Trump Legacy

In such politics, success can be achieved by provoking and motivating the strong and dominant class of society against the weak or deprived segments. In Pakistan, so-called nationalist leaders also try to promote such politics, but this creates bipolarism, divisions and anarchy. For instance, in the USA it was propagated that the Latin people, Black Americans and Muslims are the root cause of all problems. In the 2016 presidential elections, Trump promised his supporters that if he were elected, to save the country, he would build a wall between Mexico and USA and bar Muslims from entering the USA.

To defeat his opponents,
Trump crossed all limits.

Trump’s relations were quite sarcastic with world leaders, like Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, Jacinda Arden, Prime Minister of New Zealand and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, because they believe in true democratic values. According to surveys, in Germany people trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping more as compared to Donald Trump.

To defeat his opponents, Trump crossed all limits. He never hesitated to use dehumanizing metaphors for the group of people who he didn’t like. He denoted the people who were trying to enter the USA from the Mexican border as ‘animals’, without realising that dehumanization breeds discrimination, violence, subjugation and genocide. He launched a smear campaign against Barack Obama that he was not a US citizen, tried to make Hilary Clinton’s role suspicious as a Secretary of State because she had a Pakistani origin staffer, Huma Abedin. Without any significant proof, he declared Joe Biden a corrupt person. He also mocked international leaders by naming and shaming them. For instance, he named North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un as a ‘Rocket Man’ and called Covid-19 as a China virus, which was an utter violation of diplomatic norms and values.

During his tenure the canons of Trump and his supporters were always aimed at the four progressive democratic congresswomen - Ocasio Cortez (Puerto Rican descent), Ayanna Pressley (African-American), Rashida Talib (Palestinian-American) and Ilhan Omar (Somali-American legislator). These congresswomen were also made famous as ‘the squad’. Trump’s rhetoric prompted a chant against these women to send them back where they came from. Specially, Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim American-Somalian background congresswoman from Minnesota. Trump and his supporters crossed all the ethical boundaries and accused Ms Omar of marrying her own brother.

Traditionally, after the election the presidential candidates accept their defeat openly and congratulate the wining candidate, but despite the fact that Trump was losing he was kept emphasising on voter fraud, rigged election. Doing so, he refused to concede Biden’s victory and tried all tactics to made the elections controversial, which is not a common practice in USA or in western style of democracy. According to an analyst, on Trump’s defeat, China wouldn’t be happy rather disappointed that Trump couldn’t destroy the US for four more years.

Under Biden administration, a drastic shift of USA policies towards China and South Asia may not be predicted, but it’s a positive sign for Pakistan that on his election website Biden expressed his concern over the violation of basic human right in occupied Kashmir and he also criticised Modi government’s controversial laws like NRC and CAA which are considered against Muslims. The newly-elected Vice President Kamala Harris is also a firm critic of Hindu extremist organisations.

Because of strong democratic values, sensible people of USA managed to oust Trump from the White House, but in India, BJP style of politics is still quite popular, however, if Pakistan managed to draw Biden Administration’s attention towards gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and the precarious condition of Muslims in rest of India, a positive progress can be made to resolve the Kashmir dispute.