Trump in 2018

The year 2018 was filled with endless disasters for Donald Trump’s presidency. It comes as no surprise then that the year is ending on such a dark note for Trump.

The last week of the year saw three main misfires looming over the US president: his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan; the Robert Mueller inquiry that found Trump’s closest aides Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen guilty; and the partial government shutdown prompted by the rejection of Trump’s proposed budget legislation.

Last week, Trump had tweeted his decision to withdraw US troops that had been sent to Syria to counter the threat emanating from Isis since 2014. However, Trump abruptly decided that since the war against Isis had been won in Syria, it was no longer necessary to keep US troops in the country. But this finding was disputed by the international community as well as Jim Mattis, Trump’s defence secretary who immediately resigned.

His resignation letter is quite instructive. Mattis pointed out that the Trump presidency had made a series of wrong decisions, especially with regard to its refusal to stand up to America’s adversaries and failure to stand in unison with the country’s key allies. The letter sums up the troubles that lie at the very heart of the current administration.

America’s deteriorating relations with Pakistan are one of the many examples of the Trump administration’s failures. Pakistan had been viewed by Trump’s predecessors as a key ally in the war on terror, particularly in Afghanistan.

It is a fact that Pakistan has made many sacrifices to wipe out the threat of terror from the region. But at the very beginning of the year, Trump tweeted against Pakistan, announcing his decision to withdraw US support from the Coalition Support Fund. As the year draws to a close, the US president has requested the government of Pakistan to engage Afghanistan’s non-state actors in a peaceful dialogue. This is one of the biggest contradictions within the Trump administration. Although the president didn’t mince his words in squarely blaming his allies for his own missteps, he still needs their support.

The Trump administration also found itself in the midst of another disaster in the second last week of the year: a partial government shutdown. In line with Trump’s presidential campaign promises, the president intended to curb migration from South America through Mexico. The means he wished to adopt was to secure funding worth $5 billion for a ‘Mexican wall’ to prevent the scope for further immigration. However, the budget legislation drawn up by the US Senate didn’t include the funding worth $5 billion required by the president, thereby leading to a rejection of the legislation, with disastrous consequences. Federal workers find themselves having to work without pay and the federal government is stranded in the lead-up to the new year.

This seems to be the final nail in the coffin for a presidency that has had a disastrous year. Trump has found himself at odds with the international community over his trade wars with China, US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and the hostile exchange of words with the French and Canadian presidents. All these factors have weakened America’s previously unparalleled position as the world leader.

The only possible success that Trump could have counted on was the breakthrough achieved in breaking the ice with North Korea’s president this year by securing denuclearisation commitments. However, reports of non-compliance by North Korea make such a ‘victory’ seem illusory. With the criticism faced by the US president at home owing to his disastrous family separation policy for immigrants coming in from the US-Mexican border and the tightening of the Mueller inquiry’s noose, it can certainly be concluded that this was a highly unsuccessful year for the US president. In light of everything that has happened this year, 2019 seems to be starting on the most troubling note for the US government.

The writer is an advocate of the high court.

Email: qadirmuneeb@gmail.com