- Trump Hosts “Board of Peace”
- Trump Denigrates NATO Role in Afghanistan
- Trump Loses Domestic Support
By Shashi P.B.B. Malla
“Board of Peace”
The panel could have been better named “Board of Trumpian Peace” or even “Board of False Peace”, considering the dire situation of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for which it was primarily instituted.
Trump hosted presidents, prime ministers and top diplomats from more than a dozen countries to tout his international ‘Board of Peace’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
All had a single motive: to curry favour with Trump.
The list of attendees was heavy on the Middle East and South America.
But it remains short on major U.S. allies from Europe and the full membership list still isn’t clear.
Like everything that Trump starts or does, it is short on planning and vision.
Europe is breathing a sigh of relief last Thursday following Trump’s dramatic reversal over Greenland the day before in Davos, where he scrapped the tariffs that he threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland (Associated Press/AP, Jan. 22).
Meanwhile, earlier Trump inaugurated his newly created ‘Board of Peace’ with a handful of founding members but offered few details about its mandate and how the panel will work or might pursue efforts to end global conflicts.
Typically, Trump hailed the board as “something very, very unique for the world”.
[More likely the Board will be still born unable and unlikely to achieve anything positive].
Speaking at a ceremony to sign the board’s charter, Trump said it could work with the United Nations to resolve wars not only in the Middle East, where the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza was the genesis of the conflict.
Trump conveniently forgets that Israel not only rejects all cooperation with the United Nations, but actively hampers UN humanitarian aid to Gaza. Lately, it unilaterally demolished the office building of the UN humanitarian agency in East Jerusalem, which is slated to be the capital of the nascent Palestinian State.
Trump did not provide specifics about how the board would cooperate with the United Nations.
It is important to note that the Trump administration has already drastically reduced cooperation with the multinational body, reducing US financial contributions and even withdrawing its membership from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump also claimed that the Board was going to be very successful in Gaza.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner has already unfolded a ‘Master Plan’ for the development of Gaza.
Trump added: “We can do numerous other things. Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do.”
He promised again to work “in conjunction with the United Nations,” though he still criticized the world body for not doing enough historically.
“I think the combination of the ‘Board of Peace’ with the kind of people we have here, coupled with the United Nations, can be something very, very unique for the world,” Trump claimed (AP).
The US president has also expressed ambitions recently that the new international board can replicate if not compete with the UN as an international broker.
If so, the Board is not only self-contradictory, but is doomed for failure – even in the short run.
In addition, the White House and State Department in Trump’s second presidency also been highly focused on the Western Hemisphere, complete with Trump proudly dubbing his approach the “ the Donroe Doctrine” [a play on his first name Donald] as a variant of the famous Monroe Doctrine established under the fifth US president James Monroe, and which was intended to deter European powers from re-establishing colonies in the Western Hemisphere.
Trump, however, is using his so-called doctrine to justify his imperialistic policies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond – like in Greenland.
Regarding Greenland, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, one of the countries that had faced Trump’s threat of tariffs over Greenland, said he supports talks between Denmark, Greenland and the US but reaffirmed the Danish kingdom’s total sovereignty.
Afghanistan
US President Trump has sparked outrage across Europe after claiming carelessly that NATO allies shied away from the front lines in Afghanistan (Agence France Presse/AFP, Jan. 24).
In an interview with Fox News, Trump claimed NATO had sent “some troops” but “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
He also repeated his suggestion that the alliance would not come to the aid of the United States if asked to do so – forgetting that the only time Article 5 of the alliance treaty was triggered was after the 9/11 al Queda attacks on the US.
Trump has truly become too forgetful and too Mette careless – a veritable liability for the Western alliance, and the rules-based international order.
“I fully understand that Danish veterans have said no words can describe how much this hurts,” Danish Prime Minister said.
“It is unacceptable that the American president questions the commitment of allied soldiers in Afghanistan,” she added.
[Denmark suffered the highest losses per capita in Afghanistan].
Trump appeared unaware that 457 British soldiers – including 11 Gurkhas — were among NATO troops who died during the conflict in Afghanistan.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last Friday: “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.”
As well as Britain, troops from other NATO ally countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Denmark also died.
Trump’s Domestic Support in Second Term
According to a new poll from the New York Times and Siena University, less than a third of voters think the United States is better off than it was when Trump returned to the White House a year ago.
An even wider majority thinks he has focussed on the wrong issues (Jan. 24-25).
A majority of voters disapprove of how Trump has handled major issues including the economy, immigration, the war between Russia and Ukraine and his actions in Venezuela.
And significantly, a majority of Americans 51 % percent, said that Trump’s policies had made life less affordable for them.
All this indicates that the Trump administration has been a complete failure on both the domestic and international fronts.
He is detested like nothing before and even his MAGA-crowd is diminishing.
Democrats all over the country are gleeful as their chances for re-taking the House of Representatives and the Senate have increased considerably in the mid-term elections in November.
If this happens, Trump will be reduced to a lame duck president.
Trump himself has warned darkly that the mid-term elections are not at all necessary – as if this is his to decide – since everything in the country is functioning perfectly!
In the meantime, his minions inside and outside of government are trying their utmost to make the elections neither free nor fair.
There is little doubt that after the space of a single year, Trump will go down as the worst president in US history!
The pathetic state of the American nation – at the 250th anniversary of its founding – does not auger well – neither for the United States, nor the world at large.
Returning to the survey, overall a whopping 49 % percent of voters said the country was worse off than a year ago, compared with 32 % percent who said it was better.
Trump has also done a great disservice to the people and country by polarizing the nation into its furthest partisan corners.
Trump’s own job approval rating stands at 40 % percent.
His disapproval rating has crept up to 56 % percent.
But Trump does not believe any of this. He thinks everything is rosy and he can dictate to the world. However, he stands completely naked like the ‘emperor in his new and finest raiments’.
A sizable 61 % percent majority, including 71 % percent of independents said the administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency had “gone too far” with its tactics, which have driven protests in multiple American cities.
Similarly, 63 % percent of voters said they disapproved of how ICE is handling its job.
Disregarding all this, the Trump administration is continuing its repressive policies against non-citizens and non-citizens alike.
It is not winning the hearts and minds of people. On the contrary, parts of the administration is not only detested but hated by sections of the American public.
In this polarized nation, the outcome of the mid-term elections will be decided not by Republican or Democratic majorities, but by Independents.
The writer can be reached at:
shashimalla125@gmail.com
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