Thursday, Jan 12, 2017

In a week’s time, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. What’s clear thus far since his election on November 8 last year is that he still remains in campaign mode — aggressive, divisive and incapable of giving a coherent answer to a straight question. His first press conference on Wednesday since being elected provided ample evidence that while now President-elect, he has yet to hone the craft of acting in a presidential manner as befitting the occupant of the White House and the highest elected office in the US.

Never before in modern US history has a president come to power in a manner so controversial and adversarial, at war with the media, at loggerheads with intelligence agencies, and so entwined and encumbered by his business links. What’s clear this far is that there is every probability that the next four years will offer ample chance for academics to pursue studies of the chaos theory of management.

Repeating and restating superlatives such as “the greatest”, “beautiful”, “amazing”, “tremendous” and “wonderful” does not amount to presidential thinking, nor does it equate into a legislative agenda for the US Senate, the House of Representatives nor the federal government.

It is Americans who will suffer the consequences now in Trump’s efforts to make America great again.

More worrying, perhaps, for all of us who live outside the US are the befuddled messages and diametrically opposing views that are being communicated by Trump and his own Cabinet choices.

Wednesday’s press conference afforded Trump an opportunity to act with gravitas and decorum, to present a clear view of where his administration will take the US. Instead of gravitas, he heaped scorn on the media, dismissing real concerns over Russia’s role in influencing the outcome of the November election. Those concerns have come from a series of intelligence reports, both verified and unsourced, but amounting to a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

And instead of decorum, Trump’s plan to remove himself from the day-to-day running of his business empire has been roundly criticised by the ethics office and commission of the federal government.

Contrast for a moment the dignity and grace displayed by President Barack Obama in his farewell speech delivered in Chicago the night before and that of Trump in his citadel in Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday — the differences are black and white. Never before has America been so divided.

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