Trump: President on a stump

Something strange is happening in America, the world’s paragon of modern democracy, or so we were made to believe, until this long-drawn stalemate in the presidential election process in that great nation got broken with Joe Biden’s surprise victory.

Defeated incumbent United States President, Republican Donald Trump, has been locked in a tight contest with his Democrat challenger, Biden, which has brought to the wide-open world, the good, the bad, and the ugly in the much-admired democratic system of America. It is an acknowledged fact that many see the election as a referendum on Trump’s first term. Biden, of course, has prevailed. What is Trump’s problem? Character, style and naivety in the matter of state craft.

Equally important, the U.S. media, an institution that operates in an atmosphere of unfettered freedom and is known for upholding the highest professional standards of fairness, truth and balance, has put its integrity on the line because of its brazen hostility towards Trump since he emerged on the political scene. Many American media outfits, led by the iconic CNN, seem to have an inexplicable problem with Trump that borders on pathological hatred.

Certainly, the posture of most U.S. media outlets toward Trump, save for Fox News, has always been unfriendly, and this attitude even predates his Presidency. And Trump himself never helped matters. His abrasive style, lack of respect for his opponents and total disregard for certain critical sensibilities set the stage for the many crises of his Presidency that led to his defeat.

The U.S. evangelicals, a crucial voting bloc, queued behind Trump because of his commitment to restore to America the core Christian values upon which the foundation of the country was laid. He shunned the powerful LGBT group to clip the wings of the gay community and threatened to introduce gun control to curb growing gun violence in the country. Trump’s actions and policies have earned him a growing list of enemies across the world.

The President preached an “America first” policy, which, as the words implied, subordinated every other interest below America’s, even if it hurt the larger world. He has been running a pitched battle with China over perceived trade imbalance; and almost from the first day of his presidency began pursuing the building of a border wall to check migrants from Mexico and Latin America. He has angered the traditional friends of America by cutting the U.S. budget of NATO, and forcing the Allies to contribute more.

Every region in the world has felt the impact of Trump. In the Middle East, he has taken on Iran, the undisputed hotbed of radical Islam. To checkmate the growing influence of the Mullahs in Tehran, he took the unilateral decision of cancelling the Nuclear Deal, to the horror of France, Germany and key allies of America, who jointly brokered it. He didn’t stop there, he killed Iran’s top military strategist, Gen. Q. Sulamani, through a violent drone strike on the alleged claims that the general was planning to bomb U.S. installations in the region. His sanctions on Iran inflicted pain on that country and fuelled its belligerent posture towards America and its interests in the region.

Trump’s trademark bullying tactics became evident in his early days in office, during a sabre-rattling speech at the United Nations, when he vowed to obliterate North Korea from the world’s map, if it threatened America or its allies. Not long after, he held meetings with the country’s leader, Kim Jung Un. Such inconsistency between Trump’s utterances and actions are one of the hallmarks of his beleaguered Presidency.

Mr. Trump has been involved in a series of spats with high-profile individuals, including the British Ambassador to the U.S., when he called him a “very stupid guy,” during a diplomatic row last year.

And in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he blamed on China, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organisation (WHO), after accusing the body of being negligent in the handling of the pandemic. At a point, he also claimed WHO was too lenient with China despite the Asian nation’s alleged complicity in the spread of the health hazard.

We cannot forget his brush with Biden in the run-up to the election, when he pressured President Zelensky of Ukraine to probe the business dealings of the son of his Democrat rival over alleged illegality during some transactions in that country. This led to an upro,ar but Trump weathered the storm, like he did with the previous Russian investigation over alleged interference of the Kremlin in support of his election in 2016.

Every region continues to feel the impact of Trump’s aggressive behaviour. After his government’s unsuccessful attempt to stop the re-election of Akinwunmi Adesina as the president of the African Development Bank, the U.S. has again vowed to veto the adoption of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the consensus director-general of the World Trade Organisation.

(To be continue  next week)

Weekened spice: We don’t see things the way they are, we see things as we are  – Anais Nin

Ok folks, let’s do it agin next week Friday. Stay safe. COVID-19 is real. Be motivated.

Ayodeji is a speaker, author and pastor. You can reach him at [email protected] or on 09052943004(whatsapp or sms only)