A Visit, an Alliance, an Abyss - How Trump Courts Bahrain While Destabilizing His Own Country

It was a reception filled with pomp, pathos, and political calculation. On Wednesday, Donald Trump welcomed Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to the White House - with a handshake at the West Wing door, with praise in the Oval Office, and with an announcement that was more than symbolic: a nuclear agreement, allegedly civilian, was signed. Bahrain plans to invest 17 billion dollars in the United States. Trump called the small Gulf kingdom a "fantastic ally," spoke of trade issues and energy partnerships - but the real context of this visit extends far beyond diplomatic pleasantries. For while Trump surrounds himself with Arab monarchs, selling their autocracies as pillars of "global energy security" and thereby undermining old alliances, his domestic policy is becoming increasingly unbalanced. In the very hour he courts the crown prince, he lashes out publicly at his own supporters, defends a minister, insults his central bank chief - and deports people to countries with which they have no connection.

Meanwhile, a new wave of repressive migration policy is sweeping the country: the administration sent five men it described as "barbaric" - with no connection to their destination country - to the small African kingdom of Eswatini. The Supreme Court had previously removed the final hurdle for such third-country deportations. People without conviction, without affiliation, without a voice - deported into the unknown. On the economic front as well, the rhetoric is taking on authoritarian overtones. Trump wants to fire Jerome Powell - not for a crime, but because he is not lowering interest rates quickly enough. It's all about "low interest people" now, according to the president, who suggested that anyone with a brain could do the job. A central bank as a tool of the president - this idea has had no place in the United States until now. But Trump repeats it - and gets Republican lawmakers to align with his stance.

At the same time, important institutions are being systematically weakened: the transportation secretary is summoned before Congress, and health centers in Maine are suing over the cancellation of Medicaid payments - a result of Trump’s budget-cutting law that also targeted Planned Parenthood. A court has temporarily restored reimbursements for the largest abortion provider, but other clinics are left behind. It’s about more than abortion: it’s about cancer screenings, contraception, primary care - especially in rural areas. And yet the backdrop dominates: a crown prince, a handshake, a contract. The visit from Bahrain becomes a cover for a policy that presents itself as open and investment-friendly on the outside - and governs with ideological rigidity on the inside. Trump’s double strategy is obvious: international embrace and domestic hardening. In the end, what remains is an image in the Oval Office - two men, a pact, and a president who sees himself as the architect of a new order. But while the cameras roll and billions are announced, the foundation of the very democracy upon which all this is built is crumbling.