Trump’s win and the forebodings

The massive border wall that separates the US and Mexico was inaugurated yesterday exactly as Trump had promised during his election campaign.

The Mexican government has fully paid for the construction of the wall, according to a Mexican source. On the other hand, a US court has sentenced Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to five years in prison after Trump appointed a special prosecutor to carry out the investigation into her emails and the Clinton Foundation.

What’s more, informed sources at the US immigration department said that the number of Muslims visiting America fell drastically after restrictions issued by Trump to block the flow of Muslims and immigrants into the US.

Let us imagine that these will be the headlines of newspapers two or three years after Trump takes office. Of course, it will not be the end of the world. German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel did not mean literally the headline it put under the picture of Trump for its cover story, as it blasted his election, when it said the “End of the world”.

Nevertheless, it will definitely mark the beginning of a new era that exposes western democracy before anything else. What is the future of a democracy, whose results have shocked everyone, including the president–elect himself?

Today, an elected president will serve a four year term after beating the first woman to run for president in free and fair elections in the US. In these elections, women have let down Clinton and elected Trump, who is accused of sexually harassing 11 women of various ages.

Although, we, in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, wish the American people all the best as they are a historical friend and ally, those who follow the course of events, whether Americans or expatriates living in the US or others in the outside world, believe that America and its fate is heading for the unknown.

Anyone, who watched Trump on reality TV and listened to his arguments, can certainly understand his weak political background and that he is very new to politics. All his statements and the three debates with Clinton provided concrete proof that he had no clue about politics.

Prior to the election results, all opinion polls proved Clinton’s dominant lead over Trump due to her commitment to protecting America’s values and the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty — which stands for freedom, And he wants to build a wall.

That wall has its own significance as most American voters defended its idea, signifying the growing influence of the radical right-wing parties in the US and many western countries. The idea of building the barrier between the US and Mexico does not mean banning Mexicans, immigrants and criminals from entering the US and realising the American dream as much as it means isolation and not accepting the other. Immigrants and their children were shocked at Trump’s election, fearing for their future.

The president-elect spoke about ‘immediate’ measures he would take should he win during his election campaign. He also put his election promises top on the list of his priorities during his first 100 days in office.

After the election results, Trump’s language has changed and he has started to retract from what he had promised. Some of his advisers said the construction of the border wall needs time, while some others said it is just a virtual wall, not a real one. They said that Trump only meant to ban violators, criminals and drug-traffickers from entering the US.

His advisers make a considerable effort to beautify what he already said. However, they forget that the ‘non-politicised’ president did not take into account the fact that he cannot go back on his inflammatory statements once he becomes president. On the contrary, Trump had already made it clear that his proposed wall would be a physical one, not virtual as his advisers claimed.

Trump’s advisers also said that he did not actually mean Muslims in general, but terrorists only. The question that arises here is why did he keep on repeating the word “Muslims” during his election campaign? Didn’t his advisers’ rhetoric target only Muslims and associate them with terrorism?

At the domestic level, Trump has started to change his election statements. He had said earlier that Obamacare, launched by President Barack Obama, was a disaster and he would repeal it if he became president. After November 8, he said some of the programme’s items are wonderful, while some others need to be amended.

In the meantime, the president-elect has failed to understand the significance of demonstrations that swept across 25 American cities, protesting his election. He dealt with these protests as a split-personality — not as a single entity. Trump first said the protests were unfair and incited by the media. The very next day, he said Americans have the right to express their loyalty to their country the way they want to.

Trump kept on repeating the slogan “Make America great again” as if it was once great and then not great and he has helped make it great again. He also vowed to eliminate Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), scrap the nuclear deal with Iran and agreements on the liberalisation of international trade initiated by Obama. In short, he will ‘personally’ fix the world.

The election of such a non-political person, in his 70s, has sparked fear worldwide.

Like other US presidential candidates before him, he promised to transfer the US Embassy to occupied Jerusalem and vowed to treat the GCC countries on strict terms, because, “They have nothing except money.” He’s yet to change his rhetoric on both issues.

In the months prior to November 8, observers kept on asking Trump if he would accept the election results no matter what. But he never gave a clear answer. One wonders what would have happened had he not won? Trump isn’t impressed by anything except a Trump democracy.

Habib Al Sayegh is secretary-general of the Arab Writers Union.