No other American leader has generated so much anticipation and anxiety in recent history. The liberals may continue to jeer and sneer, but Trump 2.0 is going to be an agenda-setting event for the entire world. (File)
Jan 18, 2025 21:46 IST First published on: Jan 18, 2025 at 07:00 IST
Donald Trump’s inauguration will take place on January 20, formally setting the stage for Trump 2.0. Unlike his election in 2016, which was seen more as an accident and aberration, Trump 2.0 is generating a lot of discussion across the world, both in anticipation and with trepidation.
For the elite lobby – federal bureaucracy, political and financial elites, defence contractors and media moguls — that wields enormous influence in Washington DC which Trump describes in derision as the “deep state”, his return with enhanced power is going to be a nightmare. The America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank closely aligned with Trump, alleged that during his first term, Trump had come up against the power of the liberal and Left-wing bureaucracy, entrenched in thousands of agencies over decades, when department after department either disobeyed his orders or deliberately derailed them. In fact, an anonymous Op-Ed in The New York Times in 2018 with the title ‘I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration’ described internal efforts to scuttle and sabotage the then President’s initiatives. A year later, the author, who eventually identified himself as Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, published a book titled A Warning.
In a remote corner of the White House exists a classified safe that contains a stack of documents listing the extraordinary powers a US president is authorised to use. They are called the Presidential Emergency Action Documents or PEADs. They are also described by some as the “Doomsday Book”. In a revealing article, Time magazine reported a few months ago that only a privileged few have access to those documents, and even members of the US Congress were not allowed to see them. “When Donald Trump was in the Oval Office, members of his national security staff actively worked to keep him from learning the full extent of these interpretations of presidential authority, concerned that he would abuse them”, it said.
This deep state bureaucracy is what Trump wishes to dismantle. During his election campaign, he announced a 10-point plan to this end. As he returns to power as an experienced and determined leader, Trump is reiterating that commitment. The US administration comprises more than 20,000 departments that employ over two million people. A few thousand change with the change of political leadership, but a large section of the bureaucracy is largely permanent. It is not easy for presidents to remove those bureaucrats. President Gerald Ford once said that “one of the enduring truths of the nation’s capital is that bureaucrats survive” while the elected officials come and go. President Reagan quipped that a government bureau is “the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”
But Trump is a known disruptor. He has deployed loyal supporters like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to prepare a plan for slashing government spending on bureaucracy by affecting a 75 per cent cut in the federal workforce. Trump’s plan to weaken the power of the “deep state” includes reducing power concentration in Washington DC and dispersing government departments across the US cities.
Doing this will be a challenge. Whether Trump 2.0 succeeds in dismantling the “deep state” stranglehold is something to be watched. However, the message appears to have reached the desired quarters.
Hindenburg, a notoriously murky short seller that portrayed itself as an investment research firm and indulged in hit jobs, suddenly announced it was shutting shop. Founder Nate Anderson, claimed that he took the decision seeking a “better work-life balance”. Several last-minute executive orders that outgoing President Biden issued in the last couple of weeks, including a presidential pardon to his own son, and the Presidential Medal for Freedom, the highest civilian honour, to the controversial investor George Soros, also smack of the deep state’s desire to create hurdles for the new administration.
With the deep state actively working overtime, Trump will have his hands full in the next several months tackling domestic challenges. But he seems determined not to be bogged down by them. Besides his Making America Great Again (MAGA) agenda, Trump is actively cultivating a world leadership that shares his conservative vision and is willing to challenge deep state assets in their respective countries. The US State Department records in the last 150 years show no instance of any foreign leader ever attending the inauguration ceremony of a president. Trump broke that convention and invited several world leaders.
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The inauguration committee’s choice of leaders invited for the January 20 ceremony speaks volumes about the disruption that Trump would cause in Europe and elsewhere. Leaders invited include surprising choices like President Xi Jinping of China, who has deputed his Vice President Han Zheng to attend. While leaders of important European countries like Germany, France and the UK were ignored, the Prime Minister of Italy, Georgia Meloni and Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban received invitations. Trump’s choice of inviting Nigel Farage, a UK conservative politician and Eric Zemmour, a French conservative leader, besides Meloni and Orban indicates his intention to end the liberal dominance of European politics and promote a conservative leadership. The foreign ministers of India and Japan too received invitations, suggesting that Trump would continue to work with Quad partners.
No other American leader has generated so much anticipation and anxiety in recent history. The liberals may continue to jeer and sneer, but Trump 2.0 is going to be an agenda-setting event for the entire world. Unlike in the past, the trump card of President Trump will be his structured disruptions. The deep state should watch out.
The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal
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