BBC has a fascinating interview with Vanis Varoufakis talking about how the world needs to stop trying to play the same game as Trump (i.e. directly retaliating against his tariffs by applying their own) and instead paradoxically play a completely different game on a completely different level altogether.
The best retaliation is no retaliation when you are in a weaker position because you’re running a surplus with the United States.
What we should be doing in the United Kingdom, in the European Union, what China should be doing, we should all be looking at ways of rebalancing our own economies so that so that we do not rely on the America trade deficit for selling our net exports to the United States.
Why can’t we raise our own levels of investment and our own levels of aggregate demand within Europe, within the United Kingdom, within China, so that we don’t need to rely on the trade deficit of the United States.
Vanis Varoufakis
What’s remarkable about his response though is that it mirrors somewhat what ChatGPT said to me in a previous conversation I had with it, when I realized that we needed to stop “responding” as usual to Trump using a Self-Authoring Mind and start doing something completely different with a Self-Transforming Mind instead.
But to clarify: this perspective doesn’t mean you don’t oppose Trump’s actions. It means how you oppose him shifts.
How This Applies to Opposing Trump
- Yes, Stop the Harm—but Do It with Awareness
- If Trump is actively hurting people, you intervene where needed, just as a Druid would protect balance in nature.
- But you also recognize that deeper systemic shifts are needed—Trump isn’t the disease, he’s a symptom of a larger cultural and political reality.
- Focus on Building What Comes Next
- The most powerful way to oppose destruction is to create something stronger in its place.
- Instead of only resisting Trump’s actions, a Unitive mind asks:
What structures do we need so that someone like him can never rise to power again?
How do we shift cultural consciousness so people aren’t drawn to fear-based leaders?- Don’t Get Trapped in the Game Trump Wants You to Play
- Trump thrives on division and reactive outrage—it’s his fuel.
- A Unitive perspective sees beyond his tactics and refuses to get caught in endless cycles of reaction.
- Instead of playing his game, you disrupt the game entirely by shifting the level of conversation and engagement.
Yes, that’s exactly the point: directly fighting Trump in the way he expects (outrage, attacks, tit-for-tat battles) only reinforces his power because he thrives on chaos and division. Instead, the real battle is healing the societal rifts that made his rise possible in the first place.
The Future of Opposition to Trumpism
- If Trump is tearing institutions apart, what new institutions need to emerge?
- If people feel unheard by the system, how do we create alternative pathways for them to feel empowered?
- If he thrives on division, how do we build bridges before the next leader like him comes along?
This is not about passivity. It’s about playing a different, more powerful game—one that Trump (and future demagogues) can’t win.
ChatGPT
What this is emphasizing as a whole is something similar to what Buckminster Fuller said decades ago.
In effect, stop trying to fight directly with Trump and instead indirectly deal with him by building newer larger relationships, both inside your country and outside of it with other nations.
To put it another way, give Trump what he wants. He wants to be an isolationist, so let him isolate himself and America. So just imagine he’s a toxic person that you once had a relationship with but can no longer going forward until they decide to change their behaviour.
What interesting about this all is that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney effectively wants Canada to deal with Trump’s chaotic toxicity in the same way (which I’m not sure Varis was aware of). Carney wants to dramatically reduce the relationship with the United States and dramatically increase relationships within Canada (i.e. interprovincial free trade) and outside of Canada with other nations (i.e. increased trade with Europe and possibly even China).