Trump!

Uncle Sam’s current anti-immigrant policy may turn out to be her undoing in the long run. – Frank Ofili

Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, is pulling down all the things that make America great in the name of Making America Great Again (MAGA). He has declared that with him, it is America first. Pursuant to that, he has, more or less, instituted a government of Executive Orders – a euphemism for civilian decrees. By the time he is done, I wonder if there would be anything left of American greatness.

This resurgent attitude of American isolationism – or exceptionalism if you like – backfired during the WWII when Hitler invaded Europe. It was in fact what gave Hitler the impetus to carry out his blitzkrieg. By the time America woke up it was too late.

The result? Six million Jews, hundreds of thousands of others, and a Europe in ruins. It took the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe at a humongous cost to America – a gesture that underlined the then still emerging American greatness. In the end, a United Nations was set up to, among other things, check the emergence of such characters as Hitler.

Eighty years down the line, that American greatness is being pulled down by an American President in the name of making America great. America has all but pulled out of the UN.

But the world and America of post WWII is different. Today the world has changed, and America is practically attacking her hitherto strong allies. The world is uncomfortable with Trump, Russia’s immense WWII powers has significantly whittled down, even with the war on Ukraine still raging. China is the new kid on the block, watching America with kin interest, betting her in every conceivable way and waiting to strike at her underbelly. Even Trump’s own (GOP) party men are not so sure of him. America has never been this far right post WWII.

The good thing though is that Trump has only four years to stay, hardly enough to dream of a Hitler-style escapade. But his Man Friday, Elon Musk, going by the way he is going, may just lead him into a disaster that may eventuate an inevitable Congress action, unless Trump has a John Edgar Hoover tucked away somewhere waiting to be unleashed.

All in all, Uncle Sam’s current anti-immigrant policy direction may turn out to be her undoing in the long run. America is largely a country of immigrants, founded by immigrants and sustained by immigrants. The two anti-immigrant protagonists – Trump and Elon Musk – are themselves not native Americans. Trump’s father Fred was a son of a German immigrant, while his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was a Scottish immigrant. Musk on the other hand was born in Pretoria, South Africa, before immigrating to Canada, where he acquired its citizenship. In 1995, he moved to California to attend Stanford University