Trump, United States ‘Strongman’
Published in El Heraldo de México
(Mexico) on 23rd January 2025
by José Carreño Figueras (link to original)
(Mexico) on 23rd January 2025
by José Carreño Figueras (link to original)
Translated from
by Stephen Routledge.
Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Truly, regardless of what you think of him, Trump now dominates American politics, and he does so totally. Is it for better or worse
Donald Trump is occupying the U.S. presidency for the second time and proving to be as divisive and confrontational as he was during his first administration.
Truly, regardless of what you think of him, Trump now dominates American politics, and he does so completely. For better or worse, he is the point of reference and the center of balance.
But he is also someone who ignores limits and does not appear to follow rules. For starters, he launched a cryptocurrency called TRUMP as president-elect before taking office, which renewed doubts about his ethics and provoked charges of corruption.
But that doesn’t bother his supporters, for whom Trump’s inauguration speech last Monday, Jan. 20, was everything they wanted to hear: federal government reform, the notion that the country can do whatever it wants to defend its interests and resurrect the Monroe Doctrine, among other things. In other words, he was triumphal and still convinced that his belief in God saved his life from an attempted assassin and thus made him America’s savior.
To his adversaries, he was everything they feared and more. Messianic, vindictive and self-centered.
His first moves included closing all offices charged with overseeing the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” programs that ensured minority participation in government agencies, racial, religious, sexual, in government agencies; and pardoning people convicted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that killed five people, including a police officer, and injured hundreds more, among them 170 agents guarding the U.S. Capitol.
Yet despite what he claimed and promised, Trump began to run up against reality: the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and the Gaza conflict seems to be as intense as before the cease-fire. And incidentally, while Panama asserts it will resist “returning” the canal to the U.S., people are warning Trump against retaking the canal unless he wants to end up in the kind of armed conflicts he has promised to avoid.
Arguably, Trump has not quite made the transition from election campaign to running a government and seems determined to keep mollifying his supporters with slogans they like to hear instead of offering any persuasive new themes.
As observers at the Brookings Institution have written, “If [Trump] governs as a hardliner on immigration and cultural issues, he may solidify his loyal base, but if he fails to take down high prices or restore economic hopes of upward mobility, he risks losing swing voters while reenergizing his disheartened opponents.” At the same time, there doesn't seem to be anyone else like him in the U.S.
Donald Trump is occupying the U.S. presidency for the second time and proving to be as divisive and confrontational as he was during his first administration.
Truly, regardless of what you think of him, Trump now dominates American politics, and he does so completely. For better or worse, he is the point of reference and the center of balance.
But he is also someone who ignores limits and does not appear to follow rules. For starters, he launched a cryptocurrency called TRUMP as president-elect before taking office, which renewed doubts about his ethics and provoked charges of corruption.
But that doesn’t bother his supporters, for whom Trump’s inauguration speech last Monday, Jan. 20, was everything they wanted to hear: federal government reform, the notion that the country can do whatever it wants to defend its interests and resurrect the Monroe Doctrine, among other things. In other words, he was triumphal and still convinced that his belief in God saved his life from an attempted assassin and thus made him America’s savior.
To his adversaries, he was everything they feared and more. Messianic, vindictive and self-centered.
His first moves included closing all offices charged with overseeing the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” programs that ensured minority participation in government agencies, racial, religious, sexual, in government agencies; and pardoning people convicted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that killed five people, including a police officer, and injured hundreds more, among them 170 agents guarding the U.S. Capitol.
Yet despite what he claimed and promised, Trump began to run up against reality: the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and the Gaza conflict seems to be as intense as before the cease-fire. And incidentally, while Panama asserts it will resist “returning” the canal to the U.S., people are warning Trump against retaking the canal unless he wants to end up in the kind of armed conflicts he has promised to avoid.
Arguably, Trump has not quite made the transition from election campaign to running a government and seems determined to keep mollifying his supporters with slogans they like to hear instead of offering any persuasive new themes.
As observers at the Brookings Institution have written, “If [Trump] governs as a hardliner on immigration and cultural issues, he may solidify his loyal base, but if he fails to take down high prices or restore economic hopes of upward mobility, he risks losing swing voters while reenergizing his disheartened opponents.” At the same time, there doesn't seem to be anyone else like him in the U.S.
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