Assessing the start of Trump’s second term

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BrusselsReport.eu
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By Martin Banks

The perceived wisdom is that Donald Trump is “public enemy No.1” and that the sooner his 2nd term in office ends the better.

First, this writer might just admit one thing.

Like many others, I initially viewed the prospect of another Trump presidency with some dread.

Why? Well, take the first few weeks of his first term in office as an example. It was a period marked by, it seemed, one sacking after another and constant turmoil.

That seemed to set the tone for much of what was to follow and it was to Trump’s good fortune that, in his efforts to be re-elected, he found himself up against someone who, though clearly well intentioned and thoroughly decent (Joe Biden) was physically just not up to the job of a gruelling election campaign, let alone another 4 years in the White House.

A crying shame, then, that President Biden stubbornly clung onto the hope of downing a man he cleared very severely disliked instead of just standing aside and allowing a, preferably much younger and physically able, candidate (male or female) to take on The Donald.

But that is all history now, of course.

Having barnstormed his way, despite predictions to the contrary from so-called experts, to the White House again, the fear was that we were set for the same.

But, and whisper this ever so quietly in some quarters, the story, thus far anyway, is rather different.

Yes, there has been turbulence and “disorder” but, this time, it just seems all better managed and with some clear intent.

It is easy to forget that we are still at the relative early stages of the 2nd Trump presidency.

So much seems to have happened – indeed, has happened – in the few short months since he took office again that you could be forgiven that we were at the tail end of his term, not the early stages.

A huge chunk of domestic legislation has been introduced and enacted and,naturally, not all of this has met with universal approval.

But – and this is the thing that these same so called experts seem to keep forgetting with Trump, what you see with him is, really, what you get.

As the old saying goes: what you see on the tin is what you get.

The man is a disrupter. He is not a career politician but a massively successful business tycoon. He takes real delight in demonstrating both of these things time and time again. He did it even before he was sworn in and he has done it almost every day since. Expect exactly the same for remainder of his term in office.

He was elected on the basis of being a disrupter and not a career politician. That is, clearly, what a big majority of Americans wanted .. and that is what they have got.

Of course, this being the president of the United States, all this has big, big ramifications for the rest of us, not just in the U.S and that naturally includes Europe and EU-land.

And that brings us to a couple of the major, standout issues that have marked the 2nd Trump administration: multiple wars and trade/tariffs.

You have to remember that Trump, through no fault of his own lest it be said, has found himself at the eye of a particularly vicious storm – seemingly impossible-to-resolve bitter and bloody conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

And yet even his harshest critics – and there are many,many of them – might just possibly cut him a bit of slack here: he really does seem, desperately, to want to bring these two terrible wars to a close as best he can.

While others, and they include the EU and its leaders, appear relatively powerless to leverage real influence towards stopping two wars, it has been left to the U.S president – and his foreign service  team – to lead the way.

Whisper it quietly again, but this sheer bloody minded determination on the part of Donald Trump might soon achieve just that: peace in our time in both Ukraine and the Mid East.

So much for that but what about that other issue that, so far, has dominated the Trump term – tariffs?

Here again (and some may not like to admit it) you have to say that the man is doing what he said he would do: make America, if not great, then at least “more great” again.

When he says that it has been some of America’s “friends” (not foes,mind) who have been “taking us for a ride” you may, however reluctantly, to concede he may have a point.

He was elected to restore economic stability and prosperity to his own country and that is what he believes correcting seriously skewed trade balances will do.

If that causes ill will/discord/outcry in the rest of the world, including among European Union member states, then so be it, seems to be the mantra.

I am doing what I said I would do – seems to be the message.

Imagine that: a politician actually doing what he promised the electorate he would do.

Now, much of this does not and will not go down very well at all in many quarters and there is an argument, of course, that creating such trading turbulence across the globe cannot and will not achieve anything.

But here is a man who, long ago, tore up the conventional way of doing things and will do things just as he wants them done, not as others would like them done. If you do not like that, then, tough pal.

So, the message from all this is clear: brace yourself in for more of the same …..and a lot more of it.

 

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