Dancing Like a Clown - While More Than 14 Million Americans Are Acutely Malnourished

There are people the course of history could do without - and sometimes such a person dances on the edge of an abyss. Donald Trump, 79, created such a scene in Malaysia: a president who steps onto the red carpets of diplomacy with the gestures of a clown, while in his own country millions of people literally have nothing left to put on the table. A dance on the volcano, choreographed by a man who never knew when music stops.

In Kuala Lumpur, musicians were swinging their drums when the US president suddenly began to dance - with that mixture of self-forgetfulness and self-adoration that has followed him for decades. His arms flailed, his hips shook, his expression: a parody of joy. Next to him stood Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, politely smiling, as if unsure whether he was witnessing a state guest or a performance. Trump spun around, nearly tripped over his own shoes, then threw his hands in the air as if to say: Look, America is alive - even when it is starving. While he danced, aid organizations released new figures: more than 14 million Americans are now considered acutely malnourished. In some states, food banks had to close because government funds were cut - by Trump's order. These are images from two different worlds: in Washington, soup kitchens are being emptied, in Malaysia, golden curtains glitter behind a president swaying to the rhythm of denial.

"Dancing on my own," one user wrote under the viral video that now has millions of views. It was meant as mockery, but it captures the heart of the symbol: Trump is indeed dancing alone - on a stage long abandoned by reality. In his world, poverty is a statistic, hunger a headline, misery a backdrop. He moves to it like to an invisible waltz whose melody plays only in his own head. That the scene spread so quickly around the world is less because of its absurdity than because of its cruelty. In it condenses what could be called cynicism with a human face: a head of state who turns his country's hardship into a show, as if politics were merely an extension of "The Apprentice." Those who watch him do not see a statesman but an entertainer in the golden cage of power - the last dancer of a republic long out of rhythm.

Even conservative commentators in the United States reacted with disbelief. "A clown on a state visit," wrote former Reagan adviser Michael Steele. For us, the conclusion is clear: "While families are starving, the president dances as if everything were a joke. But no one is laughing anymore."

Perhaps that is precisely the key point of the tragedy: that Trump, even in crisis, sees only the stage - and not the abyss. Every step, every gesture, every smile is part of a never-ending spectacle that America is beginning to tire of. When history one day asks when politics finally became performance, it will point to this moment: October 27, 2025, Kuala Lumpur, a glaring carpet, music too loud, and a man dancing while his country starves.

Over the course of this week, we will publish a comprehensive documentary on the hunger crisis in the United States - it reveals the full extent of the suffering and tells how aid organizations are working day and night to alleviate it. Welcome to America 2025.