A Pageant of Vanity — In Three Acts

By MAÎTRE BARKEV DAVIDIAN

Before President Donald Trump’s vanity and self-adoration, countless incense-bearers gather. They are dazzled by his gilded appearances, seduced by his nationalist posturing, and intoxicated by the splendor of the billionaires in his circle. Together, they have formed an army stretching across America — an army that, by blindly following him, has turned him into an absolute monarch within a nation that calls itself a democracy.

At the front lines of that army stand high-ranking officials who hold power not by virtue of their ability or merit, but because of their blind loyalty to Trump. These men have created a climate of fear in America — a country where resentment and revenge now reign, and where frightened, humble people, who came seeking a new life and perform the “dirty work” Americans will not, are arrested and mistreated in ways that recall Stalinist repression.

Trump’s arrogance and bullying have long spilled beyond America’s borders. On the international stage, too, his vanity finds willing actors.

Recently, Trump’s Pageant of Vanity unfolded in three acts.

Act One: Washington, August 8, 2025

The first act was staged in Washington, with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan cast as supporting players.

The performers flattered and glorified Trump by naming a future highway through southern Armenia the TRIPP — Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.

Abandoned by Putin, the helpless Pashinyan found refuge in Trump’s embrace.

May God grant that this gesture truly leads to Armenia’s security — and not remain merely another episode in service of Donald Trump’s vanity.

Act Two: Alaska, August 15, 2025

The second act was staged in Alaska, where Russia’s President Vladimir Putin became the central figure in a Hollywood-style performance conceived by his “friend,” President Trump. Nothing of substance emerged from that meeting, except perhaps one thing: it brought Trump one step closer to satisfying his longing for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Act Three: Sharm el-Sheikh, October 13, 2025

The third and grandest act — the finale — took place in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el- Sheikh, with a host of participants gathered under Trump’s command, whether or not they had any connection to the event.

They came simply to sit behind him — to feed his vanity.

What were the presidents and prime ministers of Azerbaijan, Hungary, Armenia, Pakistan, and various other non-Arab and non–Middle Eastern countries doing there?

What connection did they have to a “peace-signing” ceremony?

By demanding their presence, Trump sought to demonstrate to the world that he alone is its absolute master and ruler.

Here again he boasted that he had ended the wars of the Middle East — yet offered no explanation as to how peace could be achieved without recognizing the Palestinians’ right to statehood.

At Israel’s Knesset, after professing admiration and loyalty to the American-Jewish billionaire widow Adelson and to the war criminal Netanyahu, Trump proceeded to Egypt as Israel’s self- appointed defender — ignoring the United Nations’ recent vote of 142 countries in favor of establishing a Palestinian state.

His supposed role in ending the Gaza war may be seen as a superficial success, given his obstinate opposition to the creation of the Palestinian state.

Trump’s three-act spectacle of vanity may have served the ambitions of those who follow or idolize him, but it left no mark on the Nobel Committee, which, disregarding his trumpeted theatrics, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to someone else.

The conscientious Americans, together with the rest of the world, must now hold their breath and endure three more years of such self-glorifying pageants — living through a time that will surely be remembered for its absurdities and delusions.

Let us hope that the next American presidential election will bring an end to this divisive and destructive chapter — and that his administration will finally be removed from both the White House and the world stage.