“Donald Trump After Six Months”, an article by Dr. Leonel Fernández

The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States came as a great surprise; not one of the most prestigious polling firms predicted his victory. However, in spite of all of the opposing predictions and adverse circumstances, he managed to achieve electoral victory.

Notwithstanding, there still remains an important segment of public opinion in the United States which questions his victory. For some, it was the declarations from ex-FBI director
James Comey only days before the election which led to the loss of Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton. For others, it was interference from Russia in the electoral process of the United States, which today forms part of an investigation carried out by a Special Counsel as well as the U.S. Congress.

Upon assuming office, President Donald Trump’s government saw itself plunged into chaos. Suddenly, airports were invaded by inflamed multitudes protesting his first
executive orders concerning the prohibition from entry of citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries into the United States.

Judges from distinct jurisdictions nullified the executive orders making up the recently-sworn-in president’s so-called “Muslim ban.” It was President Trump’s first experience in discovering that the democratic system of North America is founded on a system of checks and balances.

However,
beginning in his first months of government, President Donald Trump has already imposed his personal trademarks onto his office. He is the president of tweets at the late hours of night or the early hours of the morning; the one who intends to build a wall between Mexico and the United States; the one who alleges having attracted the greatest inaugural crowd in U.S. history; and the one who has made attacks on the media a feature of his administration.

Optimism of the
Elites

Since Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House, various stock market indices have shown that share prices have risen to some of their highest levels in the history of the financial markets.

This fact is due, principally, to expectations of business groups resulting from the White House resident’s electoral promises and announced policies. Among these one can find the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 25% to 15%, the
elimination of the estate tax, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the investment of a trillion dollars in infrastructure development, an increase in military spending, a relaxation of environmental regulations, and the elimination of barriers to the usage of carbon-based fossil fuels.

Even more, President Trump has proposed to begin a process of deregulation of the financial sector. To this end, he aspires to reverse the Dodd-Frank Act,
legislation enacted as a response to the 2008 global financial crisis.

With the financial system presently showing overall recovery, the largest banks having returned to higher capitalization levels and rates of return practically equivalent to pre-crisis levels, certain sectors linked to the Republican Party believe that the time to return to an era of deregulation has arrived.

Something similar has occurred with trade policy. Since his electoral
campaign, Donald Trump has proposed to end the free trade treaty between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, known as NAFTA.

For the construction magnate turned head of state, the treaty between these countries, especially the portion between the U.S. and Mexico, is the worst trade deal ever signed. It retains this dubious honor because following President Trump’s reasoning, NAFTA is the main factor which explains the loss of employment in the manufacturing sector
across the United States.

But in addition to renegotiating NAFTA, the new U.S. President withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which contemplated a liberalization and opening up of markets with twelve Asian countries, excluding China.

It was understood that the U.S. involvement in the TPP would be followed by its accession to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which would economically link the United States with the
27 members of the European Union.

Of course, these measures appear consistent with the protectionist policies of President Donald Trump, whose main slogan is “Make America Great Again.”

For Trump as well as for economic elites, this means increasing the number of products manufactured in the United States, an improvement in their quality and competitiveness, and making the largest number possible of North Americans and citizens
around the world purchase U.S.-made products.

To further encourage the optimism of the North American elites, the new resident of the White House has proposed an increase in defense spending of approximately $640 billion, although this would entail cuts in different areas of the federal government.

With a policy of reduction and elimination of taxes, financial de-regulation, revision of trade agreements, infrastructure development, promotion of fossil
fuels and increases in military spending, Donald Trump dreams of converting the United States in a kind of Trump Tower of the global economy.

Trump Around the World

The former construction magnate and casino owner kicked off his foreign policy by breaking with a U.S. tradition since 1979. He made a phone call to the President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-Wen, before establishing communication with the People’s Republic of China, the country with which
the United States currently maintains diplomatic relations.

After this came a display of military force via aerial attacks over Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan, with the last one suffering the deployment of the largest non-atomic bomb of all time, the so-called Mother of All Bombs, weighing in at some 20 million pounds.

Attending his first North Atlantic Treaty Association (NATO) meeting, he evaded referring to the Treaty’s Article 5, which
establishes the principle of collective security and obliges each member to become a delegate of other members’ security. This provoked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to later state that in matters of its security, Europe depends only on itself.

Later was President Trump’s lack of recognition of the United States’ endorsement at the 21st Conference of the Parties, celebrated December 2015 in Paris, France. Commonly known as the Paris
Agreement, the goal of this assembly was to set agreements between every country in the world with respect to adoption of measures to halt global temperature increases.

The world shuddered at this activity of President Trump’s administration. After the great victory which the Paris Agreement meant for people around the world, it never even crossed their minds that the most powerful country in the world would put the continuity of the human race at
risk.

In the 2017 G-20 reunion in Hamburg, Germany, the bewilderment became so great that some began to speak of the G-19 or even the G-0 due to the differences of opinion between the United States and the organization’s other integral nations.

With respect to Iran, a country with which the Obama Administration had arrived at a reasonable agreement to avoid the enrichment of uranium for its nuclear weapons program, the new Trump Administration
has decided to reconsider the agreement and impose new sanctions on the Asian country.

Finally, arriving at Cuba, after more than 50 years isolationist policy toward the Caribbean nation on behalf of the United States, the Obama Administration made great forward progress in establishing formal diplomatic relations with the country and increasing flexibility in means of transport as well as commercial and educational exchange.

Now, all of this remains
uncertain. President Trump, who had looked to make business dealings with Cuba in the 1990s, has announced an ensemble of measures whose application would turn back the clock on relations between the United States and Cuba.

After six months of government, President Donald Trump has been, until now, more style than substance. But his style, by itself, has been so unorthodox that it has led to worry, anguish, and confusion.