By Sushil Kutty
United States President Donald J. Trump is in that stage of his life where he must be asking himself, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” And Trump has a powerful platform to get things he wants done, make good the promises he made, which catapulted him to power, for a second time after a gap of four years and much maligning coming his way during those four years on a Florida golf course.
Remember Trump was written away like a “one swallow doesn’t make a summer.” The democratic establishment thought the man wouldn’t be returning to the White House despite all the bluster and bravado; that everything was over for Donald J. Trump except for getting the boot a second time in five years.
But Trump romped home to the White House and since then, he is like a whirlwind on steroids. Bent on accomplishing all that he had promised would be done. So, it’s “If not me, who?” and “If not now, when?” President Trump has lined up his campaign promises and tackling them all at once.
Trump is not the sort to sit down on his behind and wait for things be brought to him. He is the kind who will go to the mountain. Even FLOTUS for the second time, Melania Trump, seems to be loving Trump 2:0 more than the trappings of the presidency. And 18-year-old Barron Trump has been oozing charm looking down from his high perch of 6’8”.
A week is over from Trump’s full four year second term and he has got off to a bullish start, flooding the United States with scores and scores of executive orders, quick to get into sallies with members of the media unlike so many other heads of state who shun the media for lack of courage, including our own Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Come to think of it, President Trump has managed to even bring Russian President Vladimir Putin out from his castles in the air and listen to reason though so far it hasn’t worked. Trump put Putin into some degree of discomfort, asking the Russian to write the final pages of his ‘Adventures in Ukraine’.
But, for all the rhetoric, Trump appears to be hankering for a quarrel with President Putin and Putin isn’t playing hard of hearing. With Trump in his current frame, something’s got to break. If not today, then tomorrow. How far will President Trump go, for how long will President Trump wait?
Trump takes pride in making good his promises. And he has to keep the adrenaline pumping if his mind has to be kept away from using the “presidency for retribution.” There is every evidence that Trump wouldn’t take a minute to take his subdued ire out on his enemies of the last eight years.
The good thing, however, is that President Trump doesn’t lack in adversaries and they’ll keep President Trump on his toes. Trump’s quick actions on immigration hogged the entire first week of his second presidency. And he had ‘birthright citizenship’ on his radar, but the backlash didn’t wait coming: An 84-year-old judge struck down Trump’s ‘EO’ and Trump was told that even he cannot stop ‘Born in the USA!’
Trump has other tricks up his sleeve, though. This man wants to leave behind a legacy that will last for another 250 years, at least. That is if the People’s Republic of China doesn’t stop the USA with its ‘growing Ai programme’, said to be miles ahead of the USA’s artificial intelligence programme. How will the USA beat China in ‘Ai’ is the stuff of future bestsellers?
President Trump must have a plan ready if he wants to “drastically reshape the USA” and it is not just “immigration.” Trump’s national emergency at the southern border has been launched and neighbouring countries are bristling at how quick Trump’s ‘Border Czar’ has gone from 0 to 1000 in just a week’s time.
That said, the USA is not on its best behaviour. Illegal immigrants are being sent home hogtied and in shackles. Among the really miffed are Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and Columbia with the Columbian President losing his cool and then picking up the pieces after being tariffed and sanctioned.
President Trump is throwing sanctions and visa restrictions around the mythical “Gulf of America” like he can’t wait to extend the United States’ border south as far as Panama, like he can’t wait to get his hands on Greenland, as also Canada. For the first time, the USA military is at the border with Mexico and Mexico isn’t happy with the USA’s newfound yen for expansionism.
Apart from the very visible military presence, there is the halt on refugee admissions, there’s the national emergency at the southern border, there’s the decision to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and asylum-seekers must make appointments at the border.
That’s one week of Trump. And if not for the federal judge who blocked Trump from playing thick and fast with birthright citizenship, Trump wouldn’t be the friend of tens of thousands of Indians who are living and working in the USA with the never-dying hope to become an American citizen.
President Trump is not deterred by the federal judge. Trump’s aides and sidekicks are already looking for “other ways” to stymie ‘birthright citizenship’. And to think that Trump owes his family’s presence in the USA, as also his presidency, to birthright citizenship!
Trump’s family roots go to Germany and there have been times when Trump has been wearing “immigrant” on his sleeves. For all that, Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship was to come into force after February 20 and tens of hundreds of Indian mothers to be are going for the C-section to deliver babies and beat the Trump deadline.
Lesson: President Donald J. Trump can be as mean as a cougar, he doesn’t like babies, except the ones he sired! Last heard, on the immigration front, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is raiding Gurdwaras and temples to pounce on “illegal Indian immigrants”, of whom there are plenty, their American dreams suddenly under threat.
There is news of Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreeing with friend Trump that illegal immigrants are not good for any country’s national security and India will take back all illegal Indian immigrants in the USA. That Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in different voices has been heard before.
Ten years on the trot and the Modi government has not found a way to clear India of illegal immigrants but here he is agreeing with President Trump wholeheartedly that illegal immigrants are not good for any country and should be deported, period! (IPA Service)
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