We can finally say with confidence that US President Donald Trump will leave the White House, albeit reluctantly, this January 20th. Now that his four years in office are coming to an end, it’s not too early to raise the question of how he will be seen.
History will judge Trump for being a momentous president: The United States and the world ended up very changed after his tenure. He will also be seen as one of the worst, if not the worst, in history.
(Also read: In the midst of an unprecedented crisis, Biden will take power in the US. UU.).
True, Trump did get some useful stuff. Internally, he pushed for policies — a cut in the too-high corporate tax rate; the relaxation of some overly cumbersome regulations — which seem to have contributed to robust economic growth.
In the field of foreign policy, it deserves recognition because, in the face of an increasingly repressive, powerful and assertive China, it pushed American politics in a more sober and critical direction. too was right in offering defensive weapons to Ukraine, since part of that country is under Russian occupation.
Negotiating a new trade pact with Mexico and Canada, and then persuading Congress to approve it, was a significant success, although the improvement over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was modest. and important parts of the new deal were drawn from the text of the much larger Trans-Pacific Agreement that Trump, with little judgment, rejected.
The United States also played a valuable role in facilitating the normalization of ties between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors, beyond failing to move forward on the Palestinian question.
(Of interest: Biden lists decrees and prepares ‘optimistic’ investiture speech).
But these and any other accomplishments are overshadowed by what Trump did wrong. three
errors stand out in particular. The first is the harm it has done to American democracy. The events of January 6, 2021, when a horde of Trump supporters besieged and occupied the U.S. Capitol, were the culmination of the president’s efforts to demonize in the media, violating established rules, promoting lies, questioning the authority of the courts, and rejecting the results of a presidential election that passed all serious tests of legitimacy.
Even though the world was already going through a growing disorder, and US influence was declining, Trump drastically accelerated both trends.
Trump’s incitement and instigation of illicit activity and violence was the last straw. Certainly not all of this is Trump’s fault, because no one forced so many Republican officials to follow his example and try to undermine the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Those who gave the green light to Trump through his political and financial support share responsibility for his sustained attack on the restrictions that are elementary to the functioning of any democratic system. Anyways, what distinguishes this incident of American populism with respect to previous episodes is that it was designed from the Oval Hall and not from outside.
(We recommend: EE. UU. He claims to be ‘disappointed’ by the Cienfuegos case).
The second defining issue is covid-19. The outbreak and subsequent spread of the coronavirus was a fault of China, but Trump’s inept and inadequate response is why 400,000 Americans will have died of the disease by the time he leaves office. The failed U.S. response also caused millions of jobs and businesses to disappear (Some permanently), that millions of students would be left behind and that governments and peoples around the world would lose respect for the United States.
It was so much what the Trump administration could and should have done to fix the coronavirus. While it deserves credit for its role in accelerating the development of covid-19 vaccines, this achievement was partly undermined by the mistake of not having organized efficient distribution. the administration nor did it know how to deliver consistent messages about the need to wear face masks, nor did it ensure that medical personnel had adequate protective equipment. or provide essential federal support for the development of effective and efficient testing.
The contrast with the relatively successful responses from Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Vietnam, and China underscores the fact that a viral outbreak does not necessarily have resulted in a pandemic, and certainly not a pandemic of the magnitude experienced in the United States. . ironically, Trump said he feared prioritizing the fight against covid-19 would weaken the economy and doom his chances of being re-elected.or, when in fact it was the fact that he did not live up to the challenge that perhaps played against him.
(Besides: The story of the first woman executed in the US. UU. In almost 7 decades).
His fundamental mistakes include the damage to his country’s democracy, his handling of the covid-19 and his foreign relations.
The third mistake that defines Trump’s legacy was a foreign policy that undermined the United States’ position in the world.. In part, this outcome owes something to the reasons described above: its attack on democracy and the inability to deal effectively with covid-19.
However, Trump’s foreign policy also failed in itself. North Korea increased its nuclear arsenal and manufactured more and better missiles however Trump’s personal diplomacy with Kim Jong-un. Iran reduced the time it would need to develop nuclear weapons after the Trump administration’s unilateral exit from the 2015 nuclear pact (the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan). Venezuela’s dictatorship is more entrenched, while Russia, Syria and Iran increased their influence throughout the Middle East after the United States withdrew troops. and removed them from supporting local partners.
(Suggest: Opposition leader Alexei Navalni, arrested after arriving in Moscow).
More generally, the U.S. withdrawal from international agreements and institutions became the hallmark of Trump’s foreign policy, as did his criticism of the United States’ European and Asian allies. kind treatment of authoritarian leaders and disregard for human rights violations. The net result has been a decline in American influence on the world stage.
Trump inherited a set of relationships, alliances, and institutions that, however imperfect they may be, had created for 75 years a context in which the conflict of great powers had been averted, democracy had expanded, and wealth and levels of life had increased. By adopting a mixture of ‘United States first’ nationalism, unilateralism and isolationism, Trump did what he could to alter many of these relationships and agreements without replacing them with something better.
(Continue reading: The challenges that await the new head of the White House).
It will be difficult – if not impossible – to repair this damage immediately. Trump will no longer be president, but will continue to be influential in the Republican Party and in the country. Even though the world was already going through a growing mess, and while U.S. influence was already declining, Donald Trump drastically accelerated both trends. The result is that he is delivering a country and a world in much worse condition than he inherited. This is his bleak legacy.
RICHARD HAASS *
© Project Syndicate
New York* Richard Haass is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Council and author of ‘The World: A Brief Introduction’ (Penguin Press, 2020).