Politics is the art of possibility. Donald Trump’s return to the White House after losing the 2020 elections reflects how resilient and single-minded he is in seeking power by all means. By securing 312 votes out of 338 electoral votes against his rival Kamala Harris’s 224 votes, Trump is all set for another term in the White House. Armed with a clear majority in the Senate and House of Representatives, President-elect Trump is now ready to implement his age-old agenda, which ruptured because of his defeat in the 2020 elections.
Donald J. Trump, in his late seventies, did not have an energy deficit, which was reflected in his victory speech. Deviating from his traditional rhetoric and loose talk for which he is well known, Trump spoke responsibly and maturely, calling for unleashing a ‘healing process’ in American society. How far will the second stint of Donald Trump in the White House be different from his first one, and how far will the implications of his landslide victory against all odds cause policy change in critical regions of the world, including South Asia? Since it is his last stint in power, he must differentiate between Trump and ‘Trumpism.’ His victory speech reflected Trump as an American and not the ideology of ‘Trumpism,’ which is known for its exclusive mode of governance: anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-non-whites, pro-Russia, anti-China, and hostile to NATO.
Without going into the debate about how Trump won despite being impeached twice by the House of Representatives and scores of cases piled up against him and how Kamala lost despite the avowed support of female and minority voters, it is time to analyze how Donald Trump’s recapturing the White House will have global and regional implications. If Trump behaved in the same manner that he had done during his first term, his party would suffer in the midterm elections of 2026 because swing or battleground states that pushed him to the road to the presidency again may change and cost the Republican Party a majority in the U.S. Congress. Indeed, during the 2028 elections, Trump will not be a candidate, and his party will deal with a Democratic Party candidate who will be strong and not carry the baggage of the faulty policies of President Joe Biden. Two and four years will pass quickly, and if Trump’s performance is similar or worse during his first term, his party will lose the 2026 mid-term and 2026 presidential elections.
It would be unwise to predict things still in the offing because of the transitory period of power transfer in the United States. However, how Trump is asserting his position and wants to get things done impatiently reflects that he is conscious of the marginal time that he has at his disposal to implement his policies, ranging from the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, controlling inflation, securing American jobs and more than above his rhetorical slogan of “Making America Great Again.” Knowing that he will invite severe backlash from the communities that he wants to target, one can expect another phase of racial and ethnic polarization in America.
The implications of Donald Trump’s second coming to the White House can be analyzed from three significant standpoints. First, the Trump administration will officially proclaim the glory of ‘White America.’ When the majority of white Americans voted for the Republican Party, the racial divide in the U.S. was visible. Although American Muslims, because of Biden’s overt support of Israeli brutalities in Gaza, were offended by the Democratic Party, it doesn’t mean that Trump will take an anti-Netanyahu stance.
Who can forget Trump’s avowed support for Israel when he approved the U.S. policy of accepting East Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel along with the Golan Heights, occupied from Syria during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war as part of Israel? Trump also endorsed illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions. It would be wishful thinking on the part of Arab Americans to expect a neutral stance of the Trump administration vis-à-vis Israel. Arab-Americans and American Muslims traditionally supported the Democratic Party but, during the 2024 elections, released their anger by not voting for Kamala Harris, which cost her the swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The writer is Meritorious Professor of International Relations and former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi. He can be reached at moonis.ahmar59@gmail.com
There shouldn’t be any misconception regards to DT’s change in Character concerned to Israel and Middle East. He will follow the Direction of Neocons in South,
South East, Central Asia and rest.
Pakistan needs a very strong Diplomatic team across missions in USA.