IT was a far cry from the inaugural of Barack Obama who put down the global slowdown to the selfishness and greed of his own people. It was a far cry from the assurance given by US academics that the US did not believe in protectionism. A 70- year-old, hardnosed businessman Donald Trump announced a kind of economic Monroe Doctrine in reverse as he was sworn in as the country’s 45th President. It was a black day for globalization and the World Economic Order already threatened by Brexit. Trump’s xenophobia, which got him in the Oval Office, was shot through and through in his promise to dismantle the old order and institute a regime premised on’ America first’. He attacked former US Presidents for not serving the American people. It is hard to think that he belongs to the Republican Party, which was founded by the great US President Abraham Lincoln. His dedication to the people rang hollow. What he said went against what the Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz stood for. He said the US “defended other people’s border while refusing to defend our own.” He promised “ to bring back our borders, bring back our jobs, bring back our wealth and bring back our dreams.” There may already be tremors in distant Bangalore and Gurgaon.
On the foreign office front, however, Donald Trump made two conciliatory remarks. The US will seek friendship with all countries. It will not “impose our way of life on everyone.” Furthermore, Washington will reinforce old alliances and form new ones. And it will fight Islamic terror. Fine. But it is the economy, stupid.
