The hurry with which Donald Trump, the US President-elect, has gone about making key appointments in his administration would suggest as if his swearing-in had been advanced. It is not. Even Trump cannot rid the US system of this oddity, among quite a few others, when the winner of a hotly-contested poll on November 4th has to wait till January 20th to be sworn in. Consider that in the UK, the mother of democracies, the newly-elected prime minister leaves 10 Downing Street by the backdoor while his successor walks in from the front within hours of the results being declared. In fact, Trump’s election can only be officially ratified by the electoral college on January 6th. The electoral calendar was devised by the founding fathers long before the advent of modern means of transportation. They had to make provision of time for a president-elect, say, from Texas to reach Washington DC, a distance of some 1500-odd miles. It made sense then because the fastest means of travel was the horse-back. Indeed, another peculiarity of the US system is the charade about indirect election of president. Founding fathers believed that members of the electoral college elected by popular vote from each State would not be swayed by partisan and/or populist considerations, keeping the larger national interest foremost while choosing president after due deliberation away from the hurly-burly of partisan politics. The electoral college did not serve its purpose with the presidential election virtually becoming a direct contest between candidates. Never once has the electoral college defied candidate/party loyalty to elect someone only on a priori considerations. Yet, the electoral college often distorts popular will, allowing candidates with fewer votes to pip their rivals who polled a much larger number of votes. In 2016, though Hillary Clinton had more votes than Trump, he still won thanks to the obsolete electoral college system. Unfortunately, such is the divisiveness in the American polity that one cannot foresee any administration taking the initiative to update the obscure and obsolete electoral system in one of the most vibrant democracies in the world. It matters to the rest of the democratic world due to its status as the most powerful nation, both economically and militarily. Willy-nilly what happens in America impacts the world. Not for nothing does the world at large keenly watches the US presidential poll. Consider this. All through the Trump-Harris face-off, more than anyone else the immediate combatants in the on-going wars in Gaza-Lebanon versus Israel and Russia-versus Ukraine were fixated on the outcome of the US poll. Why? Because it is in the nature of the US presidency that it can virtually direct the direction of the wars. In Trump’s election Benjamin Netanyahu, the hard-line Israel Prime Minister, finds a willing ally who is keen for him to achieve his war objectives. On the other hand, Volodymyr Zelensky, the beleaguered Ukrainian President, fears choking off of US arms and other strategic help to repulse the aggression of its much bigger neighbour. It is notable that Zelensky set aside his sense of pride and dignity while grovelling before Trump in a telephonic talk during the course of which the president-elect allowed Elon Musk, his newly-found billionaire buddy, to insert himself. This was not normal. But then for Trump abnormal is normal since he is above all accountability.
His unconventional behaviour even as the holder of the most powerful office in the world can have repercussions for the rest of the world. Appointments announced thus far do not inspire confidence, indicating a far more chaotic and disruptive four years than his first term between 2016-20. That he should pick controversial loyalists, and, mind you, the solitary criteria is personal loyalty to him, not the Constitution, such as Matt Gaetz for Attorney_General to head the Justice Department, and Pete Hegseth, a former television host as Defence Secretary, defies conventional wisdom. Such aides do little to inspire confidence in the second Trump term. Or take Robert Kennedy as his Health Secretary. The anti-vaccine and modern medical science sceptic is bound to prove a total misfit as Health Secretary. But in particular, sycophants like Gaetz and Hegseth who are facing sexual misdemeanour charges, are too junior and inexperienced to play me.ngful leadership roles in exceedingly powerful posts. However, Trump remains unfazed, ascribing ulterior motives to critics. An unpredictable Trump, when he unleashes a trade war with China and, to a lesser extent, with Europe and even India, may not bring any gain to his MAGA supporters. But it surely would disrupt the global trading system. Tariffs and counter-tariffs will hurt all countries without bringing any economic gain for America. Neither new manufacturing jobs nor a fall in prices of common goods domestically made can be achieved through penal tariffs on imports. Even the deportation of millions of illegal migrants will hit the American economy first, because it would deprive American farmers of `cheap’ labour. Trumpian economics being rooted in protectionism is moving the clock back on globalisation, originally boosted by a number of far-sighted US presidents.An inward-looking America is a sign of an America in decline.
