In Donald Trump’s second term, the Oval Office may sparkle in gold, but America’s foreign policy risks being tarnished by a different kind of gilded deception one in which Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir, master of both flattery and nuclear bluster, plays to the President’s vanity while quietly reviving the decades-old double game that has bled Washington’s coffers, emboldened terrorists, and undermined regional stability.
It is one thing for a leader to enjoy praise. It is quite another to have national security bent by it. Donald Trump’s second presidential innings is proving that flattery is not just a social lubricant it can be a foreign policy liability. In his first term, Trump saw US-Pakistan relations for what they were: a parasitic arrangement where Islamabad drained Washington’s coffers while stabbing it in the back. Now, however, the mood music is changing, and it is no coincidence that Pakistan’s military elite have discovered the sweet science of buttering up the man in the Oval Office.
The Oval Office, incidentally, now gleams like Mar-a-Lago literally. Trump has proudly claimed that the new gold finishes are the real deal. Whether or not he has been sold a gilt-coated fantasy is beside the point; the symbolism is too rich to ignore. A man eager to believe in the authenticity of shiny surfaces is exactly the kind of mark Pakistan’s generals have played for decades.
Enter Field Marshal Asim Munir, the latest in a long line of Pakistani military strongmen who can weaponise charm one moment and belligerence the next. Barely a month after being warmly courted in Washington, Munir stood in a Florida banquet hall and threatened nuclear Armageddon against India, yes, but with the implicit boast that “half the world” might burn. It was classic Pakistan military theatre: brazen, theatrical, and designed less for Delhi than for an American audience that still believes Islamabad is indispensable.
The US has seen this film before. In the Cold War, Pakistan siphoned American aid meant for fighting the Soviets and redirected it towards confronting India. After 9/11, Pakistan became a “major non-NATO ally” while secretly sheltering the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Washington got lectures about partnership; Pakistan got weapons, cash, and diplomatic cover.
Munir’s timing is no accident. Pakistan’s economy is in tatters, Chinese loans are no longer flowing without friction, and Imran Khan’s shadow still lingers over the political scene. In such moments, the military reverts to its oldest playbook: crank up the nationalist rhetoric, toss in a nuclear threat or two, and sell itself to Washington as the only adult in the room.
The danger for Trump is not that Munir’s words signal imminent war India knows the pattern too well to be rattled but that they are part of a calculated bid to reinsert Pakistan into the American strategic bloodstream. CENTCOM commanders are rolling out the red carpet; Pakistan is being praised for “counter-terrorism cooperation” that conveniently arrives just in time for high-profile US meetings. The nuclear sabre-rattling? That’s a prop in the show, designed to make Pakistan look dangerous enough to require American “management.”
It is here that the metaphor of Trump’s gold-plated décor bites hardest. Munir’s praise of Trump and America’s supposed wisdom is the diplomatic equivalent of a contractor swearing that every trim is solid gold. In both cases, the truth is less important than the ego being stroked.
Trump likes strongmen. He likes being liked by strongmen even more. That personal vulnerability is precisely what makes Pakistan’s military charm offensive so potent and so risky. Behind the smiles and the soundbites is a decades-long record of duplicity: proliferation networks, terror sponsorship, and betrayal of American interests.
The US can ill afford another round of “strategic indulgence” towards Islamabad. Every dollar and diplomatic concession given to Pakistan is another chip cashed in against Indian interests, regional stability, and ultimately, American credibility.
Trump may think he is negotiating from strength; in reality, Pakistan has mastered the art of making the US feel needed. That need is an illusion just like the gold that may or may not be real in the Oval Office. And illusions, in geopolitics as in interior design, can be ruinously expensive.
If Trump wants to avoid being taken for a ride, he should remember one thing: in diplomacy, as in decorating, all that glitters is not gold and some of it is just very dangerous brass.