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| US President Trump |
By Bryson Jumbe
Donald Trump's ascendancy to the US presidency, just like his primaries nomination as Republican's presidential nominee, was marred by controversy. From allegations of boasting about forcibly kissing women and groping them, and to Russia's meddling of the elections, Trump faced stiffer opposition.
As a novice in government administration, his political tone on some of the major divisive issues including immigration, made matters worse. Imagine, one of his campaign promises was to build a wall along the US and Mexico boarder, to be paid for by the latter, in order to keep out illegal immigrants.
Despite all the criticism and controversy, Trump was elected President of the United States. Often using Twitter, one of his main social network tools, he fought everything that stood his way. Not even the "Fake News" could derail him.
With his famous slogan "Make America Great Again" trending, some countries with aid dependence on the US were rightly filled with pessimism on the continuance of aid inflow. Trump indirectly addressed such concerns on his Congress speech saying, "we've spent trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled." That answered it all on our assumptions about Trump's likely policy on aid.
Throughout the elections campaign and in his life before, Trump courted controversy. A certain media outlet suggested that he thrives well in controversy. Some of Trump's controversy revolves around nicknames and Twitter. Some people say it's "unpresidential." Type 'unpresidential' on the search engine Google, and you will be given some clues by a CNN story and dictionary example.
Apart from calling Hillary Clinton "crooked," he also described North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, as "rocket man" who was on a suicide mission. That was at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, of all the places.
Names have not been limited to individuals only but, nations as well. From "currency manipulators" to "rogue nations." China, Mexico, Iran and many others have not been spared on the grounds of dumping goods, theft of intellectual property, pouring in drugs, stealing jobs and sponsoring terrorists.
Almost one year into his presidency, Trump continues to be embroiled in controversy.
At the height of it all, as of now, Trump thought of recognising Jerusalem as capital of Israel. This 'thought' was so appealing to him such that on December 6, 2017 it became a reality.
Upon this announcement, all hell broke loose in Arab countries. History will point to Trump's decision as the main, if not the only catalyst for the violence and protests that erupted. US allies and other international organizations have been condemning Trump's decision, which they say has broken long standing policy on the Israeli and Palestine peace agreement.
From these and many other cases, Donald Trump seems not to be the 'by the book' kind of person. He has openly questioned the integrity of his own FBI in its investigations into Russia's alleged role in the US elections. Trump has also pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, claiming that the climate change issue is simply a conspiracy. On trade, he parted ways with the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, saying it wasn't benefiting the US.
It is highly difficult to predict what will the leader of the 'Renewal of American Spirit' do next. But, two things are certain. Let's wait for another day of 'Twitter' and controversy.
