Unconsidered consequences

Six months into his second term Donald Trump has built a loyalist cabinet, refashioned the presidential Oval Office in the White House, and initiated controversial policies, earning him the designation of “Great Disruptor.”

He has raided conservative television channel Fox News for top jobs in his administration. The latest Fox appointment is of lawyer and former judge Jeanine Pirro as interim US attorney for the District of Columbia. She is the 23rd current or former Fox News employee Trump has recruited. A weekend Fox host, Pete Hegseth became secretary of defence and ex-Fox employee Dan Bongino was chosen as deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A former host of a Fox business programme Sean Duffy has been made secretary of transportation. Ex-Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard serves as Director of National Intelligence, Michael Walz as UN ambassador, and Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel were Fox contributors. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce and envoy for Middle East peace Morgan Ortagus were also tied to Fox News.

Trump has demonstrated his aspiration for kingship and lack of good taste by gilding the fireplace and filling the Oval Office with gold objects. During the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in May, Trump called his attention to his additions, “You see the new and improved Oval Office. As it becomes more and more beautiful with love – you know, we handle it with great love – and 24-karat gold. That always helps, too.” Trumps also plans transforming lawns of the Rose Garden into paved patio and has commissioned a $200 million golden ballroom – at no cost to taxpayers – modelled on the French monarchical palace of Versailles. Historians complain this will dwarf the White House.

Trump has disrupted the domestic scene by reversing bans on emissions causing global warming, reinstating a national emergency on the US-Mexico border, and barring the entry of migrants into the US. He has empowered federal agents to snatch illegal and legal migrants from workplaces, homes and fields and deporting them without judicial review. He has tried and, so far, failed to end “birthright citizenship” for all children born in the US. Trump set up the Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the federal bureaucracy, often at the expense of efficiency. Since he rejected the result of the 2020 presidential election which he lost, Trump pardoned the January 2021 rioters who stormed the Capitol while Congress was confirming Joe Biden. Trump, at 78. has also suggested he could run for a third term in 2028 although he is currently the oldest incumbent, and presidents are limited to two terms under the constitution.

Results released July 30th of a poll conducted by Reuters news agency and Ipsos showed that 56 per cent of respondents disapproved of his performance and his approval rating had fallen to 40 per cent since a mid-July poll put his rating at 41 per cent. His ratings have slumped due to his immigration crack down and economic policies which have featured tariffs on essential goods, particularly medications, clothes, steel, aluminium, fruit and vegetables, risking price hikes for consumers.

Members of Trump’s Republican party have been vexed by revelations that he was close to convicted child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Controversy has grown over the potential release of transcripts of grand jury testimony in the Epstein case. According to a Wall Street Journal report Trump wrote a congratulatory letter which was included in a bound volume issued on his 50th birthday by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and partner who now serving a 20-year prison sentence. Trump responded by calling the letter a “FAKE” and said the words in the letter are “not the way I talk.”

On the international scene, Trump followed a policy adopted during his first term by ordering US withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate Accords, and the UN’s educational and scientific organisation, UNESCO,the latter in response to its admission of Palestine.

He has adopted transactional policies by imposing tariff increases which have prompted retaliatory tariffs by targeted countries, causing stock market instability and angering traditional allies. He has strengthened ties with Israel during its war on Gaza, which has been branded a “genocide” by experts and human rights organisations. As Trump has not ended the war in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis is worse than ever, negotiations are dead-locked, and the US and Israel are in lock-step. He ordered bombings of Iranian nuclear sites at the end of Israel’s war on Iran. Trump promised obut failed to end the Russia Ukraine war within 24 hours. He paused arms support to pressure Ukraine to make concessions to Russia in exchange for a deal which did not happen. He imposed sanctions on Russia which continued to fight and has threatened to sanction India for buying Russian oil. Trump has now ordered the redeployment of US nuclear submarines following tough talk from Moscow. Since it is not known if the submarines are carrying nuclear weapons, concerns have been raised over possible nuclear war.

Although he had expressed presidential ambitions as early as 1987, he registered with one party after another – Republican, Independence, Reform and Democrat – he did not settle on a vehicle for his bid until 2015 and became the Republican candidate in 2016 and won a disruptive first term.

The day after his first inauguration on January 20th, 2017, 2,6 million protested across the US, including 500,000 in Washington. During his first week in office, he signed executive orders for repealing the Affordable Care Act, which provided health care the elderly and poorer people and for building a wall on the southern border with Mexico. He rolled back environmental protection legislation and regulations. He did not follow tradition by divesting himself of potentially conflicting interests by putting his businesses in a blind trust and continued to profit from them. When he entered office, the US economy was enjoying its greatest ever expansion which ended in 2020 with the covid crisis. While he pledged to cut the national debt, it increased by 39 per cent. When he left office, he appropriated hundreds of top secret and confidential documents which he stored insecurely in his Washington office and home in Florida. He was impeached for wrongdoing twice by the House of Representatives, but the Senate saved him on both occasions.

At the end of May, his niece Mary Trump told the Hay book festival in Wales that Donald Trump “is the only person I’ve ever met who’s never evolved, which is dangerous.” She added, “Never choose as your leader somebody who’s incapable of evolving. That should be one of the lessons we’ve learned, for sure.” She has said repeatedly that he is “unfit for office.”

Photo: TNS