On the grim reality of another four years of #ohFFSwhatshedonenow

We're only days into Trump 2.0 and already I'm opening the news sites in the morning with a sense of foreboding. A grim but eerily familiar foreboding that requires looking at the headlines through one's fingers while muttering, "oh for fuck's sake what's he done now"? Or, as it will be referred to in this blog for the next four years, #ohFFSwhatshedonenow.

That more than 50% of the US voting public opted for a convicted felon as their Head of State and Commander in Chief points to a lot of complex problems within American society and politics that will, no doubt, be the subject of many analyses over the course of the coming years.

Cartoon credit: Deccan Herald
Trump is basically your standard megalomaniacal bully with a god complex. He is a cult leader who has set himself up as a messiah. What is different, and more worrisome, about his second term, however, is that now he's hellbent on revenge, and like any vengeful god, he wants his enemies gone. Those who accused him of various crimes (34 of which accusations resulted in successful convictions), those who opposed him during his election campaign, those who spoke out against him.

Former President Biden's 'pre-emptive' pardons during his final days in the White House for a number of people who spoke out against Trump during the election campaign indicates a genuine fear that they will incur retribution under the Trump administration.

The US media companies have buckled, cowed by his threats, and are now about as independent as Pravda was during the Soviet era.

The grandiose claims of renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, taking over the Panama Canal, buying Greenland and annexing Canada have all the hallmarks of the sort of imperial expansion that led to the collapse of the Roman empire, and I'm sure Trump's claims that "most Canadians" think they'd be better off under America came as news to most Canadians.

His immediate imposition of 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are economically unsound. Former Australian federal Treasurer and Ambassador to the US during Trump 1.0, Joe Hockey, believes that the President has a basic misunderstanding of how tariffs work, which will lead to increased prices and potential loss of jobs in the US, rather than, as Trump has stated, the opposite. 

Cartoon credit: Chappatte Globe Cartoon
One of his first edicts upon returning to the Oval Office was to act to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This removes one of the world's biggest climate criminals from any multilateral action to secure a reduction in emissions, while at the same time giving unfettered power to American fossil fuel companies to continue extracting oil and coal, or, as Trump put it: "drill, baby, drill."

Australian PM Anthony Albanese has stressed that the Australian government's climate action (such as it is) will continue but warns that Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement could have grave global impact. Something of a vast understatement.

There is also the question of Trump's age and health. He is 78 and, according to many analysts, is showing signs of cognitive decline. He is also, it has to be observed, one cheeseburger away from a heart attack. If he doesn't make it to the end of his four year term, the US gets Vice-President JD Vance (does this guy actually have a first name or was he just named JD because his parents couldn't think of anything else?) as their Hillbilly Prez until the 2028 election, at which point, he could, and most likely would, stand for election in his own right. Vance is no cult leader. What happens to a cult when the leader dies or otherwise disappears? In recent history cult leaders take their supporters with them when they believe they've lost power (Branch Davidian 1993; Jonestown Massacre 1978), but what if a cult leader dies or is otherwise unable to continue wielding power and there's no obvious successor with the charisma to galvanise the support needed for the cult to continue? I don't have a ready example to cite on that one - let me know if you do.

So, we've got four years of opening the news sites in the morning and muttering #ohFFSwhatshedonenow. Four years of wondering if he'll hit the wrong red button and spark a nuclear holocaust when all he wanted to do was order a Big Mac, Coke and fries. Four years of hoping there's no resurgent pandemic (bleach drinking, anyone?). Four years of unbridled racism, sexism, book-banning and macho global swaggering. The Democrat states will scramble to enact legislation to override, where possible, federal impositions. Four years of watching the United States become the Dys-United States.




 



 


 


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