If Trump is guided by the law of the strongest, he will head in the wrong way — and he will pay for it. The rule of law has made America great. Liberal democracy must prevail.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president in a historic ceremony inside the U.S. Capitol. The first thing to consider is that the 47th president is different from the 45th, the man who defeated Hillary Clinton. There is greater maturity, as well as traces of some turbulent years in and outside of politics — courtrooms included — in a risky transition. However, it remains to be seen whether that experience will lead to pragmatism or to inept disruption.
The second thing to consider is that Trump is returning to the White House with more power than ever. That level of power will test the will and capability of the floundering opposition and, if it comes to that, the strength of the checks and balances of the great North American nation.
Trump’s majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, along with the current composition of the Supreme Court, presage a favorable wind at his back. This is in very good measure the fruit of a landslide victory,* that is to say with the endorsement and blessing of the U.S. electorate, which punished Joe Biden’s futile and empty presidency. Trump is arriving in the Capitol on the backs of that band of wealthy Silicon Valley partisans who have given him their support and their millions. The hyper-rich entrepreneur Elon Musk is leading the group, convinced that the country and the world need to be turned inside out like a sock, and that the president-elect is the man with the necessary faith and courage to get it done.
In an almost apocalyptic tone, they are proclaiming a new world order in which geopolitics will mutate toward a tumultuous and uncertain situation shaped by powers that win, no matter what the cost. Those 100 or so executive orders with which Trump has marked the end of the Biden era, and that shine a light on the new era for the U.S., will confirm where he is inclined to go. His rhetoric prior to getting into the Oval Office took an almost imperialistic and coercive tone, with reference to the use of force and to the breakdown of the respect for sovereignty. Denmark, Canada, Panama and Mexico have been objects of that hostile rhetoric; we shall see what the actual outcome will be.
Ratcheting up worldwide tension to get ahead is one thing; declaring war is ridiculous, for no one remains unscathed in a conflagration. In Trump’s second time around, undocumented immigrants and the southern border, commercial momentum, the tariff battle and woke progressivism are primary objectives supported by voters. And there is also “America First”: a great America imposing its will on the world, especially in the Middle East and Ukraine, and always facing off against China in its role as nemesis.
Trump has done his homework and consequently will now act according to his interests. Not the interests of Europe, which is comfortable in its condition as a posturing, supporting actor. It seems impossible for Brussels to be able to defend itself. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón exudes irrelevance and should at least try not to lie, although he will do so anyway.
If Trump is guided by the law of the strongest, he will head in the wrong direction — and he will pay for it. The rule of law has made America great. Liberal democracy must prevail.
*Editor’s note: Trump’s margin of victory in the national popular vote — 1.5 percentage points — is the smallest of any president who secured a popular vote win since Richard M. Nixon in 1968.
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