Pankaj Mishra
President Joe Biden overturned Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban,” relinquished his border wall, and forced the masking of federal property. began the cage, in his first week, this is Trumpism. In this important task at home, he is backed by a political and media alliance that has been almost two-pronged since the crowded attack on the Capitol – a serious threat to social, economic and political order for Trump and his fierce supporters.
However, the new president’s fiercest confrontation with the Trumpists will take place abroad, especially in countries where his powers have been preserved, such as India and the United Kingdom.
Trump himself had no greater allies or spiritual friends on the international stage than the politicians and journalists in these two collapsed democracies. Before Brexit, Barack Obama correctly identified Boris Johnson as Trump’s British version. (Johnson was there the dog’s whistle that the then U.S. president was “partially Kenyan.”
Trump himself was involved in a recovery campaign for Brexit, and the Brexiteers naturally celebrated his victory in 2016, and as Johnson’s close ally Michael Gove said, they are now a “warm and generous friend” at the White House. In early 2017, then-Prime Minister Theresa May rushed to Washington Hold Trump’s hand and inviting him on a major state visit to the UK
India’s Indian nationalist government has licked Trump’s indifference more confidently. In 2017, Iva-nka Trump paid an unconstitutional, quasi-state visit to India, where she opened a business summit with Indian Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi in Hyderabad. At a large gathering of Indian Americans in Ho-uston in 2019, Modi held Trump’s hand tighter than he did in May and appro-ached him dangerously. confirmation his re-election. Trump, who is preparing to visit India in early 2020, boasted on Twitter that Indian bromancer Modi’s home in Gujarat promised him an audience of “5 million to 7 million”. The actual turnout was close to 100,000. Still, Trump was very pleased to use clips from the rally in his re-election campaign.
Like the Brexiteers, Indian nationalists have found a president in Trump who tends to approve of the destruction of their institutions and norms, or at least to be insignificant. Modi under Trump is a constitutionally guaranteed Kashm-ir and introduced clear legislation against Muslims.
Indian nationalists could even believe that Trump would remain indifferent when police and Indian fanatics take office in February 2020 murder attacks to Muslims a few miles from where he met Modi in New Delhi.
In addition, Trump’s British and Indian avatars have received extraordinary support from journalists and broadcasters. Among major thinkers in the United States, Trump’s support base has been largely limited to Rupert Murdoch’s media and far-right wingers; he could be jealous of India’s loyalty to the news-entertainment ch-annels that were hostile to Modi, and even his decisio-ns affected the Indian economy and social system.
In Britain, the Daily Telegraph and Spectator, as well as tabloids, promoted Johnson to a high position through a miasma of lies. Murdoch’s expanding media empire has found a very convenient home in Britain today for its fake news and conspiracy theories. Of course, at a time when Trump has been widely disgraced and the pandemic is still raging, some British Trumpists are now busy as economists put, “Clean their CVs of any Trumpery tips.”
Unfortunately, for them, such revisionism cannot work in the age of the Internet. A few seconds of Googling exposes Britain’s tribute to Trump in some way: For example, Douglas Murray, Spectator’s senior editor, told him in 2017 that “the West is a reminder of our great things and a less regrettable defense. for what we have given. ” this is greatness. ”
The big problem for many British Trumpists is that Biden seems less interested in Brexit than Kenya’s Obama or Britain in general. As he briefly told the BBC last year, a video clip It spread on the internet: “I’m Irish.”
Hindu supremacists are also right to be concerned about Biden’s call in July 2020 for India’s “long-standing secular traditions”. While Indian nationalists were happy that Kamala Harris was the first Indo-American vice president, they were less inclined to remember him. confirmation In 2019, “we need to remind Kashmiris that they are not alone in this world.”
Politicians often do not support the beliefs expressed in the election campaign mode. Geopolitical interests come to determine their own policies once they take power.
Still, there is nothing to reduce the moral challenges facing Biden and Harris. As Trumpism licks its wounds at home, the world is watching how the Biden administration treats its counterparts abroad.
Bloomberg
