Trump’s Third World leadership
It’s true that no one gave him a chance but in July 2016, Donald J Trump emerged from a crowded field of Republican Party candidates to clinch the presidential ticket that would match him against Hillary Clinton, and on November 8 of the same year he went ahead to achieve a stunning victory against America’s first female candidate of any major political party in their history.
No American presidential election had defied the books as that of 2016; from left wing activists to conservative media everyone had endorsed Hillary Clinton and worked hard for her victory. Yet, she lost.
However, since his election, President Donald Trump has become such an embarrassment to his fellow citizens and a laughing stock in the so called Third World countries. From his shameful insistence that his inauguration attracted the largest crowd in history, despite photographs that showed otherwise, to a an ill thought and bigoted executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim majority countries, Trump has exposed himself as an unsuitable leader who does not understand the history of his country.
It is in the nature of third rate or authoritarian Third World leaders to brag about their imaginary popularity in their various countries, something that now fascinates Trump. In his own case, the fact that Clinton thrashed him by nearly three million popular votes puts a lie to any claim that he is a popular President; in fact, Trump is a minority President.
Citizens of the Third World also watch with amazement how someone sworn to “drain the swamp of corruption” in Washington is unable to disclose the tax returns on his multi-billion dollars business. Come off it, if the individual you have elected as President cannot bring transparency to his business, how can he be transparent in the running of his own government? Americans are keenly watching how much conflict could there be between Trump’s business interests and the American public interest.
From his pre-election pronouncements to those other statements he has been making, everything requires that Americans remain on guard. Thus far, Trump has taken on people with the disability, veterans and women; he has sparred with celebrities, Hispanics, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful if he can succeed in his altercation with two of America’s toughest institutions. At the moment, Mr Donald Trump has set himself on war path with his country’s judiciary which has questioned his executive orders that seek to ban the entry into the United States of citizens from seven Muslim majority countries. Trump has dismissed the Seattle court’s temporary suspension of his executive order on immigration as a “political decision” and as if that is not unpleasant enough for the new American President, the order has been upheld by an appeal court. It will be a great pity if the American Supreme Court (@SCOTUS) which Trump is trying to dominate reverses these constructive decisions by the lower courts.
Also at the receiving end of Trump’s tantrums is the US media. The American media has already been dubbed as ‘opposition’ by the White House media team and Trump himself has expressed the wish that somebody buys up New York Times from its current owners because according to him, the NYT is a leader in ‘fake news.’
An American President, Thomas Jefferson, had been quoted thus: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
However, left to Trump, the media should not scrutinise his government.
In terms of foreign policy, Trump has been declared as something of a danger to Europe. His victory and sound bites are beginning to stir nationalist sentiments in France, Austria and Germany. His statements indicating he intended to withdraw from or re-negotiate trade agreements signed by America and repudiate the demands of existing alliances, political and military, between his country and its allies, cast Trump as an unreliable leader about to endanger everyone’s security. The nuclear agreement the Obama administration negotiated with Iran will also be severely tested under Trump but it is unthinkable that Europe will back out of it.
By far, the greatest twist is in Trump’s consistent and undue overtures to Russia, America’s archenemy. It’s inconceivable that Russia which has been singled out as a strategic threat to US and its allies now has its head of state, Vladimir Putin, routinely praised by Donald Trump. Could it be that Russia truly helped Trump win the 2016 presidential election in which case he has to find a way of appeasing Putin? There is something untidy about the conduct of the last US election just like its outcome; it is Third World countries that have always had their elections interfered with by outsiders, not an advanced country like US. Yet, according to US officials, intelligence has already shown them that Russia’s interference with the 2016 election was what probably handed Trump his victory.
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Russia has a damning video of Trump’s transgressions recorded during his stay in a Moscow hotel. If it is true, it is also a feature of international politics played by the big powers against Third World leaders in order to arm-twist them into doing their political and economic biddings. Just what is it that is happening to USA?
If the video story is true, then it is only a matter of time before American citizens and the rest of the world realise why Russia allegedly assisted Trump to win this election. Who wouldn’t want to blackmail the President of the United States of America?