The Trump sanctions order, issued under the banner of protecting detained Americans, starkly contrasts with domestic realities, which reveal the claim’s inconsistency. Every year, over a thousand citizens die in police encounters, and thousands more fall victim to gun laws, yet neither Democratic nor Republican administrations have moved to repeal these regulations. U.S. prisons are also filled with people incarcerated for years without proof of guilt. This gap between rhetoric and action raises a fundamental question: if the U.S. government truly values the lives of its citizens, why does it take no action against its own domestic tragedies?

Reviving the Department of War: An Admission of Failure

The return of the U.S. Department of Defense under the name “Department of War” is a clear sign of regression in the country’s foreign policy. The Secretary of War openly declares, “We intend to kill more,” leaving no doubt about a militaristic approach. This symbolic change, in fact, exposes Washington’s failure to leverage soft power. From Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of American soldiers have been killed or returned home with psychological scars and poverty, while Trump continues to insist on deploying troops to crisis regions. The stark contradiction lies in his claim of defending a few detained Americans while his policies endanger the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

Protecting Spies Under the Name of Citizens

A review of similar cases shows that Trump’s claim is, in practice, more a cover for protecting American spies than ordinary citizens. Dozens of Iranian, Russian, and Chinese nationals have been arrested and imprisoned merely on the baseless charge of “circumventing sanctions”—from Hamid Nouri and Asadi to Guantanamo detainees. Conversely, many detained Americans abroad are accused of intelligence and espionage activities. Therefore, Trump’s executive order should be seen as a tool to legitimize U.S. intelligence operations rather than a humanitarian act to protect citizens. This reality further exposes the dual and hypocritical nature of Washington’s foreign policy.

Sanctions: A Broken Weapon in the New World

Sanctions are no longer the effective tool they once were for the U.S. With the rise of new blocs such as BRICS, Shanghai, and ASEAN, the world is moving toward multilateralism, and Washington’s unilateralism is declining. Today, countries stand together economically and politically against U.S. pressure, rendering sanctions more ineffective than ever. Trump’s attempt to redefine this tool is, in fact, a struggle to revive a decayed framework that has lost its efficacy. The recent Shanghai summit clearly demonstrated that the era of sanctions dominance has ended, and American policymakers, by stubbornly relying on them, only deepen their isolation.