop them?