While the world is no longer waiting with abated breath to know the next President of The United States of America, as was 1 week ago, it sure is watching with ridicule on the power struggle that has engulfed the world’s premier democratic nation
While Joe Biden has scored outright victory with world leaders congratulating him on the Presidency, Donald Trump has staunchly refused to concede defeat, calling the polls a fraud and filing lawsuits in various states challenging the election results. An unheralded circumstance with America now entering into unchartered territory. The transition of power will be anything but smooth.
Let us deep dive into Donald Trumps presidency from 2017-2020.
4 years ago, in the fall of 2016, in a surprise result that upset the pollsters, the relatively unknown republican candidate, Donald Trump won the US presidency elections defeating the favorite Democratic candidate, Mrs. Hillary Clinton. The electoral votes were in Trumps’ favor: 306 – 229. Although Mrs. Clinton did receive more percentage of popular vote. How the new president would function would be anybody’s guess. He took oath to the office on 20th January 2017. As days passed by, it became clear that presidency would not change Donald Trump, but Mr. Trump would change the presidency.
Straight after assuming office, Trump framed a controversial policy banning all Muslim foreigners from entering the US. He later reframed the policy to be applied to countries only with a proven history of terrorism. Elsewhere, the administration separated thousands of migrant children from their parents at the US-Mexico border, while the families attempted to enter the US illegally. The adults were put in criminal detention centers for prosecution and the children were kept in immigration centers to be deported back to their country.
As part of his election campaign promise, Donald Trump decreed to build a concrete wall across the US-Mexico Border, which spans about 3,145 kms. The Trump wall would cost the US treasury a staggering 5.6 Billion USD. Once Trump was elected as the President, he pushed through and passed the ruling to commence building of the wall. Throughout his presidency, there have been issues with regards to funding, economics and environmental issues, once even declaring a state of national emergency due to release of inadequate funding by the treasury. By October 2020, Trump had failed miserably on his election promise and all but 15 kms of the wall was built.
The foreign policy was equally baffling. Trumps policy as “America First” has put US’ position on tenterhooks with its allies across the Western world. He described the Iran regime as “the rogue regime”. Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal and imposed severe economic sanctions on the Arab nation. He repeatedly accused China of taking unfair advantage of US and launched a trade war that went from bad to worse during his presidency so much so that relations turned sour and nose dived at its lowest point. His flirtations with the North Korean leader was an epic straight out of drama series, while in the process becoming the first US president to set foot in North Korea. The Trump administration has walked out of NATO alliance, withdrew from WTO, pulled out from WHO, disenfranchised from Paris climate agreement and severely strained ties with US’ allies in European continent, while openly supporting Turkish aggression in Syrian war.
Despite of all the fallacies, the Presidency took a turn for the worst at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He publicly downplayed the imminent threat of the virus. As the pandemic raged globally, trump focused more on economic and political considerations of the outbreak. By the time, he declared national emergency, the pandemic had already engulfed the US. Trump even then refused to wear masks in public, while also going out on a limb to hold massive election rallies. Eventually, he himself tested positive for corona virus.
Trump has frequently made false statements in public speeches, a phenomenon which is unprecedented in American politics, so much so that his falsehoods have become a distinctive part of his political identity. Some of his lies have hurt the US very badly. He was a significant source of disinformation on national voting practices and the COVID-19 virus. His attacks on mail-in ballots and other election practices served to weaken public faith in the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, while his disinformation about the pandemic dangerously delayed and weakened the national response to it.
While, it might just be a matter of when and not if, that Trump concedes defeat and ascends the Presidency to Mr. Joe Biden, the damage that has already been done, will take years to dwindle. Another four years of his erratic rule, would have made the US look unrecognizable. Trumps’ divisive, egoistic, arrogant and often distrustful presidency has led to his downfall. The US might have just found the key back again to the corroded lock in Joe Boden / Kamala Harris. But, will Trumpism triumph back in 2024? Scary thought ehh!!
