A Year of Trump

Published in Excélsior
(Mexico) on 13 November 2017
by Victor Beltri (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Kaleb Vick. Edited by Tiana Robles.
A year of Trump. A nightmare year in which the nonsensical has happened – and escalated – as the investigations that link the American president with the Russian government continue to advance. Trump’s incomprehensible decisions, which, given their nature, fill the headlines, have occurred just at the moments when he would have preferred to deflect media attention from the investigation.

Some of the investigation will end up involving him. That is why he doesn't believe in them, and prefers to side with the Russian president instead of his own intelligence agencies. His statements last weekend show nothing but desperation. A year since the election that brought him to power, there is little to celebrate for a president whose proposed changes cannot even find consensus among his supporters; a president who has demonstrated his limited capacity as an executive and negotiator, which supposedly were his main attributes, and who has the world on the brink of environmental collapse and thermonuclear war. America is not great again.

Not great again, at all. The world has lost respect for a nation that not only seems to hate other nations, but also hates itself with a chilling bitterness that is unleashed in schools, shopping malls, concerts, churches and on its own streets. It is a bitterness that Donald Trump doesn't hesitate to celebrate with his angry decrees, his racist policies and his support of white supremacists. The world has lost respect for a nation whose president seems to bend before his greatest political and economic enemies, and who seems subservient and accommodating to Russia and China. The world has lost respect for the most powerful nation in the world and for Trump's childish responses to threats from North Korea. The mere fact that the U.S. president uses, in an official way, the terms "short and fat" to insult the leader of another nation not only poses an unnecessary risk, but also reflects an erosion of the presidency that none of his predecessors would have allowed. Trump is a man who divides, internally and externally, white and black, conservatives and liberals, deplorables versus “fake news,” Brexit and the European Union, individual treaties and regional agreements, and bad men for whom it is necessary to build a wall.

This is a year that could be the last if the investigations into the Russian hacking continue down the path they seem to be following, and if U.S. intelligence agencies take Trump’s remarks as a personal affront and respond immediately. Trump has shot himself in the foot in a completely unnecessary way, challenging the wrong enemy and undermining – even more – his credibility on the road. With the speed at which facts are being presented, it is more than likely that the situation will escalate and new events will arise in the coming days; new events that, as is also likely, Trump will try to drown with his paralyzing habit of tweets and decrees that the magician in the White House has used to keep his base at bay. There is a firm base that shares the generalized hatred that Trump doles out, and that not only blindly believes in whatever measure he approves, but is willing to applaud them the crueler they seem. Anything can happen: We live in times when a whim – and the desperation – of an old senile man can cause the same thing, the death of millions of people from nuclear war, an environmental disaster, or the massive deportation of innocent young people. All in the week that NAFTA negotiations continue.

Are we really still talking about small planes?*

*Editor’s note: This final sentence is an apparent reference to Trump’s reported comment that the airplane belonging to Kuwaiti leader Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al Jaber al-Sabah was larger than Trump’s airplane during the Kuwaiti leader’s visit to Washington in September.


Un año de Trump. Un año de pesadilla, en el que los despropósitos se han sucedido —y escalado— conforme las investigaciones que ligan al Presidente norteamericano con el gobierno ruso siguen avanzando: las decisiones incomprensibles de Trump, que por su calibre llenan los titulares, han ocurrido justo en los momentos en los que le interesaba mantener la atención mediática lejos de las investigaciones.

Unas investigaciones que terminarán tocándolo. Por eso no cree en ellas, y prefiere ponerse del lado del Presidente ruso antes que de las agencias de inteligencia de su propio país: las declaraciones del fin de semana no hacen sino reflejar su desesperación. A un año de la elección que lo llevó al poder, poco tiene que celebrar un Presidente cuyas reformas no alcanzan el consenso ni siquiera entre sus correligionarios, que ha demostrado su poca capacidad ejecutiva y de negociación —lo que supuestamente era su principal atributo— y tiene al mundo al borde del colapso ambiental y la guerra termonuclear. America is not great again.

Not great again, at all. El mundo ha perdido el respeto por una nación que no sólo parece odiar a las demás naciones, sino odiarse a sí misma con un rencor escalofriante que se desata lo mismo en escuelas que en centros comerciales, conciertos, iglesias o en las mismas calles. Un rencor que Trump no duda en exaltar con sus declaraciones exacerbadas, sus políticas racistas, su apoyo a los supremacistas blancos. El mundo ha perdido el respeto por una nación cuyo Presidente parece doblarse ante sus mayores enemigos políticos y económicos, y que se muestra servil y acomodaticio ante rusos y chinos. El mundo ha perdido el respeto por la nación más poderosa del mundo y las respuestas pueriles de Donald Trump ante las amenazas de Corea del Norte: el mero hecho de que el Presidente de Estados Unidos utilice, de manera oficial, los términos “gordo y chaparro” para insultar al mandatario de otra nación suponen no sólo un riesgo innecesario sino una erosión de la figura presidencial que ninguno de sus predecesores se hubiese permitido. Trump es un hombre que divide, en lo interno y en lo externo: blancos contra negros, conservadores contra liberales, deplorables contra fake news, Brexit contra Unión Europea, tratados individuales contra tratados regionales, bad hombres contra los que es necesario un muro.

Un año que podría ser el último que concluya si las investigaciones de la trama rusa continúan por el curso que parecen seguir, y las agencias de inteligencia norteamericana toman de manera personal una afrenta ante la que, por otra parte, respondieron de inmediato. Trump se ha dado un balazo en el pie de manera completamente innecesaria, retando al enemigo equivocado y minando —aún más— su credibilidad en el camino: a la velocidad en que se están presentando los hechos, es más que previsible que la situación se escale y surjan nuevos acontecimientos durante estos días.

Nuevos acontecimientos que, como es previsible también, tratarán de ser ahogados en el marasmo habitual de los tuits y las declaraciones con las que el prestidigitador de la Casa Blanca ha mantenido a raya a la jauría de la base dura que lo apoya. Una base dura que comparte el odio generalizado del mandatario norteamericano y que no sólo cree a ciegas en cualquier medida que lo afirme, sino que está dispuesta a aplaudirlas conforme supongan más crueldad. Cualquier cosa puede ocurrir: vivimos en tiempos en los que el capricho —y la desesperación— de un anciano senil pueden causar, lo mismo, la muerte de millones de personas por una guerra nuclear que un desastre en el medio ambiente o la deportación masiva de jóvenes inocentes. Justo en la semana en que continúan las negociaciones del Tratado de Libre Comercio.

¿En verdad vamos a seguir hablando de avionetas?
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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