By Sam, 16
The world feels like an extremely unstable place in 2026, with superpowers rushing to expand their power. Starting with Russia-Ukraine, then Chinese military exercises in Taiwan, and now, America.
If you said 3 years ago, as President Biden stood steadfast in support of Ukraine, that in just a couple of years his successor would not only be on social media reposting pro-Kremlin and pro-Chinese videos calling NATO the real enemy but also openly calling for aggression against its own allies and declaring war on their own citizens, then I would find it very hard to believe you.
Now, it doesn’t even seem surprising at all.
ICE
On 7th of January 2026, Renee Good, a 37-year-old American citizen and single mother, was fatally shot in her car on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota by an ICE agent. President Trump and his allies rushed to call the killing “justified”, a statement widely disputed by eyewitnesses and Democratic Party lawmakers.
Whilst Governor Tim Walz, who has opposed ICE previously, called for calm in the aftermath, citizens of the Minnesota Twin Cities flooded onto the streets in protest against ICE. Marches across the rest of the USA followed, spreading from St. Paul to Los Angeles.
As is seemingly normal in Trump’s America, this faced a violent response from Federal Agents who used tear gas and pepper spray against protestors. Governor Walz placed the National Guard on standby, and America seemingly lay on the brink of civil war.
ICE isn’t new to America, though it has never been thrust into the limelight in quite this way, Following the shooting of Renee Good, people across America have been forced to make up their mind on the organisation, and it isn’t good for Trump. A poll on ICE conducted by the NYT revealed that 61% of Americans believe the tactics used have gone too far.
This was before the killing of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti on January 24, and the detaining of a 5-year-old boy by ICE. Caught in the crossfire of this conflict is the soul of communities. Communities of families, neighbourhoods and even whole towns. The country that’s meant to protect them now seems to turn against them. Alone, afraid; these shattered communities have nobody to turn to. Together communities can act as a shield, band together in the face of adversity and keep each other up-beat during tough times. If communities are shattered, how willing are people to keep protesting?
Greenland
War might be next. “You’ll find out,” uttered Trump at a news conference in January; after being asked how far he would be willing to go to acquire the Danish Autonomous territory of Greenland.
To say this was completely shocking would be incorrect, as Trump has consistently flirted with the idea of annexing Canada and Greenland, but never has he gone so far behind his European allies’ backs. It’s safe to say annexing Greenland through peace is out of the question, as 85% of the country oppose American annexation, with only 6% supporting it.
Additionally, Trump’s reasoning is certainly unclear, to say the least. First, he said it would be to prevent Russia or China from taking it first, which is geographically impossible. He then claimed on his TruthSocial that NATO was the real enemy, not Russia or China like he had previously mentioned.
This shows just how much Trump has disrupted geopolitics, pushing away his closest allies while attempting to pull in his closest ones. A Russian, Chinese and American “axis” no longer seems completely impossible, and the mere possibility has sent Europe into panic, with even Starmer now denouncing these worrying statements from the “caretaker of the world”.
Tariff war
The tariff war is another front of Trump’s war on Europe, where he recklessly threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on eight NATO allies, which he then backed down on.
This proves just how out of touch Trump is with his own people, as the already existing tariffs have shown severe negative economic effects on America, driving higher consumer prices and reducing GDP by an estimated 0.5%-1.0%. Trump has shown a willingness to self-destruct the economy of his own country to advance his geopolitical interests across the globe. In retaliation, European countries have turned inwards to trade together.
Venezuela
Europe isn’t the only target for Trump’s plan to reshape the world. A more successful operation to expand American Hegemony has so far been in Venezuela. On 2nd of January 2026, the US launched “Operation Absolute Resolve” into the country. US bombings commenced across the capital Caracas, as a US force almost simultaneously raided President Nicholas Maduro’s compound, historically capturing and taking him into American Custody. This unprecedented move led to the replacement of Maduro with Delcy Rodrigo, the more conciliatory and less radical Venezuelan Vice President, as the nation’s interim leader. It is plain to see this move placed Venezuela firmly into the dwindling American sphere of influence, and allowed the replacement of, as Trump would say, the “illegitimate” leader of the Venezuelan “dictatorship”, following Venezuela’s potentially “free nor fair” Presidential election in 2024.
However, Trump himself may aspire to accomplish what he slammed Maduro for in 2024. Earlier this month, he said Washington Republicans should “take over” elections in over 15 states during the crucial upcoming Midterm elections in November. This will determine whether his Administration will be able to push through his Agenda in the final two years of his term.
This raises alarm bells the President of the “Arsenal of Democracy” may not be in favour of Democracy when it benefits him, a statement that effectively likens himself to “dictator” Maduro, and more worryingly, Vladimir Putin. The leaders of America and its geopolitical arch-nemesis for the past 100 years may really not be so different after all. Fortunately, these comparisons have not gone unnoticed by America’s citizens, who turned out in droves last October to the “No Kings 2.0” protests, which aimed to reprimand the policies of the Second Trump Administration. A shocking estimated 7 million people turned out for these protests, roughly equivalent to the population of the entire state of Massachusetts.
Finally
Throughout the Maduro, ICE and Greenland situations, a worrying picture of distance from the west and from democracy emerges. A picture of splitting communities and of ignoring the rule of law. Even in his first term, this would have been shocking for the President, maybe he would have even been impeached for it. But now?
America has been shifting rapidly away from the political consensus for years since the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency in 2016 and now, following the Overturning of Roe vs. Wade in 2022 returning authority on abortion access back to the states, and the historic subsequent non-consecutive election victory of Trump in 2024.
Though it was not until 2025 that America had seen this level of instability, with Greenland, Tariffs, and now in 2026 it seems to only be getting with the ICE crisis and the Capture of Venezuela all before March. If we are barely one quarter through the Trump presidency, I dread to think what more is yet to come over the next 3 years. The world feels like an extremely unstable place right now, mostly thanks to the Second Trump Administration, and perhaps the worst is next to come.
This was created by young people as part of the Headliners Young Journalist programme. This project was made possible by the Million Hours Fund.
