The Trump Presidency (4)
TMS PEACE JOURNALISM, 14 Nov 2016
Johan Galtung - from Washington DC, 12 Nov 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service
The Washington Post listed on 11 Nov “Donald Trump’s Campaign Promises”; and on 12 Nov, “Trump advisors play down some of his campaign promises”.
Trump’s new focus: health care, jobs, borders, tax reform. The 12:
- Putting Hillary Clinton in jail for mishandling classified e-mails
Unlikely, may be kept in the background as threat to control Clinton.
- Building the Wall between Mexico and the USA, paid by Mexico
Will probably be postponed and dropped, in favor of No. 6 below.
- Imposing stricter limits in the Iran nuclear deal
Other deal parties make it difficult; may backfire on US economy.
- Withdrawing the USA from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Will probably be done, TPP has problematic dispute settlement.
- Repealing the Affordable Care Act for new health care programs
Given 25% fee increase at the end October, he will go ahead with that.
- Deporting all illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, and others
Will probably be done.
- Rebuilding the military, cooperation with Russia in Syria
Will be done, reducing military to domestic operations; adding Ukraine.
- Canceling the Paris Climate Agreement
Other agreement parties make it difficult; but USA may exit.
- Waterboarding to be continued as interrogation tactic
May be done, at great expense in US prestige-making; America look small.
- Banning all Muslim refugees from Syria
May be done, but may also disappear given No. 7 above.
- Shrinking the federal government; keeping military, police, health
Standard Republican position, not much will happen.
- Drilling for gas and oil, digging for coal
Maybe done, at great expense in US prestige-making; America look small.
Conclusion: Except for 4-5-7 bad promises, campaign talk; better forgotten.
Trump’s new focus above is much better for a president “for all Americans.”
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Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. Prof. Galtung has published 1670 articles and book chapters, over 450 Editorials for TRANSCEND Media Service, and 167 books on peace and related issues, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 14 Nov 2016.
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Have noticed similar articles too, perhaps due to the one you referenced. About the Mexico Wall, some campaign guy said it was a “great campaign device”. In other words “ooops, hahahah, we lied”.
We can only hope that he won’t be as disastrously bad as he appeared on the campaign trail. Then question what it says about a country’s population that to get elected, you ought to spew out outlandish racism, islamophobia, and the like.
However, I also find some of the white-painting of Trump quite surreal. “Opp-ned-land” as we say in Norway. Effectively pulling the USA out of the already weak Paris agreement is very serious. It’s a signal to the rest of the world that it’s fine, you can show this deal the middle finger too. Europe are already dragging its feet on it (Norway for instance are planning for opening up more oil drilling fields). If their master doesn’t bother with emissions reductions, then why should Europe?
As serious as that is when we think about where we are now given recent reports (basically, leave almost all of the fossil fuels in the ground, or we can forget about achieving the 2C goal, never mind 1.5C — iirc, we are already up around 1C), what concerns me about the coming administration is some of the people likely to get key positions in it. The list is a who’s who of the crazies on the extreme right wing of the Republican party, some of them with a horrifying back story, like John Bolton and Mike Flynn.
Giving such a massive military war machine and surveillance apparatus to a person with rather clear authoritarian leanings isn’t something that puts me at ease.
As a slight silver lining, time will tell whether the worst fears come to fruition or not, and I do see some possible positive changes.