He chose a tough alternative, one that appeared to herald the end of a 70-year American policy to shape a world that would follow its lead. The struggle for a just America and a fair America, an inclusive America, and a generous America has started under Trump. Though Obama claims to work for an inclusive America the fact is Trump has snatched the agenda and is on the mission to project himself as the maker of the real modern America

Obama assiduously used the presidency to boot his personal image at the cost of the global peace. Even many of his supporters subscribe to what Nobel committee secretary Geir Lundestad has written in his memoir, “the Nobel prize to him was “a mistake.” The paradox is that Obama, the peacemaker, turned out to be a mirror image of Bush. Obama, like Bush, paid little respect to international law or even American law when it came in the way of his overseas military operations. Obama did not seek U.N. or U.S. congressional authorization before launching an air war in Syria. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70 % of the world’s nations, 138 countries a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration. In 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped 26,171 bombs.

Trump on his part does not intend to unnecessarily drag the USA in war. He is determined to repair the damage America has suffered. This is the reason, gone are the days, he said, when America spent billions to try to lift the fortune of foreign nations, with no strategic benefits for the US. Many people, Including Americans view this as an isolationist approach of USA, but this according to Trump is the correct path to salvage the pride and economic condition of the USA. That is why 'from this day forward, it's going to be only America first,' he said, in a line that resonated around the world.

'We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.' Trump is right in asserting that the US will no longer subsidise 'the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military'. Trump has won by promising to curb immigration into the USA by building a wall on the border with Mexico and throwing out those staying on illegally. He has threatened to impose “extreme vetting” on visitors from the Muslim world.
.
Keeping his electoral promise Trump on January 27 put a hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries. He said his action would give his administration time to develop more stringent screening procedures for refugees, immigrants and visitors. 'I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here,' Trump said. During his campaign, Trump tapped into American fears about Islamic State militants and the flood of migrants into Europe from Syria's civil war, saying refugees could be a 'Trojan horse' that allowed attackers to enter the United States. This travel ban has been rejected by a US Court Judge and the administration has been compelled to allow the visa holders who were affected by ban, to enter USA.

This action of Trump must not make India euphoric. After taking over the office Trump had called Narendra Modi, the fifth in the list of world leaders to be phoned by him. Before calling Modi, Trump had called the president of Mexico who has been now at his target. Canada was at the top of the list. Now he has warned Canada that the NAFTA treaty must be renegotiated in America’s favour. Being on Trump’s phone list is purely a caution warning.

Trump is determined to follow an ultra nationalist line, a fascist political line. Fascism is a particular political form in capitalism which emerged out of the crises in global capital and working class revolutions from WWI through the 30s. Capitalism is an economic system of society, fascism is a political system. In some cases elements of fascism may be combined with elements of capitalism, such as in Chile under Pinochet. The widely used definition of Fascism is 'Government with the basis of a powerful leader' whereas, Capitalism is defined as 'A system of government with private or corporate ownership of means of production'.

There are various definitions of what state-capitalist means. The Forrest-Johnson tendency developed the most thorough and sound theory of state-capitalism in the USSR. Probably it would not be an exaggeration to say that Trump has been evolving his own model of fascist-capitalist political form. He is aware that America has been the monarch of the capitalist world order. But it has lost its glory during the rule of Bush and Obama. His opposition and obstinacy to whatever Obama did owes to it.

It is not the ground rule that only serious nature of politicians should be trusted for proper and right nature of rule and governance. The world is full of stud politicians. In this backdrop rejecting Trump outright would be like committing political hara-kiri. His move to amalgamate capitalism and fascism politics should be followed seriously. He is trying to keep away the countries and forces from America who have been sucking American wealth like a parasite.

He will trample those in the way of his “America First” approach, including close allies of NATO and Japan. India is not important him to target right now. One thing is absolutely clear that he is for scrapping the liberal economic consensus that the Bush and Obama administrations had forged, helping USA to win the Cold War. This is going to hurt all those who gained from that liberal, globalising era, including India. Trump’s declarations of friendship to Modi mean no more than his telling Nawaz Sharif that he’s ‘a terrific guy’.

If Bush-Obama boosted strategic relations with India as the only credible check on China, Trump will expect India to perform a more proactive role. In this backdrop China will not only retaliate against Trump’s protectionism but against India too for helping Trump’s cause. That could lead to global trade wars of the sort that deepened the 1930s Great Depression. He will get tough on visas for Indian software engineers to work in the US. He will get tough on drug patents and other intellectual property rights. He could get aggressive on India’s high agricultural tariffs. Nothing about him is predictable except that he believes he can bully his way through anything.

Modi too, like Trump, also wanted to protect India from the menace of illegal Muslim migration from Bangladesh. Like Trump, he promised sanctuary and refuge to Bangladeshi Hindus who were a religious minority in Bangladesh. Modi and Trump want to show their core voters that they know who the real enemy is. There is some commonality. (IPA Service)