Trump lights the Nuclear Option, offends Asia - and threatens democracy in the name of hunger

Donald Trump has discovered a new political weapon - and it is called the “Nuclear Option”. In an angry Truth Social post, after he had offended Asia, the president on Thursday evening demanded that the Senate abolish the filibuster to end the government shutdown that has paralyzed the country for five weeks. It was less a suggestion than an order - and one that would unsettle the balance of power in American democracy.

The filibuster is one of the oldest and most democratic rules of the American parliament. It allows a minority in the Senate to delay a vote as long as at least 60 of 100 senators do not vote to end debate. It is not a law and it is not in the Constitution; it is an internal rule of procedure - a relic from times when political compromise was still regarded as a virtue. Supporters see it as a bulwark against the arbitrariness of the majority: it forces cross-party solutions and protects the country from hasty, radical decisions. Trump, however, sees it as an obstacle - a bothersome formality on the road to absolute control. “When we are in power, we must use our strength,” he wrote. “The Democrats will do it anyway once they govern again.”

It is a threat disguised as logic. In reality, Trump wants to force the Senate to change its rules - not to negotiate laws, but to rush them through. That even leading Republicans have so far categorically ruled out that step does not impress him. John Thune, the majority leader in the Senate, said just two weeks ago that the filibuster is “a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening in this country.” Now he finds himself under pressure from his own president.

“Now is the time to play the Trump card - join together, silence the Democrats, abolish the filibuster, and do it now!”, Trump demanded in his own words on Truth Social, fresh back from Asia where only days earlier he had presented himself as a statesman. In Washington none of that persona remains. Instead he returns as a political demolition expert - determined to shatter the centuries-old order of the Senate to enforce his budget blockade.

That links to another, less noticed signal: while Trump left Busan after a short talk with Xi Jinping, he skipped the APEC summit - a move that in Asia is considered a snub and that could damage the US standing in the region. Trump’s preference for one-on-one meetings over multilateral forums may earn him headlines and bilateral concessions, but presence matters in Asian diplomacy: who shows up signals respect, who does not loses influence. While Xi stayed in South Korea, sought the region’s stage and presented himself as a reliable partner, Trump’s departure left a power gap that Beijing intends to exploit to present itself as the guardian of trade and stability. For export-dependent countries like South Korea, which rely on the stability of global rules, this sends a clear and worrying message: the American leadership role is fragile - and someone else is filling the gap now.

The motive behind Trump’s pressure and early return is as transparent as it is cynical. With the impending lapse of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP - this weekend, more than 40 million Americans face nothingness. Families who have been standing in line at food banks for weeks are now supposed to watch as the government cuts their food vouchers while the White House negotiates tactics. The Democrats insist that the new budget bill also extend health insurance subsidies for low-income people. Trump wants exactly to prevent that - and grotesquely shifts responsibility for the hunger crisis onto his opponents.

“If the Democrats keep playing crazy, the choice is clear - use the Nuclear Option, abolish the filibuster and make America great again!”, he wrote in all caps. It was a call for a takeover in his own house.

Meanwhile the country remains at a standstill. Air traffic control is stretched to the absolute limit because many controllers are working without pay. Delays at airports are mounting, contracts are being canceled in hospitals, and in supermarkets in the South people queue for food packages before the aid runs out. In the Senate itself tempers are rising. Even conservative legislators know that the filibuster is not merely a tool but part of Republican identity - the idea that power must be limited and balanced. But Trump does not think in checks and balances, he thinks in victories and defeats. Those who are not with him are on the wrong side.

nterestingly, resistance does not come only from the Democrats. Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, otherwise one of Trump’s most loyal allies, has introduced a bill, in his own characteristically personal way, to at least extend the SNAP program. The Democrats said they would support it immediately if Thune brings it to a vote. But Thune remains silent - between loyalty and responsibility, between president and principle.

Because the Democrats REFUSE to fund the government, I am introducing legislation to reinstate SNAP benefits immediately - even during the government shutdown. Missourians should not go hungry because of the incompetence of the Left. Our kids deserve to eat.

Donald Trump returns to his old role - that of the stage manager of his own suffering. At the White House Halloween event on October 30, 2025, he again showed children the image that shows him bloodied on stage after the assassination attempt. No words could have spoken more clearly: America is currently led by a man who turns his wound into propaganda. It is a country in the wrong hands, whose decisions unfortunately have great influence far beyond its borders.

Thus a budget dispute becomes a test of democracy. Trump is trying to use the hungry as leverage to blackmail the Senate. His cold logic is brutally simple: if the country suffers, pressure will rise - on the opposition, on the media, on anyone who stands in his way. It is the old tactic of chaos as strategy: first set the fire, then present oneself as the only firefighter. The filibuster has not yet fallen. But Trump’s words reverberate through Washington like a threatening sign. The Nuclear Option was until now a term from political textbooks - now it threatens to become reality. And it would not only destroy a rule, but the fragile balance of a nation that is on the verge of breaking under its own hunger.