The conservative revolution, or more precisely, the counter-revolution led by Donald Trump in the West, i.e., in the United States of America, represents a profound political, cultural, and economic shift, which marks the end of the liberal-global order, the dominant ideological framework of the past decades since 1991.
CONDITIONS FOR A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE
Trump’s first term was different in many ways—his powers were limited, and his actions restrained. The reason was that in 2016, Trump did not win the majority of votes. Things are quite different now, which is why the liberal political elite in Europe, as well as everyone who was part of what we called the Collective West, are alarmed. For many of them, the USA today is “Western Russia.” In the 2024 elections, Trump won more votes and, most importantly, now has the support of his cabinet for his right-wing agenda. Also, this time he has control over both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. Accordingly, all political and institutional conditions have been met for a conservative revolution.
While leftist circles believe that liberal-democratic institutions in the country will dismantle Trump’s decisions, leading to global instability, the right sees in this political shift a chance for the USA to recover from the prestige and reputation losses it suffered over the past four years (since the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021). Consequently, the world that the USA has occupied since 1945 (imposing the Western model of democracy as universal and obligatory for all) is slowly disintegrating day by day. Washington is simply forced to find a new political, economic, and ideological alternative. This is a logical response to the current realpolitik state of the West.
CLASH WITH THE SWAMP
Back in his first term, Trump declared he would battle the bureaucratic, media, and political elite, which he referred to as the “swamp.” Although many believed in December 2024 that Trump had struck a deal with the American deep state, by March 2025 it appears that the new American president has embarked on its complete dismantling—or at least its limitation. In short, a sovereign and transparent state is now the priority. Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, in his articles “The Deeper State” and “Dark Enlightenment,” emphasizes that the deep state has become a global international network of liberal globalists—a view shared by Trump’s supporters themselves.
Why does the conservative revolution in the USA, although at its peak, appear absolute? Many disgruntled liberal-minded Europeans believe this is the result of the “madness” of an authoritarian personality (Trump), a new American elite (oligarchy), and their arbitrary rule. However, that is not entirely true. Trump’s support comes from ordinary Americans—industrial workers, small business owners, and religious communities—who have been ignored by corporate elites.
THE REVOLUTION STARTED FROM THE PEOPLE
What does this mean? The 2024 elections represented a revolution “from below” (from the people), and the beginning of fulfilling the promised reforms in 2025 by the chosen political and economic elite can be called a revolution “from above” (through state institutions and the political elite).
Accordingly, the counter-revolution currently unfolding in the USA represents a symbiosis of popular resistance and radical institutional changes. This is not merely a reaction to the “extreme” progressivism we’ve witnessed over the last 4–5 years, but an attempt to return to fundamental civilizational values—although at first glance it might not appear that way. Cultural wars, neoliberal extremism, and the globalist system are now retreating in the face of traditionalism, isolationism, and nationalism. Thus, this year marks a turning point in which the USA is truly entering a new phase of development.
WHEN THE CENTER OF THE EMPIRE FALTERS
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War brought democracy to much of Central and Eastern Europe, with the USA promoting such governance as optimum regiminis (the best form of rule). Liberal democracy was presented not only as a political system but as the final point in historical evolution, the unquestionable ideal to which all nations inevitably aspire (Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man).
However, since the beginning of the 21st century, liberal democracy has been in retreat, and now it is threatened in one of its primary and most important homelands—its very core. This process culminated on January 20, 2025, a date many consider the official end of the neoliberal world. The significance of this shift is not difficult to grasp—it’s like imagining France in chaos during Napoleon’s conquests or Vietnamese communists without support from the USSR or China. The formula is clear: when the empire’s center falters, the entire structure is called into question. However, the question is no longer whether the world will change, but what the new order will look like and who will dominate it.
Globalism has been replaced by nationalism, and neoliberalism by protectionism. As Branko Milanović asserts, “racial and gender equality, free movement of labor, multiculturalism—they are dead.” If gender ideology and LGBTQ “fads,” supported by a minority, gained ground over the past four years, then Trump’s anti-woke policies—based on the values of home, family, church, and state, desired by the majority—will be more profound and enduring. A return to “Smurfs” at the Paris Olympic Games opening last year and similar phenomena will become unimaginable or simply marginalized. Accordingly, any criticism of gender ideology over the past four to five years was merely wasted attention and energy on a social trend that never had the potential to bring about real change.
LET THE RENAISSANCE BEGIN
Neoliberalism has played its historical role, ended up in the dustbin of history, and now finds itself in its dialectical opposite—in Caesarism and the new republican oligarchy, the very Caesarism that Emil Cioran warned us about in 1956 in his work History and Utopia. This is clearly illustrated by Elon Musk’s call for the creation of global elitism and Caesarism. As Slobodan Reljić explains, the USA is increasingly leaning toward the New Right, a Caesar-like figure, a “national executive director” (dictator), even monarchy—and all of this is the result of the absence of meaning that has prevailed in the West for many years. The inevitability of authoritarian rule and the psychological basis of the masses’ yearning for a leader are increasingly becoming historical necessities. There is no doubt that such an old-new relationship toward the state, society, politics, and life—now emanating from the three most important power centers (Moscow, Beijing, Washington)—will have a profound impact on all countries worldwide, including Serbia. Welcome to a new 1815, or even better, 1920. In other words—welcome to the cycle! Let the renaissance begin!
THE MUNICH SPEECH
On the other hand, Trump’s withdrawal of support for Ukraine and his call for peace indicate that the USA is ready to accept a multipolar world, thereby showing significant respect for Russia as a major global power—something necessary for conducting healthy political, economic, and diplomatic relations. Thus, during his historic speech in Munich, Vance rounded off what Putin began back in 2007 and made it clear to Europe that things are about to fundamentally change. From the rhetoric in 2022, which spoke of dismantling and conquering Russia, we’ve come to a point where the USA is retreating before Russia’s raw power. From the admiration for Zelensky in the U.S. Congress in December 2022 and his guest appearance in the Canadian Parliament in September 2023—when he was accompanied by honorary guest Yaroslav Hunka (a former Ukrainian Nazi)—we now see the illegitimate Ukrainian president being thrown out of the White House and humiliated in front of millions of viewers around the world. This only proves how illogical, chaotic, and full of contradictions history really is.
TRANSFORMATION FROM EMPIRE TO REALM
It is incorrect to say that America is returning to its classical imperialism of the 19th and 20th centuries. Rather, it seems that the country is undergoing a transformation from an empire into a realm. Instead of expanding its global influence through military interventions and open economic policy, America is now aiming for the centralization of power within its own borders, redefining the national question, and strengthening authoritarianism. Internal stability is becoming a higher priority than direct expansion. Although many refer to Trump’s new politics by invoking Reagan’s revolution, Jacksonian democracy, and classic American imperialism, the current situation is quite different. Imperialist policy implies expansion, control of vast territories, and domination through economic, military, and cultural superiority (as seen in the American period from 1898 to 2025). However, today’s reality increasingly resembles a neo-imperial policy focused on strong internal hierarchy, centralized power, and domestic stability. All statements about annexing Greenland and Canada to America are defensive mechanisms of a realm trying to protect its limes (frontier), rather than expansive policies of an empire.
TRUMP – THE NEW GORBACHEV?
The conflict between the USA and Europe and its representatives shows that NATO as an alliance de facto no longer possesses its former strength. The parallel here is similar to that of the Warsaw Pact. The key reasons for the collapse of the Warsaw Pact were distrust and internal instability among its member states, as well as the instability of the USSR itself. However, we must not forget the strong external pressure from NATO, which lasted nearly fifty years. Parallels can also be drawn with the First Athenian League (478–404 BC). What began as a defensive alliance turned into the Athenian Empire. Athenian dominance caused discontent among its members—which made it easier for Sparta to win the Peloponnesian War.
Internal tensions within NATO, radical changes in the USA, and external pressures from Russia and China (or rather BRICS) suggest that the outcome in the West may mirror that of the East. Perhaps Trump will become the new Gorbachev. Let us recall that the Warsaw Pact did not collapse in a single day—nor did the Athenian League—but gradually disintegrated between 1989 and 1991. Trump now has a full four-year term ahead of him…
NATIONALISM – THE ONLY REAL IDEA
The question arises—what is happening with Europe? Why is it resisting the USA and rejecting a substantive shift to the right? In short, since the defeat of Nazism and fascism in 1945, nationalism has been systematically delegitimized and dismantled in Europe. Yet nationalism is one of the key levers of Trump’s counter-revolution. While there are trends—post-pandemic, amid economic crises and the war in Ukraine—of the masses increasingly turning to nationalism as an alternative to globalism, Europe remains unresolved. In any case, from a “forbidden idea,” nationalism today is becoming the only realistic alternative in response to the economic, migration, and security crises shaking the continent. That said, 80 years of systematically destroying nationalism in Europe and constructing false supranational ideas have slowed its pivot toward new historical paradigms. Moreover, Europe faces economic dependence, pressures from both East and West, a corrupt EU bureaucratic system, paralysis from a worn-out liberal ideology, political elites afraid of change and losing the power they’ve accumulated over the past two centuries, and a spiritual, cultural, and ideological void.
A RESISTANCE MOVEMENT WITHOUT REAL POWER
However, the EU, UK, and Canada are merely a resistance movement without real power—political, economic, military, or otherwise—to oppose their metropole, which is Washington. On the other hand, the destroyed relations with Russia in recent years, along with heightened tensions with China, have left Europe isolated and fighting on two fronts—from which it cannot emerge victorious. Therefore, Europeans will suffer the most in this clash: due to economic pressures (rising prices of oil, gas, and electricity), due to the incompetence of their political elite, and due to the historical exhaustion of the continent itself. Because of the suffering Europe may endure—just as it bore the brunt of the Great Depression in 1929—this could also lead to the greatest regeneration of right-wing movements in Europe: as evidenced by the great success of AfD in Germany, the growing popularity of Farage in the UK, Meloni in Italy, Le Pen in France, George Simion in Romania, Orbán’s stability in Hungary, and partially Fico in Slovakia.
Europe must simply accept what America has already acknowledged—that Russia has won this war, and that the blind worship of “leftist dogmas and taboos,” as Srdja Trifković calls them, must be de facto rejected and replaced with reason, faith, and high culture.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE WEST?
No one can yet say with certainty where all this will lead. Only in a few years will we be able to understand the logic behind these decisions and assess their long-term consequences. What is certain is that the Western idea has gone bankrupt—it has worn itself out in its own contradictions. The values that once formed the foundation of the West—democracy, liberalism, human rights, freedom of speech and thought, as well as the inviolability of private property—no longer exist in the form they were promoted for centuries. Is it even necessary to list the reasons for this claim?
However, recent events show that the West—or at least its most important part—still possesses the capacity for adaptation, transformation, and reinterpretation of its values in accordance with new circumstances and the spirit of the age, now dictated by the East.
The Western paradigm, therefore, has not vanished, but is undergoing—or has already undergone—a radical mutation. The only question that remains is what shape it will take in the coming years—and what that will mean for the rest of the world.
