Donald Trump winning the U.S. elections, surely Pakistani rulers and the establishment are paying attention to the new American President.
The win for Donald Trump was almost a foregone conclusion. Despite numerous political and non-political hindrances, the vicious smear campaigns by his political opponents, and some very serious allegations, Trump still managed to project himself to American voters successfully.
Well, many pundits in America had often predicted that Trump was yesterday’s man and has no politics future in front of him. But his opponents and pundits missed the essential point that the popularity of Trump made it nearly impossible to defeat.
Interestingly, his opponent Kamala Harris was portrayed positively in U.S. media and election polls to enhance her perceived victory. Trump had tremendous media criticism, with oft-repeated claims that his victory would destabilize America and broaden its political divide. However, Trump has always had an alternative focus on digital media over the traditional media; this worked great for him to come out from all that negative coverage traditional media had projected upon him and get re-elected.
Trump cannot be taken as an ordinary politician, and criticism may target him on different grounds, but his unprecedented popular support does little or no scope to stall or sideline his political track. Many US and foreign analysts say it was a victory for populism, which may harm U.S. domestic politics, but in any democracy, elections are ruled by popular goodwill; thus those who claim this victory will be bad for the country should respect the voters’ choice.
Kamala Harris failed to mention and criticize Biden’s administration or the Democrats’ policies, especially their policies regarding global wars. The voters in those wars were in many respects alienated by Biden’s administration, such as its support for Israel’s aggression against the Arab world, Lebanon, Gaza, and Ukraine. Inflation became a reason why lots of American voters voted for Trump.
Trump’s campaign worked as it appealed to lower-middle and middle-class Americans and the business community so tired of these endless wars and conflicts when the candidate presented the argument for diverting America from a policy of conflicts towards the growth of the economy.
Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” still is extremely popular. Issues he faces as President are ending U.S. support for conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and determining policies toward Iran, China, Afghanistan, and India. Whether his policy toward Israel will be different is another very important question.
Most of the admirers of Donald Trump hope that his government takes more interest in issues at home. It may also experience some shifts in its policies towards Pakistan and India, especially in South Asia.
American policy is not essentially a one-man affair but generally depends on a larger agenda. But this time around, Trump has somehow emerged as a strong man with the support of the Senate, making it impossible to ignore his policies. His first priority, likely will therefore be to stabilize the U.S. domestic politics and select a team that is powerful.
Pakistan rulers are also looking at the new U.S. President because change of government in the U.S. often brings about a change in U.S. policies. Issues which would be of interest for Pakistan would be: Indo-Pak relations, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan-China relations, terrorism, and security.
Pakistan hopes that the new US administration will politically engage with these issues, but expecting a huge change in the short term might not be very realistic. Instead, Pakistan needs to address domestic issues, ensure economic and security stability, reduce political divisions, and protect human rights. Currently, Pakistan is not treated as a strategic partner of the US and there is hardly any trust between the two nations.
U.S. interests have begun to shift towards the Asia-Pacific region. It perceives that China is increasing its influence in this region. The U.S. expects Pakistan to ensure Afghanistan would never become a center of terror; however, on all such counts, it fears Pakistan’s alliance with China and does not trust all such affairs. Likewise, Pakistan is concerned about the growing defense ties between the U.S. and India, but the two countries are dependent upon one another.
The hope among PTI supporters that Trump’s return will lead to the release of the PTI founder will probably prove naive because relations between states are not based on personalities but on mutual interests. The Pakistani government has concerns that Trump might intervene in their domestic matters, but any influence will probably come about through quiet diplomacy and may not show up with immediate results.