Donald Trump has built his entire political project on hype and delusion — the same ingredients that fuel every economic bubble. But belief cannot defy reality forever. When cruelty replaces competence and lies replace truth, collapse follows. In this video, I explain why Trump's political and economic bubble is unsustainable, how tariffs and speculation are destroying US livelihoods, and why the far-right worldwide will fall with him.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:

When will the Trump bubble burst?

I'm sure that Trump's bubble is going to burst. And just for the record, I'm not at this moment talking about a financial crisis that is coming, although I have in other videos. I'm talking about the political bubble that Trump has created. I'm sure that too is going to burst.

Let's remember, all bubbles are built on the basis of  two things: the first is hype, and the second is delusion. And Trump has been peddling both of these in his political version of reality, which is anything but that because it's built on fantasy, deceit, and fear.

A bubble happens when belief replaces value. In economics, it's when people stop asking what is happening in the real market and start assuming that prices will rise forever. Politically, Trump has done the same.  He's convinced millions that cruelty, chaos, and lies represent leadership.

But we now know that's not true.  In the States, 70% of people no longer have confidence in his form of leadership.  But the question is, when does that belief system that is sustaining what he's doing break?

Trump did not, after all, deliver for America from 2016 to 2020. We know that. If he had, he would have won the election in 2020, but he didn't. Jobs had not been revived, and inequality grew. His tax cuts enriched the rich and drained the state.  Debt rose heavily as far as the US government was concerned. And even before COVID, his economic bubble was bursting. The pandemic just exposed it faster.

And this time around, Trump is relying on creating an even bigger bubble than he did last time.

Tariffs are now seen to be taxes on consumers and not on foreign governments.

We are seeing in the States in particular that tariffs are wrecking supply chains and raising prices, and that's happening most particularly in Trump's own Republican heartlands. The big question is when will they, and in particular, the farmers in the Midwest, lose faith in Trump because they relied on soya bean crops, which they were exporting to China, and  the expected quantity of soya beans to be exported to China in 2025 is precisely nothing. Their market has disappeared.

He has destroyed their well-being already in the same way that his tax cuts are fueling division and speculation, and not investment or growth. He's breaking down the livelihoods of real people in the USA.

And yet Trump's policies are being mimicked by the far-right leaders globally with the same hollow results. 30% of people in America still seem to believe in Trump, and that same hardcore is reflected in the support for the  far-right in Britain, France, Germany, and beyond. There appears to be this core who will believe at present.

But the Trump cult cannot deliver prosperity. It only delivers grievance, and grievance can't sustain this cult. When  belief collides with reality, collapse will follow as bubbles always burst.  Trump's self-styled belief in himself, and, for example, in the deal of the century that he claims to have forged in the Middle East, is all a mirage. Everything about him is mythology.

So, for example, looking at that  deal with regard to Gaza, there is actually nothing of substance in it. There's no enforceable peace. There was just a prisoner swap, and it ignored Palestinian reality. His Nobel Prize ambitions now look particularly absurd. This deal will be massively unravelling before the 2026 nominations close on 31st January in that year. When this peace evaporates, so will his global credibility.

But so far, the far-right populists haven't noticed. They're still following. Their appeal, like his, rests on resentment and not results. But  when it's apparent that Trump can't deliver results, whether at home or abroad, his credibility will decay, and so too will theirs.

And that then becomes the critical tipping point; the point when the far-right illusion that's built on Trumpism will fade. I believe that's going to happen. I believe that the Trump bubble will burst, but this is not just about one man. It's about a global ideology of contempt for truth, law, and community that will literally be shattered. And when it does burst, millions will face the shock of discovering that cruelty was never a policy.

But this will do something much more important. From my perspective,  this will open the chance to rebuild the politics of care and honesty and competence.

Markets correct when valuations lose touch with fundamentals, and we face that risk right now. And Trumpism will collapse in the same way when belief cannot forever defy the evidence that Trump is failing. And the more he blames others, the weaker his myth will seem to be.

The question is not if his bubble now bursts, but when it will and how much harm he will cause when it does. And if they collapse together - both financial markets and Trump - maybe we will get the chance to build back better.

I know that feels like a pretty bleak conclusion to draw, but all bubbles do end, and Trump's economic, political, and moral bubble is no exception. When it bursts, it will take much of the global far-right down with it.

Our task is to be ready;  ready to rebuild democracy. Ready to rebuild truth. Ready to rebuild decency. Ready to rebuild from the wreckage that Trump will leave behind him.

That's why what I talk about here is so important. The ideas I present about the future and those which others present, because, let's be clear, I'm not claiming to have all the answers to every question, are important because we need them. We need them when the far-right disappears, and that may happen sooner than you think.

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