Is Trump Going to Cause WW3?

Updated for 2025: Since this article was first published in 2016, tensions have escalated. Here’s what you need to know now.

Back in 2016, I wrote this post with a half-smirk and a shot of tequila, wondering if I was being dramatic. I titled it “Is Trump Going to Cause WW3?” and clicked publish with one hand while researching viral pandemics with the other.

Turns out I was optimistic.

Fast forward to 2025 and here we are, still wondering if we’re living in the prequel to a global catastrophe or smack bang in the middle of it. Let me save you the suspense.

No, Trump isn’t going to cause World War Three. He already helped launch it.

And we’ve been living in its slow-motion chaos ever since.

Back in 2016, as I wrote The Peace Ambassador, I researched top reasons why we’d experience an apocalypse. In my first apocalyptic book – Mr 303, I chose a virus, because it seemed the most likely cause. Had I known then that Donald Trump was going to become President of the United States, I might have decided nuclear war might have been a more realistic threat. Is Trump Going to Cause WW3?

The short answer is no. Why? Because it’s already begun.

When I wrote Mr 303, I had no idea how accurate I was being. Virus? Check. Global meltdown? Double check. What I didn’t count on was a world leader tweeting threats at 2am with the emotional maturity of a dented wheelie bin. If I were to rewrite it today, Trump would be the virus. Or maybe the host.

What actually defines a World War?

A world war is a global conflict involving multiple major powers across continents, resulting in massive loss of life and a shared enemy or threat.

Sound familiar?

In 2025, we’ve got

• Active conflicts across the globe

• Economic warfare through sanctions

• Cyberattacks and digital sabotage

• Climate emergencies treated like war zones

• Global instability on every front

• Tarrifs with an end-game, nobody understands

This isn’t theoretical anymore. This is what modern warfare looks like. Less tanks, more trolls. Less uniforms, more algorithms. And guess who made that fashionable?

The textbooks need updating. World War 3 might not be fought in trenches…  it’s fought on the internet, in drone control rooms, and through billion-dollar corporate backdoors. Oh, and in the comment section of literally anything CNN posts. Forget boots on the ground. These days, it’s bots on the broadband.

How Trump turned up the volume

Trump didn’t start the fire, but he sure sprayed it with cologne and flicked a lighter.

When Donald Trump first ran for President of the United States, many of us laughed. Nervously. He was entertainment until he had nuclear codes and Twitter tantrums. He brought nationalism back into fashion. He gave every dictator a blueprint: lie often, deny everything, blame immigrants and never apologise.

Under his watch, global diplomacy cracked. Treaties collapsed. Alliances fractured. The UN became a punchline.

And now? We’re living in the radioactive aftermath of that era.

Trump didn’t cause World War Three directly. He just opened the door and invited the chaos in.

Let’s go back for a second

At the time I first wrote this post, I had just finished writing a novel called The Peace Ambassador. It was a futuristic tale about a fractured world hanging by a thread, one final act away from complete destruction.

Before that, I wrote Mr 303, a viral apocalypse story that, spoiler alert, turned out to be terrifyingly prophetic. I chose a global pandemic as the doomsday device because back then, it felt more plausible than nuclear war.

Had I known Donald Trump was going to actually get elected, I might have gone with nukes instead.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight and the horror of the last decade, I realise both were naive. We didn’t get one apocalypse. We got all of them at once.

World War Three isn’t coming. It’s already here.

This new version of WW3 doesn’t have trenches. It has propaganda campaigns, failing currencies, drone strikes and TikTok diplomacy. It’s chaos served cold, rebranded as leadership. It’s billionaires building bunkers while the rest of us drown in debt and disinformation.

And Trump? He gave the world permission to stop pretending to care.

He weaponised ignorance, turned facts into optional extras and convinced half the planet that empathy was weakness. He shook the foundations of reality and a few years later, we’re still sweeping up the rubble.

So what’s the actual threat?

You want to know the real reason we’re spiralling?

• Overpopulation

• Climate breakdown

• Corporate oligarchy

• Widespread political narcissism

• Loss of public trust in governments

• Weaponised misinformation

• Economic collapse disguised as capitalism

When a system this broken meets a leader this reckless, the fallout is inevitable. We’re not debating if Trump will cause World War Three. We’re debating how much worse he’ll make the one we’re already in.

Why I wrote about Trump and WW3 in the first place

This all started when I was deep in research for The Peace Ambassador, a book that explores how close we really are to global destruction. And no, I didn’t expect it to age this well. If you like apocalyptic fiction that hits a little too close to home, it might be your thing.

And if you want something more viral, pun intended, check out Mr 303. It was my attempt at imagining the end of the world. Spoiler: we got closer to that story than I ever wanted.

So… is Trump going to cause WW3?

Let’s be blunt. He already helped it along. Whether he gets another shot at it or not, the machinery is in motion. The question now is how many people notice before it’s too late to stop.

Fun fact: Russia was one of the few countries that didn’t get slapped with US tariffs during Trump’s tariff tantrum tour. Curious, isn’t it? It’s almost like some strange bromance was unfolding behind closed doors while the rest of us were distracted by Brexit and avocado toast back in 2016.

Final thoughts

We are not waiting for World War Three. We are surviving it in real-time.

If you’re still asking, “Is Trump going to cause WW3?” the answer depends on what you think war looks like. If it looks like rising nationalism, climate refugees, misinformation, cyber warfare, and collapsing global institutions, congratulations… you’re already living in it.

Thanks to Donald Trump’s Money 2016 website for letting me ‘borrow’ the image for this post.

The Peace Ambassador wasn’t meant to be a bloody prophecy. But here we are. And if you’re one of the five people who read it (cheers, Mum), you’ll know that everything from the breakdown of diplomacy to the idiotic rise of influencer politicians was eerily on point. At this stage, I’m less of a writer and more of a misunderstood psychic with a MacBook.

So… are we doomed?

Depends. If we keep letting egos with nuclear codes and social media logins run the world, maybe. If we grow a collective brain and realise democracy needs more than 15-second attention spans and reality stars, maybe not. Either way, I’ll keep writing about it. And probably swearing. And you’ll keep rolling your eyes wondering what I’ll write about next. Hint, it’s called Good Luck Getting Rid of Me. And it’s fucked.