Donald J. Trump was the one who was going to make America great again. With the incredible haughtiness and swagger of a man-child who appears to be sozzled with his control of thousands of nuclear war heads and trillions of dollars, Donald Trump has threatened almost everyone with sanctions or with war! Apart from Vladimir Putin of Russia, no one has been off limits to the American businessman suddenly turned politician. Practically every alliance and friendship that has taken previous American leaders decades of subtle diplomacy to build has been broken or put under severe strain by a man who can say anything to anyone at any time.
Germany used to be a close friend of the United States. Not anymore. Canada used to be a trusted neighbor of the United States. Not anymore. The United States used to be the driving moral force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the UN. Not anymore.
At home and abroad, Mr. Trump has been at work scattering everything his hands can touch and making America great again! He has thrown into the dustbin the climate accord which took the Obama administration many sleepless nights of hard work with the rest of the world to craft. This was an accord celebrated across the world with many heaving a sigh of relief. Mr. Trump has replaced the accord with a frightening denial of climate change.
Walking with crutches, then United States Secretary of State, John Kerry laboured in Switzerland with the globe’s nuclear powers to arrive at the Iran nuclear deal. Donald Trump came to power, tore the deal and replaced it with bellicose threat of war and the devastation of Iran.
Obamacare is regarded as one of the greatest achievements of President Barack Obama. May the soul of John McCain who contested against Obama, rest in peace. Without McCain’s vote in the U.S. senate, Donald Trump’s desire to wreck Obamacare would have been realized and millions of Americans who depend on the program for their healthcare would have been on their own, making America great again!
A few days ago, the European Union published a list of nations whose citizens are allowed to visit the EU. The Chinese can visit the EU and so can citizens of countries such as Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Thailand. Nationals of some African countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Rwanda can indeed visit the EU but not citizens of the United States of America! Could anyone have imagined this just three months ago? Across Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and several American states, the corona virus is running wild while nations with much smaller capacity have got their hands around the virus.
Donald J. Trump’s “America First” swagger has revealed his frightening limitations and shown that he is all talk and bluster. His soft under belly and lack of a long-term strategy have become very clear. The divisions in the population that Mr. Trump’s “take no prisoner” style and culture wars have created, have robbed America of the aggregation of enduring energy and trust required by any nation to face serious challenges.
In America, the reaction to or appreciation of the dangers of the Coronavirus is in the main, a factor of whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. Can you believe that in the USA whether you wear a mask to protect yourself and others around you is determined by whether you support Donald Trump or not?!
When some people started calling for the United States Government to prepare the nation to wage a war against the oncoming virus, the reaction of the President and his supporters was that it was a “hoax” and that alarmists Democrats wanted to rubbish him in an election year.
Sadly, the result of Donald Trump’s denial is that thousands of Americans, in both blue and red states, have died who may have stayed alive if their government with the unmatched resources at its disposal, had its eyes on the ball and did not ferociously fight science, data and facts. While Italy which not long ago was a no-go area and the epicenter of the virus, has fought Covid 19 to a standstill and is reopening steadily, the United States reported more than 52,000 new cases just yesterday! Instead of fighting the virus, President Trump goes to Mount Rushmore to open another battle in his endless culture wars as his son’s very close girlfriend and a strong Trump activist tests positive to the corona virus.
As Donald Trump has been busy picking a fight with everyone he can find, he may indeed unwittingly have rewritten the power equation in the world. The big bang may have occurred! The Coronavirus has revealed the strong limitations of a superpower status based simply on nuclear weapons, inter-continental ballistic missiles and other forms of weapons of mass destruction with little wisdom. In the time that Donald Trump has been threatening and shouting at Iran, Xi Jinping has been calmly building roads, rail lines and Airport Terminals across Africa and Latin America.
Believe me or not, the wind has blown exposing the Donald Trump’s bum. As the United States of America celebrates its Independence Day today, the reality is that it is going to take a lot of work to repair the damage that the mistake Americans made in 2016 have wrought on their beautiful country. The way things are, it might take America so many years to be truly great again.
See you next week.
– Okoroji is the chairman of COSON