Hail to the Chief
It is no exaggeration to say that the politics of America have been transformed by the election of Donald Trump
At noon Washington time, 10p.m. in Pakistan on Friday 20th January 2017 the Presidency of America passed from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. The oath of office is 35 words, the burden that goes with it almost unimaginable. President Trump was not a politician — though he most certainly is now — and has never previously held a public office. His inaugural speech was a reflection of that in that it smacked more of a hostile corporate takeover than it did of any attempt to bring unity to a deeply divided America. The picture of America painted by President Trump, as with so much of his campaign material, was of a country that had been rifled of its valuables by a political establishment in Washington over decades, and that his Presidency was the point at which that was going to stop. He was sharing a platform with all the living ex-presidents bar one who is currently hospitalised and they sat stony faced as President Trump rubbished their works and their legacies.
From the perspective of President Trump the cities have suffered what he dubbed ‘American Carnage’ — a phrase that will outlive his Presidency one suspects — that are riddled with drugs, crime, gangs, unemployment and welfare-dependent single parents. Beyond the cities are the wastelands of the rustbelt, the empty and bankrupt industrial zone that was overtaken by globalisation and automation, the jobs dying with the factories. The political elites have ignored the common man, but President Trump assured the crowd that the common man was to be ignored no longer, that there was a new champion in the White House and new (gold coloured) curtains in the Oval Office.
Henceforward it is to be ‘America first’, an America restored to a mythical past which will be strong, proud, wealthy and safe. Some may wonder at President Trumps’ vision as there is no pervading sense of American weakness, poverty, poor safety -gun violence aside — and Americans are never slow to express their pride in the nation that is the world’s only superpower. There were sketches of what may be in store in terms of foreign policy and a clear break with the Obama administration regarding Islam. At the heart of the Inaugural Speech President Trump said ‘We will…unite the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.’ This almost apocalyptic statement bodes ill not only for those that President Trump decides are radical Islamists, but for countries that have a Muslim majority which may be judged as fellow-travellers with the aforementioned radicals. One does not have to stretch the imagination very far to see Pakistan on the President Trump horizon in this respect.
The transition of power in the moments of transfer was peaceful if considerably lacking in harmony, and events immediately following the Inauguration were violent with the police using pepper spray on protesters who smashed shopfronts and car windows. Further afield there are to be anti-Trump protests on Sunday 22nd January in many European cities.
It is no exaggeration to say that the politics of America have been transformed by the election of Donald Trump. He has stood his critics on their heads. The political Establishment were put on notice in his Inaugural Speech, which was little more than a polished version of what he had been saying on the stump for the last nine months. Appointments to his administration already point to a very different type of Presidency — there is no Latino in his Cabinet, for instance. His nominee for the Secretary of Education has no experience of the public education sector. Hawks, military and civilian, are a-perch on the tree of governance. Whilst there may be much to question as to the credentials of the new President, it would be unwise to judge him this early in his tenure. For that if for no other reason we wish President Trump well.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2017.
From the perspective of President Trump the cities have suffered what he dubbed ‘American Carnage’ — a phrase that will outlive his Presidency one suspects — that are riddled with drugs, crime, gangs, unemployment and welfare-dependent single parents. Beyond the cities are the wastelands of the rustbelt, the empty and bankrupt industrial zone that was overtaken by globalisation and automation, the jobs dying with the factories. The political elites have ignored the common man, but President Trump assured the crowd that the common man was to be ignored no longer, that there was a new champion in the White House and new (gold coloured) curtains in the Oval Office.
Henceforward it is to be ‘America first’, an America restored to a mythical past which will be strong, proud, wealthy and safe. Some may wonder at President Trumps’ vision as there is no pervading sense of American weakness, poverty, poor safety -gun violence aside — and Americans are never slow to express their pride in the nation that is the world’s only superpower. There were sketches of what may be in store in terms of foreign policy and a clear break with the Obama administration regarding Islam. At the heart of the Inaugural Speech President Trump said ‘We will…unite the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.’ This almost apocalyptic statement bodes ill not only for those that President Trump decides are radical Islamists, but for countries that have a Muslim majority which may be judged as fellow-travellers with the aforementioned radicals. One does not have to stretch the imagination very far to see Pakistan on the President Trump horizon in this respect.
The transition of power in the moments of transfer was peaceful if considerably lacking in harmony, and events immediately following the Inauguration were violent with the police using pepper spray on protesters who smashed shopfronts and car windows. Further afield there are to be anti-Trump protests on Sunday 22nd January in many European cities.
It is no exaggeration to say that the politics of America have been transformed by the election of Donald Trump. He has stood his critics on their heads. The political Establishment were put on notice in his Inaugural Speech, which was little more than a polished version of what he had been saying on the stump for the last nine months. Appointments to his administration already point to a very different type of Presidency — there is no Latino in his Cabinet, for instance. His nominee for the Secretary of Education has no experience of the public education sector. Hawks, military and civilian, are a-perch on the tree of governance. Whilst there may be much to question as to the credentials of the new President, it would be unwise to judge him this early in his tenure. For that if for no other reason we wish President Trump well.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2017.