By TP Sreenivasan
In any situation of conflict, a remark like “there are fine people on both sides” should sound balanced, impartial and just. In any philosophy, assertions like goodness is present in the most evil of men is an acceptable doctrine. But if the clash is between the white supremacists and anti-fascist activists in 2017, such a statement by the President of the United States (POTUS) is blasphemy. If the statement happens to be from Donald Trump, who has espoused white supremacy openly, it is inflammatory. This is why the seemingly innocuous statement by Trump ignited the gravest controversy over racism since his election campaign. Most sections of the population, including Republicans, business leaders and sportsmen denounced him for equating the neo-Nazis with the anti-fascists. On August 12, the white supremacists had clashed with the anti-fascists in a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia and caused the death of a 32 year old woman, Heather Hayes, and injury of 19 others. Trump’s immediate reaction and subsequent clarifications shocked the majority of Americans and his approval rate dropped to 38% with 56% disapproval.
Within days, Steve Bannon, the President’s chief strategist and the architect of the ultra-nationalism that the President had propagated, joined the other half, a dozen key White House advisers, who had left the administration either in disgust or discredited. Bannon was on the point of leaving earlier, particularly because Trump had not liked the idea of Bannon being identified as the author of many of his plans and ideas, but this time, the pressure was from the liberals to remove Bannon for having formulated the President’s statements on the incident. The President’s second statement, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides” had made matters worse. His next statement was an attempt to distance himself from the incident: “It’s been going on for a long time in our country,” he said. “Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.” But no other President had endorsed racism and white supremacy as he had done and his justification, however mild, turned out to be the last straw.
Right from the days of the campaign,Trump had inflamed the passions of the conservative right by calling for making America great again, which seemed to be a call to reinstate white supremacy. His election promises and the policies he designed as President made more headlines in a week than his predecessors did during their entire term. The irony is that any optimism about this Presidency is the hope that he will not keep his promises such as ban of entry of Muslims, building of a wall between the US and Mexico and abandoning the United Nations. In actual practice, he has made tactical retreat on many of these issues when they were either challenged by the law or new facts emerged, which made his plans impractical. His fundamental approach of isolationism and non-involvement of the US in world affairs itself turned out to be a non-starter within months of his election.
The DPRK crisis opened Trump’s eyes to the need to work with other permanent members of the UN Security Council. He faced the stark choice of either fighting a nuclear war or seeking the support of China to stop the development of missiles by the DPRK to deliver nuclear devices, not only to Guam, but also to mainland America. Trump abandoned his strategy for a trade war and a confrontation with China on its currency manipulation and invited the Chinese President to his private resort in Florida to work out a joint strategy to deal with Kim Jong-un. Although the missile programme continued, the crisis was confined to war cries from both sides. When Kim announced postponement of his bombing of Guam, the whole world heaved a sigh of relief and Trump himself welcomed Kim’s restraint as “a very wise and well reasoned decision.” This shows that Trump’s apparent political death wish can be tempered by a sense of reality. Like in the case of Hamlet, there is a method in his madness, it transpired. He even worked with the UN, which he called a waste of time, to secure a unanimous resolution, imposing sanctions against DPRK. The Chinese vote for the sanctions resolution was a great surprise, given its consistent support to North Korea over the years.
The biggest tragic-comedy of the Trump administration so far is, of course, the love affair with Russia, which has come full circle, starting from seeking help from Russia to win the election, to the President signing into law sanctions against Russia for allegedly interfering in the US elections. He sacked his key advisers, threatened to dismiss the Special Counsel, who was appointed to investigate the case and now faces a Grand Jury to investigate his and his son-in-law’s involvement with the Russians before and after the elections in the US. The possibility of impeachment already stares the President in the face. Trump’s dream of consolidating his position in Europe and containing China with the cooperation of Russia has turned into a nightmare. The failure to replace Obamacare and other misadventures on the domestic front remain as sideshows to the faltering Presidency.
The present crisis, involving the most explosive issue of racism may well be the most serious challenge faced by Trump. In the seventh month of his administration, questions are being asked how long the Presidency will last. Democrats are contemplating to discredit him and to make him resign by censuring him even without impeachment because of the urgency of the matter. The Republicans are facing the deep dilemma of having to disown their own President as they cannot acquiesce in the President’s position on the Charlottesville fiasco. To undermine the Republican Presidency at a time when the Republicans have increased their presence in the state legislators and the number of Governors will be hard, but supporting the President on the white supremacy issue will be suicidal to the Republican Party. Media circles have characterised the incident as “the biggest political train crash” of the current administration and alleged that Trump has exposed his unfitness to continue as President by his unadulterated ultra-nationalism and racism. “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over, said Steve Bannon. “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of the Trump presidency, but that presidency is over. It will be something else.” No one understands the pulse of the presidency as he does, even though he himself has quit the administration.
(The writer is former Ambassador of India and Governor for India of the IAEA. He is also Chairman, Academic Council and Director, NSS Academy of Civil Services & Director General, Kerala International Centre).