Silence on portents Of a global conflict

Why are global leaders not speaking out against all the war-like activity across the world?

- Gopalkrishna Gandhi

If Donald Trump believes in something, he does not care a hoot if others do or do not. If he does not believe in something, he does not care a darn if others do or do not. He either believes or disbelieves. And that is that.

But, in recent weeks, he has been heard expressing some doubt, some prevarication totally untypical of him. Speaking in June this year in YouTuber Logan Paul's podcast Impaulsive, Trump said: "Am I a believer? No, I probably can't say I am." That was about the most tentative thing he has said about anything. Not many then could have thought they were hearing the next President of the United States (US).

What was he talking about? Not the climate crisis, about which he is a non-believer. Not about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on which he has his own very Trumpist views.

He was answering questions about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) and whether they could, in fact, be "aliens." Congress discussed the subject last year with both Republican and Democrat Congressmen questioning the US military on "alien activity" in outer space. And whether there was any hiding of facts on the subject.

In his first presidency, Trump had faced the issue and spoken about UAPs dismissively. But now, in June this year, he was more cautious and less Trump-like. "But," he said, "I have met with people that are serious people that say there's some really strange things that they see flying around out there." Alluding to his earlier consideration of the subject as President, he said, "I've never been convinced, even despite that, you know. For some reason, it's not my thing. But a lot of people believe that it's true. A lot of very good, solid people believe it's true."