Donald Trump Shakes The United States In A Week
The United States, a country that has oscillated in its history between moments of openness to the world and others of closure, has entered a phase of retreat that shakes some of the pillars that have sustained its hegemony. In his first week in the White House, Donald Trump has ordered the closure of borders to people fleeing the economic misery, political persecution or civil wars, and has opened a diplomatic crisis with the southern neighbor, Mexico. All in the midst of a frenzied activity, while breaking norms and paradigms typical of most modern democracies.
Trump does not disappoint. Neither his own nor those who feared that he would bring to the White House his worst version, that of the populist and nationalist tribune who campaigned across boundaries and broke taboos that very few candidates had crossed.
He promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico that since the nineties is now largely protected by fences and other obstacles - and one of his first decisions was to sign a decree ordering start building. He promised a tough hand with the immigrants and has empowered law enforcement to arrest the undocumented and launch a political and judicial battle against the large cities hosting them.
He vowed to veto the entry of Muslims, and although the decree signed Friday reduces the scope of the veto to seven countries, it not only discriminates against a religion but punishes the Syrian victims of the massacres in their country by locking them the United States door.
He promised another symbolic wall to globalization, and one of his first decisions was to withdraw his country from the TPP, a free trade agreement among countries in the Pacific basin that represent 40% of the world economy. The TPP excluded China, and the withdrawal of the US, like other gestures of international withdrawal, may leave a free path to a rising China.
He promised to revolutionize the way of governing in Washington, and the pace of decisions in these first nine days, simultaneous messages and open fronts, and the will to continue offending opponents and manipulating the truth has shown that Washington will not change him but he will change Washington.
Trump, as he wrote on Saturday, does not seem to want to undergo the traditional view of the first hundred days, but of the first hundred hours. "No president in modern times, perhaps never, has started with such a burst of initiatives on so many fronts and in such a short time," the paper said.
Trump is no longer a maverick candidate, not a showman of reality shows, a joke for entertainment programs. He is the president of the United States, the country that since its foundation has presented itself as a different nation, a model for humanity. With its decisions By pointing to Mexican and Muslims, placing the "alternative facts" in the White House decision nucleus, by retaking conspiracy theories that discredit the American democratic system, can turn into acceptable behaviors and ideologies that until recently were situated in the margins of this society.