At 70, the oldest US president is shaking up laidback Washington like a whirlwind
President Trump is showing why he is the most dangerous occupant of the White House to his enemies and hostile viewpoints: the man means what he says and says what he means. An unlikely trait for a politician, the fickle fraternity whose spoken word is often used to conceal thought. But Trump never boasted of a political background, and the usual grind of slowly moving up the American political ladder, from mayor, congressman or senator, a stint in an official government job and only then eyeing the forbidding Presidential heights, was not for him. He considered this outsider status his forte, as it had kept him out of the military-industrial loop and freed him of bureaucratic constraints. On being elected, fast tracking, or rather, ramrodding his promises into action has become his watchword.
His first week in the White House witnessed a flurry of activity, not to say controversy, over promises made on the campaign trail. Satisfied that both Houses enjoy Republican majorities, he swiftly named his top cabinet nominees and saw them cleared by the relevant Congressional committees. His pet hate, the Environment Protection Agency, has been hamstrung by a media blackout, and a blitz of executive orders and memorandums have emanated from his person. And much more is on the cards this Tuesday, as he himself tweeted: ‘Big day planned on National Security’. Speculation on issues likely to be on the anvil include the Mexican Wall, temporary refugees’ ban, restrictions on immigrants mainly from Muslim-majority countries and possible revamp of the H-IB temporary visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
Trump’s fifth phone call as President was to Narendra Modi, also invited to the US as ‘a true friend and partner’, with whom he had ‘a great conversation’ on economic and defense ties and South Asian security. This alacrity, his vow to eradicate evil radical Islamic terrorism by uniting the civilised world, and also his strange claim about full American force not being used in Afghanistan, should create ripples in our establishment.