D​ONALD TRUMP: BLOWS HIS OWN TRUMPET by Mihir Srivastava

Donald Trump is the most popular and powerful man in the world, also fairly whimsical, unpredictable, and the world leaders don’t know how to deal with him. 

I must add, he's, though, a Republican president of the United States (US), is fairly democratic about his absurd (not foolish, though) interventions across the globe, whether in Latin America, Europe or Asia. All said and done, he’s not a fool as some of us want to conveniently dismiss him. He has a plan. And a mass appeal, perhaps, because he does what he says. The problem is he says a lot. 

He’s also fairly democratic about his tariff intimidation tactics as well, and has spared no one.  Let alone India, he has outraged traditional allies like Canada, France, and even the NATO, which he ought to spearhead.  

Like it or not, megalomaniacs rule the world. Trump has taken it to a new level. He is brashly unapologetic about it, and speaks his mind without filters, and does what he feels, and the ‘diplomatic’ part of his parlance stands demolished with the entire White House East Wing.

Trump’s brashness gives other world leaders a chill, causes a strong physical and emotional reaction, and triggers intense feelings, excitement, awe, or some even get spooked, a combination of these when they have to face him. 

Trump can be overly friendly or wantonly hostile. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to be credited for his resilience not just against the Russian forces but also Trump’s eccentricity; he turned the table after his disastrous meeting with Trump in the White House. 

I thought the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, perhaps the most athletic head of state, were very tactfully suave with him. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did well to avoid him, which led Trump to state that the former is not happy with him. 

The credit for solving the riddle called Trump and getting the best out of him for his country goes to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He should tutor other world leaders how to deal with Trump. However, Netanyahu, sitting next to Trump at the Oval office, had his moments of embarrassment, when he was made to tender a public apology by Trump for trying to violate Qatari sovereignty and promise that it will not happen again.

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In this churning of his own making, Donald Trump has found a new friend in Pakistan--is more than willing to sell their soul to win his favour to appear stronger to their neighbour. To win Trump’s support, servile flattery is not enough. The Trump family holds a majority stake in a crypto company, with its own ‘stablecoin’  USD1. Changpeng Zhao, is also the strategic advisor to the Pakistan Crypto Council , helped write the smart contract for USD1 and then promoted the ‘stablecoin’ to its 275 million users profiting the first family of the US tens of millions dollars. 

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America has a long history of attacking the weak countries on false pretext, but the actual geo-political reason was always driven by self-interest: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. In hindsight, we know what these misadventures precipitated: disaster for Americans. A good example is the US support to the Mujahideen fighter in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, a conflict that created a conducive environment for the formation of Al-Qaeda. The outcome was 9/11. 

Trump, at least, is forthright about his true designs in the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, by the US military, affecting a regime change. All this to control oil reserves, and not for some mundane human rights considerations.

Europe is experiencing a rise of the Right. They are liberal only when it comes to other countries. And their response to the misadventures by hostile countries depends on their equation with the nations involved or their past historical context, not on the issue at hand. 

Russia is evil for what it did to Ukraine, China has sinister designs on Taiwan. But when it comes to the US attacking, most recently, Venezuela, the whole Europe is tongue tied. Why don’t they all fly to the US and persuade him to let Masuro go, like they did in the support of Zelensky. Trump knows their lack of strength of conviction, treats them accordingly. And no denying the fact, Trump has a soft corner for the Russian President Vladimir Putin that worries his European counterparts. 

In this churning of his own making, Donald Trump has found a new friend in Pakistan. The latter is more than willing to sell their soul to win Trump’s favour to appear stronger to their neighbour. And India is partly responsible for this growing bonhomie between a minnow and a giant, by denying Trump credit, even falsely, for the ceasefire of the latest version of Indo-Pak conflict aftermath slaughter of 26 tourists in Pahalgam. Perhaps, the absence of India’s endorsement is the reason why Trump didn’t get a Nobel Peace Prize. This irked him even more.

I like the Pakistani prime minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif's unbridled sycophancy, he did it with no holds barred, recommending the US President for the Nobel peace prize, that even made Trump quip, albeit with a smirk, ‘Well I didn’t expect that. Let’s go home, there’s nothing more I have to say.’ Then turns around to Sharif to compliment him, as he is a school boy debating, ‘That was beautiful and beautifully delivered.’ Sharif should get the Nishan-e-Pakistan for this effort. 

Also, the general, now a field marshal, Asim Munir, is Trump's favorite. Munir has given himself immunity not to meet Imran Khan’s fate after he demits office, or that of General Pervez Musharraf who died in exile away from the motherland he served all his life.

It’s an existential question for Pakistan, facing stagnant capital formation, hyperinflation, plummeting foreign reserves, overreliance on remittances from abroad. Pakistan has been running around the world with a begging bowl. And beggars can’t be choosers. 

To win Trump’s support, servile flattery was not enough. They officially launched the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) in March last year, to integrate blockchain technology and digital assets into its financial landscape. 

Interestingly, digital currency is envisioned to be a hedge against state-control; in contrast these initiatives remain government-led in Pakistan and that too at an express pace. Why? 

Two months later, in May, Pakistan’s ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ initiative was announced in Las Vegas. The Trump family holds a majority stake in a crypto company, with its own ‘stablecoin’  USD1. And the cofounder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, is also the strategic advisor to the PCC, helped write the smart contract for USD1 and then promoted the ‘stablecoin’ to its 275 million users profiting the Trump family tens of millions dollars. 

Thankfully, this time his daughters, sons, son-in-law are not directly involved in the White House operations, but are busy collecting booties that come their way thanks to Trump’s overreach and the bullying of the world. So there’s a valid criticism that Trump’s adventurism is not just about MAGA (Making America Great Again) but also  making the Trump family multi-billionaires collectively and individually. 

And before he leaves office, Trump, for sure, will give his family immunity much like his favourite Munir did for himself. 

We are all dependent on each other, some are more than the others, an old parable holds, you cannot play with fire and remain unscathed. 

It’s just one year since Trump came back to power, and all hell breaks loose; next three years is anyone guess. One thing is for certain, Trump will go down in history as a maverick who became the US president and has hastened the pace of change of the world order that would have otherwise taken decades, the ushering of the new multi-polar world order. After all. assertion of power is a sign of weakness.