The inauguration of chaos
In a nod to the broad-brush tradition of western foreign correspondents, Patrick Gathara reports on the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Patrick Gathara
Septuagenarian strongman Donald Trump once again took the oath of office on Monday, in a ceremony witnessed by a small group of aging elite members of the oligarchy that has ruled the United States for decades.
Shortly after the traditional oath rituals, Trump declared expansionist plans: reclaiming the Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, and promising to plant a flag of his troubled nation on Mars.
The ceremony was held inside the US parliament, the scene of an attempted coup four years ago. Organisers claimed to have been forced to move the event indoors by frigid weather. However, some analysts say the move was designed to avoid humbling comments on crowd size that dogged Trump’s first oathing ceremony in 2017.
Deposed leader Joseph Biden had earlier in the day issued last-minute “pre-emptive” pardons to members of his family who may have faced probes into how they acquired their wealth – a traditional final act of corruption by an outgoing ruler. The unpopular, millionaire octogenarian is commonly derided as “Genocide Joe” because of his steadfast support of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Monday’s events were yet another worrying sign that the former British colony is failing in its centurieslong effort to become a democracy. T he theme of the oath ceremony, “Our Enduring Democracy”, disguised 250 years of voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering to pre-emptively steal elections, minority regimes, and global warmongering.
While still considered the lynchpin nation of the Caucasian bloc, the US appears to be sinking as a greedy political class dismantles its laboriously assembled system of checks and balances. The latest turn of events is expected to concentrate power in the hands of the executive arm. Already deeply corrupted, the judiciary recently declared the president all but above the law, an eye-popping move now that the US has handed power back to a man whose convictions include a court award for sexual abuse.
Many around the world stand in solidarity with the oppressed people of the US, whose lives are blighted by corruption, gun violence and armed Christianist militia roaming the streets. This solidarity is crucial now when US pro-democracy activists, whose numbers were decimated by the Biden regime’s crackdown on anti-genocide protests, struggle to regroup to oppose Trump.
But the peoples of the world might themselves find their hands full if Trump makes good on his threat to occupy Canada and the Danish colonial possession of Greenland, perhaps sparking another Caucasian tribal conflict. He wouldn’t be the first tribal demagogue to bring ruin upon his country and the world.
Many worry about his economic policies. Nigerian economists say his promise to base the country’s future growth on expanding oil production is misguided. It is also a recipe for environmental disaster at a time when the country is struggling to cope with massive forest fires that have been linked to a warming planet. Experts say his plan for tariff wars with important trading partners could lock his country, already too expensive for manufacturing, out of affordable imports.
On the other hand, Trump may be less committed to genocide than his predecessor. It is alleged that he pressured the apartheid state of Israel to pause its 15-month extermination of Palestinians.
Trump’s dictatorial leanings could also unite the splintered prodemocracy activists in the US and give African civil society an opportunity to support civic education programmes in the country. This could lead to an American Spring in which the people rise up and cast off the yoke of gerontocracy, and in a real sense, take their country back.
Great writing, very apt… I do wish it were longer, so satisfying it is to read - and thus not feel alone in thinking this too as we watch.