The Trump card

Smita Sharma

Donald J Trump, the 45th President of the United States, took oath of office on a wintry morning on January 20, 2017. The controversial real estate mogul courted a fresh controversy just a day after inauguration. The crowds at National Mall were thin, as seen in images clicked by the only two photographers allowed at the top vantage point. Trump, however, claimed there was a sea of people — nearly 1.5 million strong. He chided the ‘dishonest media’, and there began the saga of ‘alternative facts’ in the Trump era.

The world was shocked as Trump, not considered a serious candidate even by his own Republican colleagues initially, defeated a stalwart Hillary Clinton to the Oval Office race. Shockwaves continue as unpredictability surrounded Trump. His victory carved out of an America First plank marked the surge of nationalism and rise of Right after eight years of an Afro-American presidential era. Trump catered to his domestic conservative white evangelical vote bank delivering election promises, even if highly divisive. He signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim majority nations that soon faced legal hurdles and saw massive civil rights protests across the divided states of America.

He pulled out of the strenuously negotiated Paris Climate Change Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership, providing an edge to China on the global stage. 

He called the historic Iran nuclear deal ‘one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the US ever entered into.’ Trump wanted it scrapped completely, but so far has decertified it under US law. Its fate hangs by a thread even as Shiite Iran accused Trump of colluding with Sunni Saudi and nemesis Israel in their regional game of chess. Announcing plans to shift the US embassy to Jerusalem, Trump added fuel to the Middle East fire and the long-drawn Palestinian conflict just got more messed up. His raining of ‘fire and fury’ on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, sending stealth bombers and fighter jets to the peninsular region had been as provocative as the rocket man’s missile launches.

The first National Security Strategy of the Trump administration painted rival powers Russia and China as the bad boys ‘interfering in democracies and challenging core American values’. He placed India in a prominent position in his Afghan-Pakistan and Indo-Pacific policy, but there was a lot that needed to be verified before it could be trusted. 

Domestically job growth remained a challenge for a transactional President shaping up a closed economy while demanding ‘Make in America’ investments by others. The ongoing FBI probe into allegations of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential polls saw several of his close aides tumble down. With daughter Ivanka as an adviser expanding her overseas businesses and son-in-law and a conservative Jew Jared Kushner playing an active role in the White House, conflict of interest questions remained. His temperamental ALL CAPS tweets and retweet of Right wing hate videos kept journalists busy. Will Trump last his full term or be impeached? The jury is still out.