The Next Steps for President Trump

There was inexorable jubilation as a victorious Donald Trump descended on to the stage after being elected President of the United States to full orchestral score of Harrison Ford’s Air Force One. This was the triumphant culmination of a movement of almost one and a half year ago that resulted not just an emphatic defeat of Hillary Clinton but also in complete dismantling of the establishment. The establishment that is an unholy complicity among the top brass personnel of both the Democrat and Republican party, the big donors who wanted a puppet politicians, the entertainment industry and the mainstream news media. Over the years the political establishment became a cabal that forgot about their duty to serve the people that voted for them and instead became over entitled, self-righteous, elitist, self-protecting, out of touch and self-serving.

In every syllable that Trump uttered in his victory speech emanated graciousness and humility. He praised Hillary Clinton and he thanked her for her service to the nation. He urged Republicans, Democrats and Independents to come together as one united people. He pledged to be the President for all Americans. He went on to tell the global community that while he will always put America’s interests first he will deal fairly with everyone. He concluded with the message that he will seek common ground not hostility, partnership not conflict.

Clearly Trump has a desire to collaborate with people and politicians across the aisle in the interest of America. That is exactly how politics should work, after the campaign ends politics should be left out of running the government. But is this practical scenario and is the ground fertile enough to sow the seeds of bipartisan unity?

To understand the reality we travel across oceans to India. The circumstances in the United States in 2016 is almost identical to that in India back in 2014. There was an apathetic government and took power for granted, corruption was rampant, the economy was soft, unemployment was high, inflation was high, the fear of terrorism was everywhere and the overall morale was down. India desperately needed a strong leader who could inspire the nation again, steer it in the right direction and clean up the mess. 

Enter Mr. Narendra Modi, a relative outside i.e. he never worked in any major capacity in the capital city of Delhi. He was the Chief Minister (Governor) of one of India’s major states of Gujarat, under his leadership the state achieved new heights in growth and prosperity. Unfortunately at the beginning of his term as Chief Minister, there were riots in response to Islamic fundamentalist burning alive a train full of Hindu pilgrims. The liberal media and the opposition used it to project Modi as a right wing Hindu fundamentalist with a deep prejudice against Muslims and with authoritarian tendencies. Comparison with Hitler were made in op-ed pieces, inquiries committees were set up and court cases went on for over a decade. But there was not smidgen of evidence found against Modi. As Modi contested election as the Prime Ministerial candidate of his party, college professors, entertainers and ‘intellectual’ warning that Modi’s victory will lead to deep division and a destruction of India’s multicultural fabric. But the people knew well and in May 2014 Modi was voted PM of India with a landslide majority. Upon his victory Modi was eager to work with the opposition to rebuild the nation and get things done. Again a very good idea indeed, but quite soon reality dawned on everybody.

The media and the opposition first threw a statistics out that that Modi won only 36% percent of Indians had voted for Modi. Clearly an attempt to delegitimize Modi, the fact remained that Modi’s party alliance won 336 out of 543 seats in the parliament, the highest in decades. But what followed was much more dangerous not just for Modi but for nation. India is a vast country and there will be acts of violence committed against someone at some point in some place. Modi’s victory the media and the opposition collaborated to build a narrative that minorities were under threat. Whenever the victim belonged to the majority community it would get no coverage, but when the victim belonged to the minority community it would hit headlines be covered for days with the implication that the incident occurred because the individual was from the minority and that Modi had created a climate for it to happen. There were spurious accounts from individuals who claimed to be harassed and discriminated by ‘Hindu fundamentalists’ and these were carried by the media as if it were the gospel. They all turned out to be a total falsehood.

This reached critical mass when on the eve of a elections in the state of Bihar a group of left wing ‘intellectuals’, film maker and authors began returning their awards to protest against the growing intolerance in India. The international media picked it up and a narrative was built that under Modi India was in flames. When Indian soldiers were massacred by Jihadists from Pakistan, Modi led the Indian army to conducted surgical strikes over the border in Pakistan to destroy the terrorist camps. But instead of standing with the country in this moment of peril, the left wing opposition and the media began questioning the veracity of the strikes against Pakistan, thus helping the enemy. Despite being proven wrong on all occasions, there was not a word of apology from the leftist opposition. The media neither retracted nor apologized for their falsehoods. The opposition were brazen in blocking the activities of parliament and stopping every bill from being passed. The role of the opposition is to keep the government in check but here Modi had hostility for everything he did without reason. To summarize, Modi had to learn that there was no way he could work with these leftists who had a personal agenda against him and were not going to allow his government to function. The policies and reforms he had to pass had to be done by being tough and uncompromising.

Back to America, over the past days we saw Trump meet with President Obama and say kind words about him. He also met with establishment Republicans where they promised to work with Trump. The reaction of Trump’s victory from the Democrats has of two kinds, Obama and Hillary Clinton vowed to support Trump but added with subtle condescension added the importance of the rule of law, the multicultural aspect of the country. Just today Obama once again sort of questioned Trump’s temperament. The second reaction has come from likes of the exiting Harry Reid attacked who claimed that Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America. As these statements were being made thousands of unruly thugs all over United States indulged in rioting and destruction of property as they chat “Love Trumps Hate” to oppose the election of Trump. It has been a week since Trump was elected but neither Obama nor Hillary uttered a word to condemn the rioters. The media covers these riot by terming them protests. The irony is that these very Democrats had expressed grave concern that millions of Trump supporters would indulge in unruly behavior if they many they supported lost. We had seen from the videos of project Veritas how leftist Democrat operatives hired homeless people and thugs to indulge in acts of violence. It is quite likely that these are carefully coordinated riots are a product of a similar tactic by the left. We have heard of fabricated stories by minorities claiming attacks. This is almost an imitation of what the left did to Modi in India, it just happened the very next day after he was elected.

So how does Trump deal with all this going forward? He has to never forget that baring individuals such a Gingrich, Christie, Pence, Sessions, Priebus, Giuliani and a few others there are very few in the political realm whom he can trust. The enemy within is quite often more dangerous than the enemy beyond. It is clear that the likes of Ryan and McConnell will try their best to restrain Trump and try to convince him to dilute his stand on his key issue. But Trump must never forget that Ryan, McConnell and other were the first to find an excuse to dump him when the ‘lewd’ tape surfaced. Now that Trump won by a landslide, they want to bask the fruits of success. Trump must learn from Modi that the opposition is never ever going to support him no matter what he does. Trump has to know that the only way he can strike deals with these people is to compel them to do things his way and not allow himself to be reversed.

Trump has secured a massive mandate to drain the swamp and the best way to do that is to start with total aggression. He has to appoint the people he wants and not allow establishment folks to creep in. He needs to get the ball rolling on all his key issues such curbing illegal immigration, shutting down sanctuary cities, deportation of illegals and the building of the wall that can end-up becoming a tourist attraction like the Great Wall of China. He needs to make sure that the influx of Syrian refugees are stopped while focusing on enhancing national security, and the repeal of Obamacare. He needs to call Obama and ask him to deal with the rioting. He needs to get on the rebuilding of the infrastructure, where he may get support from some reasonable Republicans and Democrats. 

No matter what the establishment Republicans say, Trump must never forget that he is a winner, it is not up to him to reach out to losers, it is the losers who will have reach out and adapt the winner.  The only way he can take over the rotting system is to kick the door open, storm the place and seize control. This display of strength at the start will send a clear message that the Trump administration is a formidable force that is not to be messed with. At every point he will be confronted by leftists who will try and paint his moves as racist, bigoted, divisive and bad for America, surely the news media will join in the hysterical drum beating. There will be protests the likes that the nation has never seen before. But Trump must never ever capitulate for these intimidation tactics, the people who voted him want him to take these actions. To summarize he needs to focus on the interest his supporters and not his opponents while governing. Once the benifits begin trickling down to the general public, everything will improve. If he tries to bring change slowly and politely, there will be impediments and the opposition will see an oppurtunity to mould Trump according to their ideas.

The intention here is not to dampen the mood of Trump and his supporters. 
This is the time for celebration for Trump and his supporters. But there must also be caution, it is important to understand that despite being the recipient of a crushing defeat, the establishment has not been totally destroyed. They will do everything to revive their existence and relevance. Hence Trump must not allow those with a different agenda to creep into his inner circle. Trump needs to surround himself with the right people and focus on his plan of rebuilding America, this will automatically lead to the restructuring of the establishment such that the serve the people. 

Despite having political experience of just fifteen months, Trump has proven himself to be genius at understanding the system. At every juncture of this race, almost every political pundit and veteran predicted that he would never win a single vote. But Trump ended up defeating sixteen highly experienced politicians in the primaries and the Clinton machinery during the general elections. Trump has all the talent, the tools and most importantly the instincts to be a great president. Based on what the recent appointments he has made and the words in recent days it is quite clear that things will change in Washington and quite soon America Will Great Again.

PS: It is also quite likely for supporters to get eager and loose patience during the initial phases. But it is important to give him the time to do his job. Remember it is the target that is important not always the manner in which the targed it achived