US President-elect Donald Trump’s policy of “Make America Great Again” appears ready to take a nasty turn after January 20, the day of his much-anticipated inauguration. Picture: Yuri Gripas/Reuters
I HAVE never had any trouble accepting the US President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” policy agenda. I hold a view that if any US administration chooses an inward-looking agenda, it does thus on behalf of the majority that had catapulted it to the White House.
Trump’s policy of “Make America Great Again”—a political slogan also known as the MAGA movement hugely popularised by the Trump phenomenon in recent history—appears ready to take a nasty turn after January 20, the day of the much-anticipated Trump’s inauguration.
As the clock ticks rapidly toward the big day, Trump has taken liberty to hold sporadic press conferences at his home and political HQ in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. It is where he has systematically laid out the shape and form of his new administration.
The US national media as well as international correspondents and television networks have set up their OBs (outside broadcasts) in Mar-a-Lago.
To say Trump’s residence has been a hive of activity since his spectacular return to power will be an under-statement. In fact, Trump himself has described his 2nd term of office as a political come-back like no other in modern history.
Covertly, and sometimes overtly, world leaders fly into Mar-a-Lago to consult confidentially with Trump, soon to become yet again the world’s most powerful man. As they fly into Florida to consult with Trump at their own behest, world leaders are openly shunning the lame-duck that is President Joe Biden in Washington.
His political currency fell spectacularly in one swoop when his own Democratic Party turned against him following a dismal showing in a TV` debate against Trump.
Having been pushed out of the race by his own comrades (it happens effortlessly in politics) he was replaced by the left-wing media darling that is Kamala Harris who, like Biden, is outgoing vice-president after being trounced in the November 2024 elections.
As I have made it categorically clear, I have had no qualm with Trump’s antics or tactics. As many know by now, as far as Trump is concerned there are no holy cows. Like a cowboy, the Republican leader is given to shooting from the hip. He can rub people the wrong way within the wink of an eye, and care less for that matter.
For the very first time, I want to take umbrage with Trump’s apparent imperial agenda that will form part of his 2nd term of office.
During his recent media briefing, Trump revealed his desire to snatch the control of Panama Canal from the authority of Panama. For the uninitiated, Panama Canal was built by the Americans over a period of 10 years—from 1904-1914.
Costly though it was to control the canal, the US` continued to control the canal as well as the surrounding Panama Canal Zone. This was until the Torrijos-Carter Treaties paved a way for its handover to the full control of Panama in 1977.
For a while, though, the Panama Canal was operated through the American-Panamanian control until 1999 when practically, the canal’s operations fell under full control of Panama. Since then, it is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, a state-owned company whose sole shareholder if the government of Panama.
Now, the incoming US President Trump wants to change all this. He wants to seize the control of the canal, a vital contributor to Panama’s GDP.
The canal is regarded as a “shortcut that greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost of South America”.
Panama Canal, a long waterway that is also described as a “conduit for maritime trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans”, has a length of 51 miles (82km).
The canal is a major contributor to the flourishing economy of Panama, a country with a population of only 4.5 million. The economy is based mainly on the tourism and services sector—accounting for nearly 80% of the country’s GDP. The Panama Canal is also a source of the bulk of the country’s foreign income.
That Trump wants to snatch this treasure from the people of Panama is a horrific nightmare indeed. By hook or crook, Trump appears to have set his eyes on the Panama Canal. First, he has said he would hold talks with the Panamanian authorities about a take-over. When all else fail, Trump warned, he does not rule out military force.
The same rhetoric has also been extended to Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Green is the world’s largest island, and is part of the European Union.
Trump says during his tenure, the US would want to buy Greenland together with its population of 45 000 citizens. As with the Panama Canal, he did not rule out force to incorporate Greenland into his agenda of colonisation.
The world must take note, and wake up from collective slumber and act in defense of the sacrosanct notion of sovereignty.
But then again, when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches the cold! It is unimaginable to see any force that would stop the US from pursuing its expansionist agenda.
As the world’s remaining superpower since the fall of the Soviet Union following the end of the Cold War, the US has proven too many times that no one, and no institution, including the UN Security Council, can stand before the US.
The US is one of the only five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and has a veto power that it has proven over and over again that America’s will, shall always be done. The US has used this veto more than 10 times over the past 18 months to protect Israeli genocide in Gaza.
As a result, Israel continues to use US bombs to annihilate Palestine out of existence, and world continues to watch hopelessly, with the exception of South Africa that has taken the bull by its horns!
The oftentimes Washington’s imposition of economic sanctions is a case in point. Once the US imposes against its geopolitical opponents, the rest of the world follows as meek as sheep.
The power of the US military, and the multitude of the US military bases around the world, ensures swift, and harsh, action against opponents. Additionally, the power of the US dollar, the world’s currency of trade, subjects any nation that trades in the US dollar to the US national laws.
Washington’s control of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank also ensures that the two domineering global lenders are also lethal weapons in Washington’s geopolitical arsenal.
Based on the evidence, and facts, nothing will stop the incoming US administration under Trump from achieving its imperial goals. Instead, many world leaders will be shamelessly kowtowing to Trump in return for investment favours, and arms deals.
There is very little hope in this treacherous world we live in, and even that hope is fast ebbing away.
* Abbey Makoe is founder and editor-in-chief: Global South Media Network. The views expressed here are his own.