MJ Akbar
IT may come as a minor surprise or indeed major relief to statusquoist readers to discover that on a bitterly cold Monday, 78-yearold Donald John Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America and not President of the Disunited States of the World.
Every so often history throws up a leader whose personality becomes policy. When such dynamism propels a superpower, exceptionalism drives national policy and disruption becomes the means; or, in a more colourful phrase already in circulation, the impossible becomes the new normal. The strong live by their own law. When a giant is enraged, it becomes strategy; a pygmy’s anger is mere petulance.
Donald Trump is happy to use his persona to advance his perception of America’s interests. The impact has been immediate, particularly among the unlikely. Among the early knee-benders is Ahmed alSharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), the current caretaker of Syria in a fragile polity. Al-Sharaa’s alumni association includes Al Qaeda and his political party Hayat Tahrir alSham might still be on some Washington terrorist list, but he is anxious for reinvention as a placebo. Having seized Damascus from proRussian Bashar al-Assad he is now “confident that Trump is the leader to bring peace to the Middle East and restore stability to the region.” We must welcome penitence, not scoff at it.
‘Drill baby drill’
American power does not need advertising. One gesture, a single domestic decision, can induce international ramifications below eye-level. Trump’s order to “drill, baby drill” will have more impact on American policy towards Russia than a dozen conferences, for any consequent energy glut will result in the fall of Russian oil prices, affecting Moscow’s financial resources needed for war and a buoyant internal economy.
Trump uses turbulence to create calm on Trump’s terms. He does not seek turmoil for bravado, since that will not help his primary goal of a better American economy. Trump is larger than life, but he is not larger than America. He is not walking away from the world or indeed the World Health Organisation (WHO); he is asking for return on investment by his metric. Change the decisionmakers of WHO and collect your cheque, which pays for 18 per cent of the organisation’s expenses. If you want the exact lines, here they are: “WHO ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore.” My way, or the cashless highway. Watch out for the big test: what happens at the World Bank, which became a Woke Bank under a Democrat acolyte.
Gilding the lily
Speechwriters like gilding the lily. Trump repeated a tired cliché in his inaugural address, which was uncharacteristic; if Trump uses a cliché, it is not tired. He said that America’s golden age had begun. But when since 1945 has America had a silver age? Even during its worst decades, during the instability after Vietnam, Henry Kissinger kept the key to the world’s battlefields in his office cupboard. The danger is obvious, for all power has a perimeter. Trump will have to hone his ability to harmonise with America’s capability.
His inclinations belong to a wellknown philosophy of governance famously articulated by the first American President of the 20th century. An intellectually elegant publication like Open does not use a certain word unless discussing cricket or football, so we shall have to censor Teddy Roosevelt’s maxim: “When you’ve got them by the… their hearts and minds will follow.” ‘Them’ is deceptive, for the term includes friends.
