By Daniel Rahman
From racial bigotry to rising tensions in the Korean peninsula, Trump has validated the cries of concern many of us had before his election. However, even the most concerned political figures could not have expected the clueless acts that have plagued Trump’s administration from day 1.
Some of his failures were predictable; many of his supporters embraced the fact that he had no political experience due to a lack of trust in the political system. However, this brought massive uncertainty into The White House. He nominated a climate change denier to be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), just to round out the list of incompetent people who now run The White House. He struggled to implement many of his radical proposals such as ‘The Wall’ and ‘The Muslim Ban’. He caught headlines by dropping the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan as well as bombarding Syria with 57 tomahawk missiles in April. All of this was expected. Some of his supporters were shocked at his military intervention, but it was foolish to believe he wouldn’t use America’s army, especially if we consider his record low approval ratings and the boost that military intervention always provides. These kind of actions were foreseeable before the election and we should not be surprised at these shortcomings.
Nevertheless, we should be surprised at the bigotry, hatred and violence that Trump has skirted around for the past year. One defining and divisive policy was delivered to the public via Trump’s twitter - like many of his spontaneous thoughts. The suggested ban on transgender people in the military was justified due to the “tremendous medical costs” as the military pays for the health care insurance of its soldiers and employees. Given that the US military spends 10 times more on treating erectile dysfunction than on medical care for transgender employees, the public quickly realised this policy was only suggested to breed bigotry and to please his transphobic supporters. Although this policy was later blocked by a US judge, it still had devastating consequences including rising violent crimes against LGBTQ+ minorities. We hoped that this kind of hatred was only a tool used by Donald Trump to get himself into the office, but unfortunately it has became a key contributor to his presidency.
Trump’s unique ability to make an international issue out of nothing was once again on show following the terrorism in Charlottesville. These Neo-Nazi extremists may have been emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric, but to avoid further division it was obvious Trump should have immediately condemned the terrorist and his companions. Rather disastrously, Trump failed to do in his initial press conference and in his next unscripted conference claimed there were “very fine people” marching with the Neo-Nazis. Instead of being outraged, I and many others felt simply hurt that the president couldn’t unequivocally condemn anyone who associated with KKK leaders and activists. This disgrace has permanently tainted the president and will be remembered as a dark day in American history, where racism and Nazism prevailed over tolerance and peace.
These issues have been forged out of nothing by Trump himself and have left him indefensible. Yet, perhaps this is really a tactical manoeuvre; the president knowingly tweets obscene nonsense and creates a media frenzy to distract us from the real issues like his intended repeal of Obamacare, which has so far been a complete failure. Whether this is true or not, it has still brought down the popularity of the president and exposed his poor decision making. Ultimately it is this puerile nature that has tormented the president ever since his first speech. His careless tweets and haphazard press conferences have diminished the international respect for the office, leaving us all without the moral leader that we so desperately need at this volatile time.
I hope he rises to the challenges that we face and addresses issues rather than driving the divide deeper in American society. If he doesn’t, we have 3 more years to endure and I question whether the fragility of US culture can take it.
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