Trump has tried many things the world thinks absurd, like the imposition of tariffs. So, with Trump everything is possible
By Mihir Bose
One of the basic ideas that united the Americans who won independence from Britain was that it would not be a monarchy like Britain. It would be ruled by a President elected by the people although this did not mean the vote extended to all the people. The American Founding Fathers, meeting in Philadelphia between 1787 and 1788, did speak of all men being free, but meant all white men; women, blacks and Indians were not included. When freedom came, only five of the 13 colonies had abolished slavery. On the insistence of Southern states, the American Constitution was silent on slavery. The problem of what to do with these blacks led to what is called the three-fifths rule, where blacks were considered three-fifths of a white man, and it was not until 1965, nearly two hundred years after the founding of the republic, that the Civil Rights Act allowed blacks in the south to vote.
Nevertheless, to have an elected head of government was a revolutionary idea which in the centuries that have followed since have been copied by nearly all countries winning freedom, either a directly elected President, or a parliamentary system, voted for by the people of that country, as India chose to do. Jawaharlal Nehru rejected Winston Churchill’s advice to have a monarchy and Clement Atlee’s argument that Indian history indicated Indians would only be happy with a monarch.
Trump is now challenging the unique system that America’s Founding Fathers established. There are several indications of this. Those who work for him, while they address him as President, do so in a tone as if they were addressing a monarch. And he himself when he speaks talks of his administration as a unique one, nothing to do with previous, even Republican, ones, the like of which America has never seen. This is the language a monarch uses not an elected President.
This became very evident when he made his now infamous speech in the White House Rose Garden announcing the imposition of tariffs on the nations of the world. The speech has been analysed, particularly how he came across the figures in the chart he held up, showing the tariffs other countries were imposing on America. The media attention has also focussed on the effect all this will have on world trade. The analysis shows that not for the first time many of Trump’s figures are made up and his claim this will improve world trade and bring prosperity, as seen from the reactions of the markets round the world, is already proving to be absurd.
However, there is one aspect of his speech that has not been analysed, and this gives the true intention of what Trump is up to. Now you would expect in a speech which spelt out the way foreign countries have for years fleeced America and made it poor for Trump to be very critical of the leaders of these countries. Not in the least.
China , according to Trump, is one of the worst culprits when it comes to how it has taken advantage of America by imposing high tariffs. But did he criticise Chinese leadership? No. In fact he praised China’s leader. Japan also, he said, had taken advantage of America. But he did not criticise Japanese leaders, in fact, he regretted that the man he had dealt with had been assassinated. Vietnam claimed Trump, imposes the highest tariffs on America but there was understanding of what Vietnam had done not denunciation. India also was signalled out for its high tariffs on American goods but Narendra Modi, said Trump, is a good friend.
This is not how a politician who is critical of foreign countries behaves. Their leadership is held to account for the bad behaviour of their countries. So, who did Trump hold responsible for America suffering from such high tariffs and becoming poor? The answer was previous Presidents.
Now you would expect a Democratic President to be critical of a Republican predecessor and a Republican one to be critical of a Democratic one. But in the case of Trump, he was critical of all Presidents since the end of the Second World War. In the eighty years since then America has had fourteen Presidents, seven of them Republican, holding power for 36 years. Trump in his speech did not spare these Republicans blaming them for America’s plight.
What this means is that Trump is unique and that he sees himself as a monarch for that is how monarchs portray themselves. Born to rule and in a way nobody else had. For good measure in his speech, he also mentioned Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who many consider the greatest ever American President. The reference was curious. He did not criticise Roosevelt but drew attention to the ramp he had built because due to polio he needed a wheelchair. This reference to Roosevelt only makes sense because he was the only President to serve four terms, and it was after this that the Americans amended their constitution and the two-term limit came in.
Trump hates that two-term limit and would like a third term, more so as he believes Joe Biden defeated him when Trump was seeking re-election by fraud. This is a topic he refers to often. A third term would make up for that defeat. And although he has not yet been in office for a hundred days in his second term, already some of his close advisers have been talking of how he might find a way to get round the American constitution.
Whether he will succeed or not depends to be seen. But Trump the monarch is keen to be crowned and after that he might want to pass on the crown to one of his sons and make it a family affair. This may seem absurd but then Trump has tried many things the world thinks absurd, like the imposition of tariffs. So, with Trump everything is possible.
Mihir Bose is the author of Thak You Mr Crombie Lessons in Guilt and Gratitude to the British.
