Prime News Ghana

Donald Trump's first year in retrospect

By PrimeNewsGhana
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Today marks exactly one year after President Donald Trump was sworn into office as the 45th President of the United States of America.

There have, however been growing concerns by many across the globe that his domestic and international relationships are unconventional.

Notable among the concerns are his relationship with the mainstream media, which he takes on with the least or no provocation at all.
Trump, a Republican, whose main campaign message was, “Let's make America great again”, polled a surprise by toppling Democrat, Hillary Clinton when he won 304 of the total of 538 electoral votes.

The winner needed a simple majority of 270 to sail through.

By the United States Constitution, the popular votes cast by voters across the federal states, does not determine the winner but the electoral votes by the Electoral College does.

Thus, despite the sweeping 66 million of the popular votes cast, Mrs. Clinton could not win the Electoral College, which decided the winner.

FACTORS ACCOUNTING FOR TRUMP's WIN
One of the reasons considered for Trump's win in the most industrious “Rust Belt” States-- Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconson- was that many voters there were peeved with Democratic leaders who have over time failed to heed their demands or listen to their voices to revive the defunct industries to create jobs for the people.

Mrs Clinton erroneously, never stepped foot to campaign in these states with the belief that it was a done deal for her, giving the then candidate Trump the leeway to trumpet his “revival ”messages there.

Trump had a massive win in these states together with the “Almighty” Florida, the largest swing state as voters were given high hopes of employment opportunities through job creation in their home states.

However, one year on, they seem angrier than ever because the Trump Administration is yet to redeem this promise as there seems to be no sign of any industrial jobs soon.

POLICIES IN HIS FIRST YEAR

Trump’s first year in office has truly been turbulent fraught with a large number of Executive Orders that seek to overturn some of the previous Administration’s policies, which it considers unproductive and could harm the American economy.

His immigration review initiatives have sparked outrage across the world but his administration is bent on cancelling the DACA, which shields young immigrants who arrived in the US as children, to live and work without fear of deportation.

The others are the Executive Orders that threaten the deportation of some 11 million undocumented immigrants in America who are protected under the DREAM programme and attempts to build a Mexico border wall to prevent immigrants from coming into the country.

His Foreign Policies have been considered the most unpopular, his pronouncements about Jerusalem being recognised as the Capital of Israel to the discomfort of Palestine and non-existence policy for Africa are all issues of concern.

Matthew Kroeing, an Associate Professor of Georgetown University, speaking on the U.S and the International Order, told some selected journalists on a reporting tour to the US that it was a mistake for President Trump to pull out of NATO.

Donald Trump

The tour, organised by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) with funding from the United States Embassy, afforded the journalists the opportunity to visit the Washington Post, Newseum, (a news museum) and the Foreign Press Centre.

He said Ex-Presidents, Bush, Clinton and Obama all considered Jerusalem during their campaigns but they reconsidered their positions after weighing the realities when they were in office. He described President Trump’s pronouncement as 'controversial'.

He said Trump's orders on the Middle East, Europe, South and East Asia will not change with his tweets because policies do not change overnight but through processes.

It was surprising that the President was tough on Europe but sympathetic to Russia, he said.

On health policies, his attempts to abort the ObamaCare, thus cutting off key subsidies last year caused insurance market prices to skyrocket, making it unaffordable for people who buy that policy on individual market places. The Obamacare ends in two years and poor Americans are sitting on tenterhooks, hoping for a miracle.

MEDIA RELATIONS
Trump's twists and turns through his tweets are also causing more confusion and giving journalists more work than they bargained for and leaving Americans and the world, more confused over a wide range of issues

Jenna Johnson, Washington Post's White House Correspondent, told the visiting journalists in Washington DC when they visited the Washington Post as part of their reporting tour, that the media had more work than before and her outfit had to increase the White House correspondents from three to seven.

She said the name calling of the media by President Trump as “fake” was unfortunate because many Americans no longer trusted the mainstream media and described the situation as “scary” adding that, the President was unpredictable.

VIEWS OF AMERICANS
Speaking on Trump's first year in an interview with the Ghana News Agency's intern at the Cincinnati Enquirer, a multimedia Group in Ohio, Paski Davis, 32, a public worker, described the Administration as the worse ever, he had witnessed in the country.

“He is not for us, we don’t have a President,” he shouted, and added that the “poor will remain poor under

such a leader”.

Aleatha Davies, a hotel attendant, said, President Trump was an extremist, who did not care about anybody, whether white, black, rich or poor, adding that he was the most unpopular President America had ever produced and that many of those who voted for him had bitterly regretted.

However, a retired Army Officer, at Bethel County, Jim Chendler, 82, and a staunch Republican, described President Trump’s "as the best thing that ever happened to America."

He said President Trump was on the right track in his decisions to “bring America back to the Constitution.

“He is probably the most rational President in his actions and not in his disruptions”.

He expressed fears that if America's borders were not protected from immigrants the country would not be safe for its inhabitants.
He, therefore, lauded the moves by the Trump Administration to secure its borders and get people who were not documented out of the country.
Michael Getz, a construction worker with Dike Energy, expressed similar sentiments, saying documented immigrants were fellow Americans, however, undocumented ones must be moved out of the country and the borders must be secured to keep America safe for Americans.

DECISION OF CONGRESS

Congress as of Friday January 19 was in a deadlock on whether to vote for funding to support the Government to carry out its policies and programmes or not.

The Democrats have also vowed not to vote for anything that do not support DACA. They won't also vote to support the funding of an 'unnecessary' wall on the Mexican border.

Mrs Crystal Kendricks, an Ohio Marketing Consultant concludes, “We are a country of many cultures but the President has failed to recognise this, but we have lived through many things and we will live this time too and pull through it”.

"America will have to pass this litmus test and be a positive example for many nations who look up to it’s leadership for inspiration.

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