“I Believe in America”
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/briefing/oval-office-showdown.html?searchResultPosition=6
Most people recognize the title as the opening line in The Godfather. It is not uttered by any Corleone. It is Amerigo Bonasera, the undertaker, who says it before asking Don Corleone for justice for his daughter brutalized by some local boys. The boys were tried for their assault, but were allowed free on probation. Bonasera does not see this as justice.
Don Corleone does mete out justice for Bonasera, but in turn establishes a debt from the undertaker, which, most people know, Don Corleone will call in before the end of the film. The point of all this is that many people believe that The Godfather is about an America with which they never deal, that of the criminal world. The one Bonasera claims to believe in.
But the truth is that while the ethos of Don Corleone is shown in New York and Las Vegas, it is actually the way the whole world works, especially Washington, DC. Don Corleone’s world is everybody’s world.
Michael Corleone makes that clear in the scene in which he returns from hiding in Sicily and reconnects with Kay. He, a gangster, is no different than the politicians in Washington. She thinks he’s being naïve. He knows that she is.
The dirty secret of American politics is that although it is run like the Mafia, it pretends to be otherwise. It pretends to have rules, values, ethics, morals, scruples, and most importantly, in this country, a belief in God. It’s a sham and always has been all the way back to the Founding Fathers. In fact, it’s probably why they put the power in the hands of the few in our Constitution. America was never a democracy. It’s a representative system of government in theory. In fact, it’s a game of power, but one cloaked in the guise of civility.
Until now.
To his credit, Donald Trump does not pretend to be anything other than what he is, a strong-arming bully trying to grow American power as well as his own using the rules taught to him by Roy Cohn—attack, lie, and never give in. (see the film The Apprentice.)
The scene in the Oval Office with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine eliminates any doubt of the abrupt change the Trump ethos will be bringing to American foreign policy. The former patina of civility the characterized American politics in recent years is gone.
Mr. Trump basically said, with Vice President Vance barking on cue, that Ukraine will either do the deal for the mineral rights and a cease fire and no security guarantee or Trump will let Russia feast on the rest of Zelenskyy’s country. Trump thought he had made Zelenskyy an offer he couldn’t refuse. I guess that was wrong—for now. That didn’t work out well for Moe Green when he got an offer from Michael in Las Vegas.
Mr. Trump is on the way to remaking the way the world perceives the United States. Where formerly the US was a bulwark against Russian aggression, it is now Russia’s partner, or worse, puppet. I believe Trump sees his re-election as the opportunity to work with Putin and Xi to carve up the world while enriching himself. The weaker nations in Europe and Asia will have to pay tribute to one of the three bullies to protect them from the other two.
Russia will get Ukraine. Xi will get Taiwan. Trump will get Greenland and Panama. We are back to a world of power colonialism and mercantilism. Surely, the United Nations has failed. Respect for the rule of law has ended. The name of the game is power.
During my year in DC, I was always impressed that power was more important than money there. Donald likes both. After all, why choose? Why do you think Elon is around?
Don Corleone expresses regret at the end of the first film that Michael did not become a governor or a senator. It is possible that with Donald Trump in the White House, the truth about American politics is no longer hidden and Don Corleone has gotten his wish. Mafia rules have made it to the top of the American political food chain.
What’s even more remarkable is that over half the American people love it and thought what happened in the Oval Office was long overdue.
American power is back in the game.
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
