I was following the first speech of US president Donald Trump and I noticed he is quite different from all his predecessors. He has special charisma, he is a populist. You hate him but cannot deny his remarkable ability to stir up controversy and influence the public.
I have often stopped at specific points of his first speech. In this speech, he pledged that he will change the way the United States deals with the rest of the world. He promised that the US will become more isolationists, and would raise fears of all the international forces. But what makes me reassured is that the military or the security discourse is absent and is less strong than the business one. Trump is very busy with trade, protectionism, companies, products and jobs, and he uses this vocabulary frequently in his speeches and statements to address the American people. He is a president businessman looking for the interests of his country, not paying attention to the others. He thinks about managing a huge country like the United States while considering his massive companies, and seems confident that the logic is one in both cases, and this is what the days will prove. He does not think about American values and model, nor is he busy with ideas like McDonanlization or Cocacolonization or modelization that reflect the American soft power that took long decades of theorizing and strategic thinking as a pillar of the US hegemony on the world order. He did not think of this order at all, as if the United States had suddenly stopped to think about staying at the top.
This is what makes me say to those who ask me about the future: wait a little until the man has finished reading American intelligence services reports to see how to act and what to say at the time. Will all those institutions accept Trump’s isolationist sudden policy and leave the world scene for China, Russia and possibly regional powers?
The problem is that Trump thinks about reconsidering the global system and the rules of international relations as a whole. He has called on revisiting the alliances that have strengthened the international security system since World War II, which means targeting institutions such as the United Nations and the Security Council., which he announced in his speech: ‘We will determine the future of America and the world for many years. We will face challenges. We will face difficulties. But we will complete this mission.” The president has a Chavez and Gaddafi style with US Democratic values. He does not talk about the transfer of power from one administration to another, but from the government to the American people. He is a new style of American presidents, but we have to admit this touches the emotions of a large segment of the American people, who want change, and are despaired of the traditional discourse and who suffered fear since the attacks of September 2001. The new president succeeded in playing on their fears and feelings and lack of internal security in many cities and areas because of threats of terrorism and crimes arising from the freedom to bear arms.
Trump thinks of American influence in a different way. Instead of the traditional idea on the marketing model and the imposition of standards and values of America as a means to control and dominate, he wants to build a model for others. It is about not imposing the US style on others, which is at the heart of American strategy, and questions the ability of the new president to achieve his promise.
The strong presence of religion in his first speech reminds me of George W. Bush. Trump sends a strong message that God is the strongest protector of the United States, and when he cited the Bible and tried to deny the charge of racism, he struggled to speak a language different from his campaign to reassure African Americans.
Acts of violence accompanied the inauguration of Trump and demonstrations within the United States and abroad, even in Nigeria which I do not know exactly why. They are mostly normal feedback of the concerns that have been raised about his orientations, policies and views over the past months. It is hard to predict whether these events tend towards reclusion or will worsen over the next few days, and it is not about the demonstrations. The real bet is that there are no acts of racist violence.
The opposition of a slice of the American people to Trump does not mean that we are in the face of a racist president. Whatever his personal convictions and orientations, he remains committed to the US Constitution, which was founded based on the sensitivities of a long history of suffering caused by racial discrimination, and thus will not deviate from these principles. It is hard to describe him based on his statements during the campaign. He is now President of the United States and the count starts now.
Arabs have challenges and crises that are more important than addressing the ideas of Trump. These ideas belong to the American people basically as long as they have no impact on our people. He did not attack the Arabs because they are Arabs, but because he sees that they do not bear the cost of defense for their own security, throwing many burdens on the United States and therefore he is to defend the interests of the United States. I think we have to be rational and fair so as not to fall in battles and feed the speech that incites terrorism without knowing.
We must remember that President Trump himself has sat down to listen to the verses of the Koran at the Washington National Cathedral. This is the United States and we should not overestimate and exaggerate the orientations of the new president before his actions.
