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Why a Trump Win Matters

Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, achieved despite formidable opposition and alleged deep-state interference, could prompt sweeping reforms in governance. His approach is expected to diverge sharply from past administrations, focusing on global challenges such as the Ukraine war, Middle East instability, radicalism, and tensions with China and Russia.

November 15, 2024 By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd) Photo(s): By X / TeamTrump, X / VivekGRamaswamy, X / SenMarcoRubio, X / PeteHegseth, X / DefenceU
The Author is former Chief of Staff of a frontline Corps in the North East and a former helicopter pilot. He earlier headed the China & neighbourhood desk at the Defence Intelligence Agency. He retired in July 2020 and held the appointment of Addl DG Information Systems at Army HQ.

 

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump

This US election was of great relevance and importance to India on many geopolitical considerations. India faces threat from illegal migrants from Bangladesh where a democratically elected government has been overthrown by radical Islamist forces, not without the blessings of the American deep state. The warmth extended by President Biden to Md Yunus on the side-lines of UN summit and earlier pictures of Yunus in company of Obama and Gorge Soros leaves no doubts. Similarly, India faces the resurgence of Khalistani movement being mollycoddled by an insecure Justin Trudeau government, backed by the American deep state in cahoots with Pakistani ISI.

The Ukraine war, launched under the Obama-Biden administration in 2014 and reignited in 2022, has divided the world into a US-led bloc and a Russia-China-Iran-North Korea axis, deeply affecting global stability

As weird as perceptions tempered by wokeism, corporate controlled mainstream media and leftist liberal agenda can get, many in the civil society are hugely disappointed that Trump has trumped. There is much exasperation about his divisive and unpredictable personality, his extreme views, dictatorial tendencies and his propensity to drive an otherwise 'rule based international order' (RBIO) into utter chaos.

Billionaires Elon Musk (Left) and Vivek Ramaswamy (Right) will head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency

Echoes of these narratives reverberated in India in the run up to the 2024 Parliamentary elections when the combined array of opposition parties, left liberal intelligentsia, corporate controlled mainstream media and foreign funded NGOs hurled similar allegations against the BJP led NDA government that was seeking a third term. Just like Trump, Prime Minister Modi was accused of being divisive, dictatorial, anti-constitution and anti-democracy. The narrative mercifully failed though it did make a serious dent in the winning numbers of the NDA combine.

Trump vs The Voices of Doom and Gloom

Similarly, the mainstream US media, except perhaps Fox News, berated Trump and predicted global mayhem and chaos if he was elected. The opinion polls and the so called Nostradamus of US Presidential polls, Allan Lichtman, predicted a Kamala Harris win, staunchly supported by women, Blacks, Latinos and LGBTQ+, and endorsed by media stars like Oprah Winfrey, the glitterati from Hollywood, Silicon Valley high-tech billionaires (except Elon Musk) and the pop world. Donations poured in, far outstripping the Trump campaign. Even members of the UK ruling Labour party went on supposedly private trips to campaign for Harris.

Notwithstanding all that white noise, the countdown to a Trump Presidency has begun. The enlightened would like to pontificate this to be a countdown to a much prophesised 'Doomsday'. A granular understanding is warranted. The most significant impact of the Trump win is that he has achieved this against a seemingly insurmountable combination of forces. Therefore, as the President-elect announces his cabinet, it is but natural to expect that Trump will target the very forces that worked the last four years to derail his return bid. They include the military-industrial-complex (MIC), the oil and pharma lobbies, the mainstream media, and most overtly, elements in the Department of Justice (DoJ) which tried and indicted him in multiple cases in the Democratic controlled New York City.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked to serve (Left) Marco Rubio as United States Secretary of State;
(Middle) Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary; and (Right) John Ratcliffe as CIA Director

Trump is the only US President of this century who did not start a war but that seems to not impress the intelligentsia whether in the US or in India, who vilify him. On the other hand, smooth talking Barak Obama, the darling of the media and the upper crust, actually bombed at least six countries during his Presidential tenure. He was surprisingly eulogised with a Nobel Peace prize at the very start of his term. Due to George Bush's Global War on Terror (GWOT) and Obama's military misadventures, vast stretches of the Middle-east, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Syria and Libya are ungoverned territories, fertile for rampaging radical Islamist forces like ISIS and Boko Haram.

The American deep state's unchecked influence is a global concern, as noted by economic historian Sir Niall Ferguson and echoed by leaders like Vivek Ramaswamy, who advocate for governance free from shadowy, unelected actors

The Role of the Deep State in Global Conflicts

It is not out of place to remind the readers that the Ukraine war project was launched in February 2014 by the American deep state under the watch of Obama and then VP Biden but was forced to be put on hold for four years of Trump presidency from 2016-2020. It could only be successfully re-launched in February 2022 after Biden returned, this time as the President. The Ukraine war has virtually split the world into two spheres, the US led west and the Russia-China-Iran-North Korea axis, the later forged by necessity. Russia under President Putin was working on a Eurasian economic construct, building the Nord Stream under-sea pipeline to sell cheap, environment friendly natural gas to the households and industries of Germany and the rest of Europe. That was sabotaged in September 2022, six months into the war, in order to promote the interests of the US gas lobby and that of its ally Qatar. NATO expansion and a new war were urgent for the MIC after messy pull-out from Afghanistan.

(Left) Gaza has been left completely damaged by the ongoing Israel war with Hamas; (Right) Ukraine has been totally devasted by the current war with Russia

Ukraine today is a country devastated and vaporised. Germany is in recession and so are a number of other EU nations that back Ukraine. 12 million Ukrainians have fled abroad as refugees and over 6,00,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the conflict. Yet, comically Zelensky talks of a 'Victory Plan'! However, the US deep state continues to supply lethal arms and munitions to the tune of over $64 billion. Notably, the American CBS News revealed last week that, "...30 per cent of it reaches its final destination. As per Jonas Ohman, the founder of a Lithuania-based organisation supplying the Ukrainian military, getting the weapons to the troops involves navigating a complex network of "power lords, oligarchs and political players." The reader will get the drift.

Trump, as the only US President of this century not to initiate a war, starkly contrasts with predecessors like Obama, whose military interventions created vast ungoverned territories and bolstered radical Islamist groups

The deep state needs to be urgently dismantled as Sir Niall Fergusson, economic historian and senior Fellow at the Stanford University urges, noting that no one actually knows who runs America. That's a dangerous situation for the world's most potent military power. Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-chair of the newly proposed US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) echoes these sentiments when he says that the government should be run by those elected to govern and not by shadowy elements in the deep state.

The cabinet choices of Trump indicate tough posture on illegal migration, on wokeism, on radical political Islam, on China and Iran; and on cleansing the US Deep state that triggers debilitating wars for profit. The world urgently looks for an end to the war in Ukraine and the widening war in Gaza and Lebanon. It also needs relief from political Islam that has ensnared the UK, Belgium, Germany, France and Netherland apart from destabilising many African nations; and substantially reduce the proliferation of radical militias and terror networks. Trump may be the man who can deliver some or all of these.