Trump’s world
How scared should we be?
Is Donald Trump “remotely suitable” to be president of America, asked Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. Did he really mean it, “the hatred, the belligerence, the racism, the boasting and the lies” of the last few months? Or was his “witches’ Sabbath of a campaign all a gigantic act”? For now, the jury’s out, said The Washington Post. Since his victory, Trump has at times been “responsible, reassuring – downright presidential”. He was gracious about his meeting with President Obama, whom he described as “a very good man”. He has appointed the relatively moderate Republican Reince Priebus as his chief of staff. Having promised to “rip up Obamacare”, Trump has now stated that he might leave large parts of Obama’s health insurance scheme intact; and he has even suggested that “locking up” Hillary Clinton might not, after all, be a priority. Yet we’ve also seen the other Trump – petulantly lashing out at the widespread protests against his election, and, more disturbingly, he has appointed his campaign chair Stephen K. Bannon as his chief strategist. Bannon is the founder of Breitbart News and a leading figure on the “altright” – a “deeply reactionary” movement rooted in “white chauvinism”, with “disturbing overtones of anti-semitism”.
Don’t be fooled, said Andrew Sullivan in New York magazine. Trump will not “be content to bask in vindication”. After his triumph, he owes nothing to anyone. He has trashed the Republican Party “and remade it in his image”. He has “humiliated the elites” and the media. He has a majority in the House and the Senate, and they will not resist him. When he appoints a new justice, the Supreme Court will be shifted to the Right for a generation. When the next terror attack inevitably occurs, or protests erupt after the next unarmed black man is shot, Trump’s response will be wild. “I have serious doubts that the American experiment will survive his reign,” said Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune. Trump came to power with a “set of brazenly false” promises. When he fails to limit immigration or provide cheap healthcare, he’ll blame his failures on others – “narcissists and hucksters always do”. And his “hair-trigger temper, poor selfcontrol” and lack of foreign policy knowledge will make him “a singularly dangerous” custodian of the nuclear codes.
Less of the hysteria please, said Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. “I’ve seen past elections that were regarded as the end of the world”, such as Ronald Reagan’s triumph in 1980, “and the republic survived”. America’s institutions are strong. “We are not Weimar Germany.” Trump makes extreme statements, “but he’s not ideological”. He used to be pro-choice, but now he’s against abortion. He blustered about building a wall and banning Muslims, but won’t do either, because those ideas are unworkable. Reagan, like Trump, was accused of being ill-informed and simplistic, said Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph. Yet his simple approach to foreign policy and economics – cut tax, confront the USSR – heralded a new era of American “wealth and dominance”.
All other issues pale into insignificance beside Trump’s attitude to trade, said Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph. During the campaign, he blamed the US’S economic ills on free trade. The question now is: will he be content with “symbolic, temporary restraints”. Or will he, as threatened, launch an “all-out trade war with China” by imposing massive tariffs, and demand the dismantling of free-trade agreements? “That would be the economic equivalent of mutually assured destruction”, and would trigger “a meltdown many times more damaging than the financial crisis”. The Chinese would dump their $1.4trn of US Treasury bonds, with catastrophic effects. “It would probably finish off the liberal international economic order and end an astonishing period of prosperity and innovation.”
Either way, we’re in for a bumpy ride, said Eli Stokols on Politico. Trump has no experience of office, and his transition to power is, according to one insider, “an absolute knife fight”. A “chaotic scramble” is taking place inside Trump Tower for the top positions in his administration. The head of his transition team, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has been sacked and replaced by Trump’s running mate Mike Pence; Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is said to have demanded Christie’s removal – because Christie was New Jersey’s attorney general when Kushner’s father was jailed for tax evasion. Two other senior advisers have also been forced out. The struggle between “warring factions” will continue into the White House. “The idea of a ‘team of rivals’ isn’t a novel approach for a president filling out his cabinet. But this one may prove to be less of a team than a viper pit.”