Ranjeni Munusamy
We all live on planet Trump
In the wake of the 2016 US presidential elections, the rallying call among those who protested against the outcome had the slogan “Don’t normalise Donald Trump”. While Trump and normality are contradictory, it does appear that the US has grown accustomed to the aberration of his presidency.
The Trump pantomime was in high-octane mode in Washington this week. On Tuesday Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, creating great uncertainty for global security. He clearly enjoyed torpedoing one of former president Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy achievements, and obviously had little concern about the implications.
Like with the Paris climate agreement, which Trump also stomped on, the consequences of removing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear ambitions will probably affect generations of people.
Because US politics is so divisive, the narrative in the media and among the Washington power brokers is split between those who believe the deal was bad to begin with and those who are worried about the long-term impact of dismantling the accord with nothing in its place.
Then on Thursday, Trump suddenly announced that he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12.
“We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” Trump tweeted, making the meeting sound more like an engagement party than a serious development in world affairs.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, he had welcomed home three American prisoners from North Korea, which obviously gives credit to his administration’s diplomatic efforts after decades of hostility between the two nations.
But Trump, being Trump, had to ruin the moment with his crudeness.
“I think you probably broke the all-time in history television rating for 3 o’clock in the morning,” he told journalists gathered at the Andrews military base.
For him, this is all about showmanship rather than a genuine cessation of hostilities with the leader he called “Little Rocket Man” just a few months ago.
Nevertheless, who would have guessed that the man who clumsily tried to introduce a travel ban on people from Muslim-majority nations and is still fixated with building a wall on the Mexican border, was capable of pulling off a diplomatic coup by holding talks with North Korea?
Public representatives on Capitol Hill are no longer distancing themselves from Trump as much as they used to, trying to keep up with the ebb and flow of public opinion. Virginia congressman Tom Garrett said that despite the instability in the administration, with constant hiring and firing of top officials including the secretary of state, there was no lack of clarity on foreign policy.
He did express concern, however, about protracted delays in filling diplomatic posts. South Africa is one of 55 nations without a US ambassador since Trump became president.
The government system is making do and the rest of the world has to adapt to the abnormalities of the Trump presidency.
And abnormal it is.
Parallel to the buzz around Trump’s foreign policy forays, the US media continue to marinate in Trump’s 12-year-old affair with porn star Stormy Daniels and the hush money paid to her.
The news cycle flips between geopolitical affairs relating to Iran and North Korea and the sensational details around the cover-up involving Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
This week there were revelations about how Cohen made money from his access to Trump and received payments from a company linked to a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani added to the mess with a series of TV appearances during which he admitted that Cohen had paid Daniels to stop her from speaking about the affair. Trump had denied this but Giuliani told Fox News that the president not only knew about the payment, he reimbursed Cohen. He recanted after Trump said Giuliani did not have “his facts straight”.
Trump is meanwhile preparing to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference and collusion in the 2016 presidential poll. Trump has frequently said the investigation is a witch-hunt and this week Vice-President Mike Pence also tried to pressure Mueller to end the investigation.
Mueller’s inquiry could lead to impeachment proceedings against Trump, but that is difficult to bet on considering how divided public opinion is on Trump.
A few months ago it seemed like the Trump presidency was on a collision course and would not last. Now it looks like the US has settled in for the long haul and even the president’s blatant lies and outrageous claims no longer seem to shock people.
Just a few months ago, South Africa also existed in an abnormal situation under a president with a penchant for unpredictable, dangerous moves.
Mercifully, public pressure eventually yielded his early exit from office.
Even with Trump acting like the worst cartoon version of himself, the US, for now, seems to have surrendered to him. This means the rest of us are stuck in the abnormality of Trump’s world.