We are now in the second year of the presidency of Donald Trump, and if the past year has been a portent of what to expect, we are certainly in for a rollercoaster ride. He was a man who said he would bring change and transform Washington as never before, and certainly President Trump has been true to his word in his single-handed drive to make America great.
From his time on the campaign trail, the president said that the deal reached by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, with Germany and the European Union with the regime in Tehran to curtail its nuclear programme was “the worst deal ever”. He is now intent on holding Iran to account, trying to curtail its unbridled interference from the Arabian to the Mediterranean Seas. For that, he must garner our support, and our backing too for being steadfast in his commitment to fight terror where ever it may occur. He has shown too that he is a man of action, prepared to launch a missile strike against the regime of President Bashar Al Assad of Syria for its use of chemical weapons and other atrocities.
Elsewhere on the international stage, President Trump has sent a series of confusing and contradictory messages, policies that are seemingly at odds with traditional allies of the United States. He has withdrawn his nation from the Trans Pacific trade deal, and also withdrawn Washington’s support for the Paris climate accord — a move at odds with all of the other nations on Earth.
The past year has shown him to be a man who doesn’t mince his words, and his verbal confrontations fiery rhetoric with the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un has seemingly brought us nearer to military conflict there that at any other time since the start of the Cold War. On Twitter too the president has been more than willing to unleash onslaughts and behave in a manner that reduces US diplomacy to 250 characters and as the mood or cable news takes him.
He remains under the cloud of investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller over Russia’s role — if any — into his election. His biggest misstep has been the recognition of occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a grievous insult to all Palestinians.
There is a certain irony in that now, as his second year begins, the US federal government is in fiscal lockdown, with all parties unable to move forward, speaking volumes to his polarising effect.
