- Discord within, pugnaciousness abroad
While Trump spoke of ‘one team, one people, and one American family’ in his first State of the Union Address, and sought to cast himself as the president of all, the discord within the US was reflected in female Democrats who wore black in solidarity with the #MeToo movement as they listened to a president who has been accused of sexual misconduct by about a score of women. There was protest also by African-American members of the Congress wearing kente cloth as a show of solidarity with African nations called “shithole countries” by Trump last month. The Republicans cheered the president heartily while the Congressional Democrats maintained stony silence occasionally punctured by groans and hisses. The Congress is deadlocked over immigration reform and the fate of hundreds of thousands of ‘dreamers’ whose status is in doubt after they were brought by their parents to the US as children.
Both the Congress and American society stand deeply divided under Trump. No US President has faced so many large and motivated protests in the first year of his tenure. There have been walk-outs, business closures, petitions, rallies, demonstrations and marches. Organised protests peaked shortly after the inauguration when millions protested during the Women’s March, making it the largest single-day protest in the history of the United States.
Trump warned of threat from the ‘depraved’ North Korean regime, offering little clue to his overall strategy. Referring to Iran as the ‘corrupt dictatorship’, Trump asked the Congress to address the fundamental flaws in the ‘terrible’ Iran nuclear deal. He advocated military solutions to issues that can best be resolved diplomatically. Russia and China ‘challenge our interests, our economy and our values.’ Hence there was a need to modernise and rebuild America’s nuclear arsenal. He referred to new rules of engagement in Afghanistan but remained evasive about details. He boasted of a US led coalition having defeated the IS but took no notice of the fact that the deadly network is capable of striking roots wherever the state is weak as in Afghanistan. The decision to maintain the Guantanamo Bay prison too is indicative of Trump’s pugnaciousness.
