Donald J. Trump came up trumps, after all. He overcame the eight-to-one odds against him, and in spite of losing the popular vote he attracted a strategic minority of Americans, just enough to tilt the Electoral College his way.
It seems that American voters have decided that it takes a Trump to catch a thief. Who best to battle the globalisation that has drained away manufacturing jobs from Middle America than a billionaire who has made full use of said globalisation to maximise his profits?
They voted for him because he told them he could fix the economy and their sense of being sidelined in their own country by bringing back a glorious past. He promised them their old jobs back by scapegoating the targets of their fears and prejudices. Indeed, Trump’s Mexican border wall is but one of the walls that will characterise his presidency.
The thin patina of gracious acceptance of victory and defeat by Trump, Clinton and Obama was but a temporary distraction from the gloating, fear and loathing that is now surging through both sides of the great American divide. This will be the first wall that President Trump will have to face. Granted, he did not create the distrust, bigotry, misogyny and racism that underscored his rise to electoral triumph. But he is the first successful presidential candidate in living memory to nurture them for political gain, to build a purposeful campaign on these putrid foundations.
In the process, President-elect Trump has given them a measure of legitimacy and ‘normalcy’ they never had before. A key exponent of this hateful Alt-Right ideology is now one of the two most powerful and influential advisors of the next President.
America is greater than Trump. But the scars, not just on America, will remain
Great numbers of Americans do not simply disagree with President-elect Trump, or despise his views. They fear him. Not since World War II have foreigners working in America been so concerned of being forcibly separated from their loved ones by the government. The mayors of some major US cities that rely on the work of migrants to function have vowed to resist any mass deportation moves by the federal government.
The second wall of Trump’s own making is the economic and environmental one. His rejection of international free trade agreements and his plans for increased tariffs on imported goods has worried and angered countries around the world, and could hinder global development. His environmental scepticism has distanced America further from its partners and allies. It has allowed China, along with the EU, to claim the lead in championing the Paris climate change agreement.
There is, however, one wall that America’s allies are deeply concerned might start to crumble under Trump’s foreign policy agenda. America largely sustains a number of protective barriers; with Nato in the face of an increasingly nationalistic Russia; with South Korea against its unpredictable and nuclear-armed northern neighbour; with Japan against an ever more confident and assertive China.
Many are terrified that Trump’s penchant for striking a deal will look at short-sighted gains for the US and ignore America’s role, however flawed, as the defender of freedom and democracy around the world.
On the other hand, it would not be right to succumb to the type of apocalyptic scenario that Trump excelled in painting and which won him the ultimate prize. Italy survived Berlusconi. Malta survived he-who-must-not-be-named-negatively. America survived George W Bush. It will survive Trump. America is greater than Trump. But the scars, not just on America, will remain.
Xewkija Tigers 1, Domestic violence 0.
Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool manager of the 1960s and 70s, used to say: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.” Of course he was right.
Xewkija Tigers are one of the brightest constellations in the universe of Gozitan football. Daniel Bogdanovic is not only a football star but the head coach of its nursery. Did anyone seriously expect that the Tigers would go ahead with their Gozo Football League game without him? Just because of a silly quarrel with his wife?
And how would the club explain the scandal of his absence from the match to the nursery kids? Far better to follow the long-standing Gozitan (and Maltese) tradition of denying the seriousness, nay the very existence of domestic violence. Surely a tiff with the wife is best forgotten, but the memory of a glorious win will last forever.
If the Tigers needed to pull a few strings to get their beloved player on the pitch, who can possibly blame them? So please, let’s put things in their proper perspective.