Trump’s delusional politics

The year was 2016. Donald Trump was all set to bring about a change in the United States – a change that would make America great again. The rival presidential candidate was Hilary Clinton. She won nearly 2.9 million more popular votes than Donald Trump.

Trump was expecting to do better. He had made it clear during the campaign that his willingness to accept the election result would depend on the result itself. A winning Trump, a happy Trump; a loser Trump, a mad Trump. Thanks to the electoral college system, he won the elections. Yet, he refused to concede that he got fewer popular votes and claimed that electoral fraud had occurred. It was the first time in American history that a winning candidate did not accept the election results that actually made him POTUS.

The year was 2020. Donald Trump lost the elections. With a few exceptions, it has been a general trend in the US for presidents to win another term since the 1930s. Trump could arguably have expected a win had he not made blunders. Downplaying science amid the Covid-19 pandemic and badly handling George Floyd’s murder were two key factors that potentially damaged Trump’s prospects for victory. Some political analysts argue that Trump mishandled these crises so badly that the election result should not be seen as a triumph of Joe Biden, rather an ouster of Trump from the Oval office; and he might still have lost had there been any other candidate for the White House race.

It was evident that the man who made such a hue and cry even after winning the election in 2016 would not easily accept the result in 2020 which he lost. The outcome is the recent Capitol Hill crisis during the confirmation of Biden’s electoral win. When the president tells his followers that the nation’s fate depends on election results, the followers are expected to believe in him – especially when the vapors of populism fill the air.

Donald Trump alleged the election to be a fraud, just as in Pakistan where democracy is immature: hybrid at minimum and flawed at best at any given moment. Pro-Trump protestors made an “assault on the citadel of liberty” in the words of President-elect Joe Biden who holds Donald Trump responsible for turning away from the democratic values that give strength to the American nation and unify Americans as a people.

Trump is known to be an unpredictable man. At one time, he was threatening North Korea would be met with fire and fury like the world had never seen; and called Kim Jong Un a rocket man who was on a suicide mission for himself and his regime. And then, he had an epic date with Kim in 2018 in Singapore, and they “fell in love” in the words of Trump himself. Donald Trump is described as an old man with the political personality of a child by David Runciman in his book, ‘How Democracy Ends’.

As much as Trump showed recklessness in the domestic affairs of the United States, he could not stop himself from destroying American foreign policy. Although some good things can be attributed to him, like not indulging in creating wars that create failed states most often, his overall foreign policy was deplorable. Stephen Walt – professor of International Relations at Harvard University – writes in ‘Foreign Policy’, “America’s adversaries are more dangerous than they were in 2016. The United States is weaker, sicker and more divided. Relations with many US allies are worse, and any aspirations to moral leadership that Americans might have harbored have been badly tarnished.”

At the peak of a global pandemic, Trump stopped funding the World Health Organization. The United States has historically been the world’s most generous provider of health and humanitarian assistance to people all around the globe. With Trump, a wave of populism emerged in the US that made him base his foreign policy on a sense of grievance: it is the world outside America that enjoys the perks at the expense of ‘We the People’. He made it clear that others should resolve their problems by themselves, and America would look forward to its own betterment by focusing within.

Policies of protectionism started. A trade war between the US and China minutely affected the latter in the short term but the former lost its reputation as a country that believes in what it represents – liberalism. Trump came into office promising that he would abandon Nato if it did not relieve America’s burdens. Trump made withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership which was the center-piece of Obama’s pivot-to-Asia strategy and was supporting free trade among countries constituting 40 percent of the world's economy.

He withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement – turning America away from addressing perhaps the biggest issue of the 21st century. He also withdrew America from Unesco and the UNHRC and destroyed the Iran nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that made Iran dismantle much of its nuclear program in exchange of sanctions relief amounting billions of dollars.

What happened at Capitol Hill this week is even being described by some political commentators as a coup, although it doesn’t meet the definition of a coup. Some voices are calling for Donald Trump to be impeached again. He has done a lot of damage to democratic values. The US has been the strongest proponent of democratizing the world. But a house not in order loses its moral right to propagate its theoretical values.

Joseph R Biden will inherit a very disorderly house from Trump. It is good that he realizes the problem. In his essay for ‘Foreign Affairs’, he stated, “First and foremost, we must repair and reinvigorate our own democracy, even as we strengthen the coalition of democracies that stand with us around the world. The United States’ ability to be a force for progress in the world and to mobilize collective action starts at home.”

It is too early to predict whether or not he will be able to fix and strengthen democracy. Time is the best judge.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Email: abdulbasit0419@gmail.com