Trump and King Pyrrhus of the 3rd Century BCE

Ever heard of Pyrrhus, the King of Epirus in Greece?  He is best known for having fought against the Romans (about 275-280 BCE)—and winning!  However, winning against the Romans cost him dearly.  So now his name has come down to us in a phrase: a “Pyrrhic Victory.”  And it is not good.

You see, a Pyrrhic victory is an empty one.  It means that you paid more to win a war than the war was worth.  It means that you won your battle at excessive cost, to the point of negating any or all expected or hoped for benefits that took you to war in the first place.  It means you lost everything in order to essentially win nothing—except to say that you’ve defeated the enemy in battle.

That makes me think of President Trump and his big talk against the North Koreans.  Trump seems to be willing to pay an excessively heavy price, in order to be a “winner” in the face-off against the North Koreans.

I’ve heard that Trump is not shy about taking financial risks when doing business dealings.  But I’ve also heard that he never risks his own money; it’s always somebody else’s money he puts at risk—in his mind that’s nothing more than being a smart and shrewd businessman—being a winner!

So, when Trump makes big threats against North Korea, and talks about his willingness to take us down the war path against the North Koreans (including the possibility of nuclear war), who does he think will pay the cost—South Korea, Japan, Guam, the Philippines?

Of course we will win a war against North Korea, but what if China and Russia get involved (one has to be quite naïve to think that they wouldn’t)?  Who will then pay the cost?  What will be the total cost to the US economy and its allies?  In the end, will it not be nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory—extremely costly, totally empty, and losing everything of true value and significance while gaining nothing as an end result?

Fact is, Trump has a mindset that essentially says: “Be tough, talk big, and push-back twice or three times as hard as your opponent, to get what you want—but always ensure that someone else’s assets are at risk, never my own!”  As long as someone else pays the price, he is willing to pay any price, willing to “go-at-it” at any cost, to win a fight.  That is the way he did business as a businessman and that is the way he is doing the business of international politics as the President of the United States.

Trump supporters, as of yet, still fail to see why Trump is a dangerous man in office.  Someday, they will wake-up to reality (hopefully sooner than later) and realize that Trump is NOT good for America.  Rather than making America great again, Trump is most certainly on the way to bankrupting America—in more ways than one.  And this kind of talk, implying a nuclear strike against North Korea, for example, is just one obvious example of this.

Sure, it may sound good to the Hawkish types among us, but it is a far cry from being a reasoned and seasoned savvy diplomat in modern day international politics.  I know, that’s what Trump supporters like about Trump.  But I wonder how many Trump supporters have heard of King Pyrrhus and what it means to have a Pyrrhic victory.