Is Donald Trump the near Devil as portrayed by much of the US main media and establishment and a disaster for the world? Or is he somewhere between being a positive disruptor to a corrupt globalist liberal elite, led by George Soros and the likes, on one hand and on the other hand, being a spoiled, over-aged billionaire brat, overly challenging and testing Washington authority even in criminal ways? And how might a Trump back in the White House fair India?
Trump is a US former president, who was legitimately elected who definitely has his achievements and serious following. Even some main polls indicate he could beat current US head, Joe Biden in the next presidential election coming in 2024. With this in mind, combined with some of his remarkable achievements in energy, the economy and foreign policy and past strong ties with India’s leadership, what might be importantly asked as Trump is swamped by western media and inside Washington happy to stack the deck to see that he never gets back into the White House? So, will the influential US press, even globally, along with the judiciary in America see him put into prison from keeping top secret documents at his residence, to electoral interference to inciting riots on Capitol hill? And thereby better ensure four more years of Biden as the “leader” of the world. Is this so great for India?
After all, Biden is a leader whose record in Afghanistan and in the start and escalation of the war in Ukraine, in this sense has been no friend to India.This is especially so given the negative geopolitical and economically chaotic impact of that war and accelerated sanctions by Biden against Russia that have more than sideswiped India’s poor on food and other costs impacting inflation. Could Trump do better and for India. There is a case he could.
Thus, simply piling on against Trump is not the critical balanced thinking I was taught at top western universities during my days as a student. The likes of the famed psychologist Jordan Peterson, a former professor say this thinking is lacking in many (not all) of today’s western universities who have trained many in the media and new cohorts in Congress. It is an ideology one may argue is of irreligious, excess liberalism, anathema to Trump and his supporters and is likely not so kind to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own branch of holistic balance. A Modi led view that is likely against US monochromatic, leftish zeal to totally dismiss national pride, common sense conservatism and spirituality.
In short, Prime Minister Modi’s views are more respected by Trump and less so by much of Washington. In fact, President Trump at the time in 2019 got along with the current Indian prime minister like a “house on fire”, shown when they joined hands before throngs of thousands in Texas for the “Howdy Modi” celebration of India-America ties. I do not see that level of enthusiasm between New Delhi and Washington, even with the recent visit of India’s PM to America.
On the other side, I cannot presume to have the full capacity to diagnose what is clearly wrong with Donald Trump with his politics of polarization. And there are clearly gears in his behaviour that are jammed or not working, given his statements on refugees, Mexican- Americans and beyond that subordinate inclusiveness.
But in the first place to his credit, Trump rightfully took on the western and Washington establishments which considers their key foreign policy views as sacrosanct and almost like religious doctrine. He went over their redlines that too many US presidents were scared to go over, or just were so caught up in Washington think that they could not think at all in Trump’s and his followers’ terms. The insides of the box in Washington are often hard-walled. Even CIA Director, Bill Burns has equated inside Washington’s attitude as rather “incestuous”, with him likening it with holding hands with itself, walking, self-contently down the street.
The worst breaking of that doctrine was when Trump praised Vladimir Putin and said it was good to get along with him. The main reason being that Russia had massive numbers of nuclear weapons. Then the “creme de la creme” of upsetting Washington was when he personally met Kim Jong-Un, President of North Korea, which lessened the hot, even hostile rhetoric between nuclear armed North and the US and South Korea. Yet tensions on that peninsula have heightened considerably through the Biden administration.
Whatever you can say about Trump’s foreign policy, it did not generate any wars. And certainly not the debacle in Afghanistan or Ukraine. In fact, it led to the Abraham Accords that brought the Arab world closer to a fuller peace with Israel. The real problem is Trump has really embarrassed Washington by “defiling” certain global elites and their ideas of conquering liberalism and gross interference to push brand Washington’s hawkish ideas of former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton One who they heartily wished had got into the White House, instead.
Taking all this into account and Trump’s strong aversion to Beijing’s manner on trade and beyond, would India do worse with Trump in the White House? Also, with Trump more determined to stop the fighting in Ukraine, it can be well argued that the ex-president is a better fit for India and the Modi government.
Nonetheless, with India sharing the Quad with the US and being one of the most vibrant democracies in the South, relations between New Delhi and Washington would likely remain manageable under a Biden-Harris second term. And Vice-President Harris with her Indian ancestry might be sympathetic to India if she ever became president.
Unfortunately, Trump is probably just too mercurial as the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad described him as. Or too narcissistic as Jordan Peterson, evaluated him as. As I stated before, I would not have voted for Trump if I were an American. He is just two divisive at least within America.
Peter Dash is an educator and alumni of four western universities and past associate of Harvard.
