Donald Trump wants to expand the boundaries of the United States and 'Make America Great Again' at any expense
Donald Trump, taking over as United States President for a second time, has straightaway put the world on notice. As if the rest of the world is to blame for problems faced by the US.
Trump, in fact, by describing the US as a nation that was on “decline”, has attempted to turn the tables against all other nations on the many ills faced internally within his nation. As is his habit, the President in his 2.0 avatar has not hesitated to resort to slanted information to prove a point.
For, Trump’s inaugural address indicates that he is sore with the rest of the world for what he perceives as benefitting from US largesse, in trade particularly, even while his country is struggling to feed the poor and deprived. To correct the “anomaly”, he is threatening to impose huge import tariffs especially on a select few nations like China, Brazil and India.
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Who is responsible?
But, how did a situation arise where the US has had to depend heavily on imports for its fundamental needs?
US industrialists driven by the diktat of capitalist growth, on their own volition, over the last three decades figured out it was cheaper and hence profitable to manufacture goods abroad than within their country. So, they shifted production to other countries, ignoring the interests of US workers.
China and South-East Asia were huge beneficiaries in manufacturing while India and the Philippines, among others, proved to be far more cost-effective in software programming, in the process becoming the world’s back office in the then emerging era of Information Technology.
If today China has become big enough to challenge US hegemony, it almost entirely owes it to the American capitalist.
Naturally, US manufacturing suffered and so did employment opportunities for its citizens in the area of software programming. The point is that other nations did not grab work and render Americans jobless. It was the making of US capitalism, the bedrock of the American state.
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US interference
Today, assuming that the US is on decline, as Trump puts it, so is the rest of the world. Compared to the US, the economies in Europe, including the big ones like Germany, France and the United Kingdom, are in worse shape facing crises of unprecedented proportions.
And, if there are conflicts in the world today, they are a direct result of either US instigation or interference.
The war between Ukraine and Russia, for instance, would not have occurred if not for US instigation on the question of Kyiv’s accession into NATO. When former US President Joe Biden insisted that Ukraine would be given membership of the US-led military alliance, Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine – the resulting war nearing its third year.
The war has proved debilitating to the world’s economy with Europe taking the worst hit economically. The US, on the contrary, has been fuelling the war by funding Ukraine billions of dollars along with its European allies, with some estimating it at $175 billion.
Genocide in Gaza
Again, in Gaza, which has witnessed Israeli blood-letting on hapless Palestinians for 15 months non-stop, the US is directly involved – by replenishing Israel with high-end armaments and funding required to carry out what is being described by many as “genocide”.
Over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes, Gaza is in ruins and practically unliveable while the entire population of around two million have been displaced from their homes and live in tents.
The US, in the UN Security Council, has vetoed at least four resolutions seeking to end Israel’s assault. A tentative ceasefire is now in effect since January 19.
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Not words of a peacemaker
In the midst of all this, Trump has proclaimed he would like to be remembered as a “peacemaker”. But his actions are contrary to his words.
He unilaterally announced the US will take back control of the Panama Canal from Mexico, and decided to change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America”. These are not signs of a peacemaker. They sound more like that of a warmonger.
The “peacemaker” on Day One has already walked out of the Paris Climate accord, wants to take over Greenland from Denmark and has continued to harp on absorbing Canada into the US as the 51stt state.
Given his track record, Trump cannot be taken entirely for his words. In the past, he has reneged on some of his decisions like his publicised intention to ban Muslims from select nations on entering the US.
Trump promised to end the Ukraine-Russia war in one day after taking over power, no less. A day has passed but there is no sign of an end to the war.
Deporting illegals
His threat to deport illegal migrants in the US en masse to their countries of origin could be rhetorical, given the scale of the operation. For example, the Pew Research Center estimated that 7,25,000 undocumented Indians lived in the US, as of 2022 – the third largest group after Mexicans and Salvadoreans.
In October 2024, several hundred illegal Indian migrants were deported through “removal flights” back to India, each flight carrying 100 undocumented individuals.
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Through US fiscal 2024, which ended in September, more than 1,000 Indian nationals were similarly deported, according to a BBC report.
Given that there are over seven lakh Indian undocumented migrants, it will take a herculean operation for the US to send all of them home. Trump says he intends doing it, not just in the case of Indians, but also Mexicans and the rest.
His administration is readying to aggressively throw out undocumented “aliens” within the US, he has threatened other nations into submitting to US diktat on trade tariffs and related policies, wants to expand the boundaries of the United States and “Make America Great Again” at any expense.
The self-proclaimed wannabe “peacemaker” has anything but peace on his mind.
