Prospect of a Trump Presidency

As the clock ticked and the days drew nearer one question I asked myself again and again was what the world would look like under a Donald Trump Presidency in America, arguably the most powerful country, militarily. The prospect of Trump’s presidency, as much as we are in denial of it, is real and we must prepare for it now, if it happens.



When, on June 23, 2016, millions of Brits went to poll to decide the future of Britain’s relationship with the European Union it looked like the Remain campaign would easily overwhelm the Leave. It felt like the battle had already been fought and won, long before shots were fired. But the outcome has left many paralysed, months after.



On the day the results were announced I was attending an Executive Leadership course on Armed Conflicts at the University of Oxford. Waiting for the results as they trickled in through the night was a herculean task. With each result putting the Leave campaign ahead each of us confessed of skipping a heartbeat. I, several times that night, pondered the possibility of the resurgence of intolerance if Leave won and the message was misconstrued.



When it was finally confirmed that Leave had won most of us in the class appeared downcast not because we supported a side that lost but because the outcome took us unawares and overcoming the shock was not something that could happen in a flash.



In our first lecture that morning the lecturer, Professor Nic Cheeseman, an erudite Africa expert, also confessed it was a long night of expectations and speculations and disappointment. But, without doubt, Britain had spoken. How we grasped the message and acted on it was what was left.



Moral lesson: never dismiss or underestimate any phenomenon.



So, the prospect of a man that is better remembered for his comical demeanour and irredentist comments than business-mindedness becoming the president of a powerful nation (arguably the most powerful) cannot be ruled out. He could very well ride on the crest of popular discontent, a fair share of which America is witnessing today.



It was because former British Prime Minister David Cameron misunderstood and overlooked the growing popular discontents across the world that he underestimated the Leave phenomenon and made the single fatal mistake that downed his entire political edifice.



Popular discontents have a way of rallying people on the basis of irredentism and otherness. In-groups suddenly emerge and rapidly spread. Reason becomes irrelevant and voices of moderation are either cowed to silence or cajoled into line.



When Donald Trump first unveiled his plan for the White House race not a few dismissed it as a big nasty joke. When the primary results started arriving it became apparent he was no pushover. And today we are forced to rethink whatever we thought back then and worry over several ifs. If Trump is elected…if Trump plunges the world into a nuclear war…if Trump banishes blacks and bans immigrants from America…if Muslims are never allowed into America again…if Hispanics are removed and sent home etc.



The sad reality of the Brexit vote is that it has emboldened Trump to believe that he could outrun Clinton and brace the tape first, even though he is far less competent. But he has successfully caused a growing number of Americans (actually like minds) to trust him and this is troubling.



Many of those willing to invest everything in a Donald Trump presidency believe America’s supremacy would be restored in a way previous leaders have failed to. Many trust Trump to do so because of his out-of-this-world I-don’t-care attitude to very sensitive issues. He never gave a damn when he isolated the African-Americans, the Hispanics, the Muslims and a sizeable chunk of the voting population. And he still is no cakewalk.



Not that Hilary Clinton is such a saint that one would risk vouching for. Not if we remember her comment during the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries that she, as the US president, would obliterate Iran if there was a need to do so. Not if we recall her role in the Libyan tragedy that has since transformed into a hydra-headed monster. Mrs Clinton is certainly not a saint but I would rather have Clinton a million times as US president than a one-term President Trump. He is a complete disaster waiting to happen.



So, as Americans file out to vote in an election that could be the most important decision in our recent history let them remember that a single faulty step could roll back history by 50 years.