PRESIDENT Donlad Trump is yet to spend one month in office as the 47th President of the United States of America but his actions and pronouncements are being felt in all corners of the globe. From neigbouring Canada to Mexico, to Panama, Brazil, and even Africa, the last two weeks have not been the best for many world leaders who are still trying to work out how to deal with the man inside the White House. Many are afraid of him, some feel intimidated, and few are bewildered and flabbergasted.
If there is one president that is set to impact world politics for good and also possibly for bad in the next few years, Donald Trump would clinch the top spot. And make no mistake about it, by the end of his second term in 2029, if eventually he decides not to pursue a third term ticket (he has already joked about it), America and nay, world politics would never be the same.
Trump’s return to power after a four-year hiatus has seen him firing on all cylinders. Even at 78, age has not showed any sign of slowing him down. He is also out with a vengeance against those whom he perceives as enemies who facilitated his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden.
Trump is the first convicted felon in America’s history to occupy the White House, having been found guilty of 34 counts of felony in the Stormy Daniel, hush money, record-falsification case. But that does not bother him as he has told his supporters that he is the most prosecuted president in history. His sentencing was put off after he became president-elect. Over 77 million Americans believe in him and cast their votes for him in the last elections.
From his first day in office, Trump showed that he meant business about making ‘America GREAT again.’ However, with the ways he is going about it, it is in doubt whether America would be as great as he has promised or it would be brought to its knees in the next couple of years.
The 47th president of the United States of America is a dealer in government, no, cancel that, he is a bully in the White House. It appears that there is no president or prime minister that would not be ‘bullied’ for the ‘benefit’ of Americans. There is no institution that cannot be downgraded so far as President Trump does not believe in what they stand for.
He has signed dozens of executive orders freezing all foreign assistance, removing illegal immigrants from the United States, firing civil servants, and asking Elon Musk to “cut the fat out of the unnecessary bureaucracy and trim the federal departments.”
He is banning automatic citizenship of children born in the States by illegal immigrants, he has recognised only two genders – male and female, withdrawn the USA from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and has stopped the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) from communicating with the WHO.
He has also withdrawn America from the UNESCO and from the Climate Change Convention. Mercifully, he has not withdrawn yet from the UN and its specialized organizations and NATO. Although, some of these actions requires legislative support, and some, constitutional amendments, Trump does not care. One of such is the birth-right issue. Any child born in the United States of America automatically becomes an American citizen. It is so recognised by the constitution of the United States. To change the law would require two-third majority of the states in the US to effect it. But Trump wants an end to the policy. Already, a federal judge has blocked the order – albeit, temporarily.
He has bullied the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum into negotiating how they intend to stop illegal migrants from getting into the United States as well as the curtailment of illegal drugs shipments into the USA. His desire is to make Canada the 51th States of the USA and he does not care if his action and utterances is against international laws and conventions. Trump has unilaterally changed the Gulf of Mexico into the ‘Gulf of America’. He has set his sights on Greenland, an Arctic Island under the control of Denmark as well as The Panama Canal, a critical waterway in world trade. Trump is interested in the Canal as he believes that China has surreptitiously taken over control of the area.
Before he was sworn-in, Trump vowed to send illegal migrants back to their respective countries. From his first day in office, he has done just that. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has fulfilled that key campaign promise of Trump in his first week in power by removing 7,300 illegal immigrants from the United States. The move is part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration and a direct response to President Donald Trump’s vow to increase deportations, especially targeting violent criminals in the country. Many of those deported were in handcuffs and ferried back to their countries in military aircrafts.
Columbia and Guatemala initially rejected the poor treatment of her citizens but after being threatened and bullied with economic sanctions, both nations had to relent. Indeed, a trade war could have had crippling consequences for Colombia, which counts the United States as its largest trading partner. That is largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement that generated $33.8 billion in two-way trade in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The use of U.S. military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration. The Pentagon had said that it would provide flights for the deportations of more than 5,000 immigrants held by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
His controversial plan to move Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt and for the USA to take over Gaza has been condemned, with many Palestinians vowing not to leave their ancestral homes.
Hear him: “Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent. The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area…” Trump said, without explaining why they could not let Gazans rebuild Gaza.
Expectedly, Trump’s stunning realty-centric proposal was immediately rejected by Arab countries, including America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, which issued a statement affirming that its position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering.
Some aides of Trump have suggested that the US President was merely grandstanding and his remarks were aimed at galvanizing other Arab states to come up with solutions rather than leave Palestinians in the lurch. “It’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions,” Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in one TV interview.
Many world leaders are still in shock by his audacious proposal. Where he gets such a power is still not clear to many. Indeed, Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was really angry when he said that Donald Trump was elected to govern the United States, and not “to rule the world.”
“I respect the election of President Trump, who was elected by the American people to govern the United States, but he was not elected to rule the world. The U.S. president has to maintain democratic and civilised relations with the rest of the world”, Lula noted, with reference to Trump’s intention to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
On the home front and using Elon Musk, Trump has reinstated service members dismissed for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine; stopped the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI, programmes across federal government establishments, paused federal grants and loans, tried to entice millions of federal workers to resign in a bid to drastically reduce the size of the federal work force, and to push out people who do not support his political agenda. In return, the administration offered roughly two million federal workers the option to resign but be paid through the end of September.
Aside granting pardon to the January 6 rioters in the US, he has ordered the Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to compile a list of all agents and FBI staff who worked on the January 6 investigations. He has shut down USAID office across the globe and put Marco Rubio in charge. Now, there are talks that he would allow less than 10 per cent of USAID workforce back to their jobs.
In Africa, Trump has falsely accused the South African government of “confiscating land” from white farmers. But President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country has not seized land and urged Trump to mind his business. “We won’t be bullied by Trump”, he said. Without any consultation, Trump ordered air strikes against the Islamic State in Somalia.
Coming home to Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has been advised to get a long spoon while eating on the same table with Trump. Bolaji Akinyemi, former external Affairs Minister, said that Tinubu must learn to avoid getting into trouble with Trump. Already, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and NIDCOM are making preparations on how to receive Nigerians who may be deported back to the country by Trump.
Americans voted for Trump and he is acting on what he promised during his campaign. Although prices of foodstuffs have been on the increase since the clampdown on illegal migrants began as many farm workers are being repatriated, Americans should be ready to endure the necessary pains.
His conduct when it comes to international politics is where he may have his fingers burnt. You don’t become a bully at international fora, no matter your military might. Trump might think that he is just doing deals to better the lot of the American citizens, but it should be clear to him that the correct terms for what he is doing are coercion and extortion. He is a bully both in the USA and in the international arena. He should be reminded however that there are known bullies in world history and the end of some of them wasn’t that palatable.
As for those of us in Nigeria, having enjoyed the movie ‘Coming To America’ and with most having literally lived the American dream, the rest of us should simply get our popcorn ready to watch the ongoing season film, ‘Coming from America’.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.