Trump’s first week

Ominous signs

Time has come, finally, for some of Donald Trump’s personal xenophobic tendencies to become official US policy. It didn’t take long for the wall to come up, as promised. And the move has already soured relations with Mexico. Nafta could well come under the axe next, with the Mexicans now threatening to pull out altogether if Trump’s final proposals are too unconventional. The Mexican currency, the peso, is in deep crisis. And Trump now plans to dump millions of people back into the country just as the economy is tearing at the seams. No doubt, in addition to the economic fallout these events will also have a very visible social spillover.

Also, denial of visas to citizens from seven Muslim countries is apparently under serious consideration. These include Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, where direct or indirect US intervention has triggered hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions to be dislocated altogether. There is, of course, a lot more controversy in store for the Middle East, especially since plans to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem gather momentum. After a series of US and UN snubs, these developments will definitely bring much joy to Israel.

Islamabad will also come under the microscope sooner or later. If recent hints by the Republican Congress are anything to go by, there will be considerable tightening of the screws at least as far as cooperation in winding up the war against terrorism is concerned. From the looks of things, Pakistan’s policy of ambiguity regarding some of the players in the Afghan endgame – which lasted the Bush and Obama years – will have to finally come to an end. Pakistan will need to be on the right side of the US, not just because it is regionally isolated but also because the economy is beginning to come under pressure owing to rising oil and a discomforting deficit. And if Trump’s first week is anything to go by, Washington will need very quantifiable answers to be satisfied.