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Opinion

Trump’s re-entry into the ring to flop


Published : 24 Feb 2021 08:30 PM

U S President Donald Trump tried to the best of his capability to remain in power at all costs , but it didn’t ultimately work as the American people, who mandated him to be president in 2016 election despite his arrogance and undemocratic attitude which dented the  American image to the global community, do not want to make the same mistake twice. The way Trump left the White House was unprecedented in the US history. The lust for power made him all crazy. Giving a damn to American democracy, he breaks the political tradition, which is inconsistent with the American values and culture. He was running after the throne. The throne there, but he has been overthrown.

Before overcoming the adverse impact of election defeat, Donald Trump is trying to get involved in politics and as a preparatory measure, he was scheduled to address the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) where he was supposed to exchange ideas about what would be the next course of action. Trump has talked in recent days with associates about floating a new political party, according to people having considerable expertise in the matter, in an effort to exert continued influence even after he leaves the White House.

CNN and Reuters reports reveal that Trump’s Vice president Pence will not be with him in his new venture and it is not yet known how many Republicans would be with him. But the majority of heavyweights in the Republican Party are dead against Trump.

Anybody can get involved in politics but it would be somewhat different for Trump. The American people, who mandated him to power in the election held in 2016, have no reason to support him again.  US people maintain stringently some customs and courtesies. They have faith in government and the election process and the Electoral College. Repeatedly Trump and his legal advisers filed a volley of cases complaining that the election was unfair without providing proper evidences and the courts repeatedly declared that the allegations were unfounded. 

Donald Trump neither accepted the court verdicts nor congratulated Joe Biden which was against the US tradition and political culture. It may be recalled that in the US election in 2000 Democrat candidate Al Gore, seeing the trends of the election results, congratulated Bush in advance at around 9:30pm, but at 10:30pm it was found that 18 thousand casting ballots were not counted in Florida because the machine was not working. And the case went to the court. 

It was crystal clear that those uncounted votes were from democrat dominated areas. Had those votes been counted the democrats would certainly have got 25 electoral votes, but Al Gore needed only six votes to be the president of the United States of America. The court didn’t allow recounting and Bush was declared elected. That was why, Bush was called a president by verdict all through. But Al Gore never disputed the court verdict and he again congratulated Bush for his election as the president of the United States of America. That is the tradition. But Trump didn’t care about the US tradition, culture and values. 

Similarly, you will find some people who don’t perform their job in time and sometimes they do their due job unless they are coerced into doing it. In the case of Donald Trump, the US people as well as the international community have experienced the same behaviour. It was clear to all that the US election, 2020 was fair and credible as usual. And in complying with the US political norms and culture, Trump should have welcomed Joe Biden after the election result was declared. Trump’s lawyers instead complained in the court against that election.

The question may crop up why the American people voted for Trump? Yes, there were reasons behind it. The whole world was in turmoil with the terror attack by the Islamic extremists. Life and livelihood were under threat. The Western people were united in curbing terrorism. At that crucial time the Democrat candidate Hilary Clinton was busy talking about American values and democratic norms. But Trump was firm on finishing the terrorism. The American people put confidence in Trump. And that’s why, despite the serious opposition from the GOP leaders Trump got the Republican nomination automatically.

It may be mentioned that Mr Jeb Bush was telling Trump on the debate stage, “You will never be the president of the United States of America,” but they could not resist the victory of Donald Trump because the real Americans, who matter, were with Donald Trump. But those American voters had a new equation in the case of election in 2020 and they made a volte-face. Besides, the repeated mistakes in framing US trade policy had an adverse impact on the US trade and commerce with the global partners including Europe and China.

The main reason behind Trump’s debacle in the 2020 election was that he failed to take into consideration the opinions of the Americans as a whole. He tried to muster only the support of the white Americans. The debate on some issues and the national election are two different things. You have to pursue an issue which reflects the common interests of the citizens. But this timer Trump concentrated only on achieving the support of the white Americans.    

His unconstitutional rhetorics and some irresponsible comments have undermined him as a president for which the Americans were worried about the US global leadership and have been compelled to give a second thought about choosing the next president in the election in 2020.

Trump had failed to feel the pulse of the American voters in 2020 election.

It was his belief that the media had made a colossal damage to him. Since his election in 2016 he could not gain the support of the media. The major US media were against him. The US media didn’t like Trump and the manner Trump deal with them couldn’t help reconcile the worst ever situation.

Because of Trump’s ouster, the world is now assured that there will be no war and the American global leadership will automatically be restored.


Sharif Shahab Uddin is Editor-in-Chief, the Bangladesh Post.