Trump is President, so what? By Tunde Odesola

By Tunde Odesola

White Americans long wanted their country back. The pains of a Barack Obama presidency was a pill forced down their throats. Obama, arguably the greatest orator among American presidents, knew what Americans wanted at the time; a strong, charming and charismatic leader, who would give hope. Obama came with a dream proclaiming the audacity of hope.

Pilloried by terrorism (9/11) and a dwindling economy, Americans were ready to look anywhere for salvation. So, when the black messiah showed up, they fell at his feet.

A lot of White Americans didn’t see the Obama dream coming to fruition. They thought it was a joke until he won! A black man in the White House!?

The never forgave themselves for taking the joke too far, for making this Kenya turn their pretence to freedom, equality and opportunity into reality.

They retreated into their closets and wept secretly, bidding their time to revenge. Today, the clock has turned full cycle; they’ve got their pound of flesh. They’ve got back their country back after hundreds of years of racial-tolerance pretence, false equality, pseudo freedom and fake democratic idealism.

Despite all the ‘sins’ committed by Trump (tax evasion, racist taunts, anti-women comments, rant against ex-servicemen, etc), white Americans stood by their candidate.

If a more decent Republican candidate defeated Hilary Clinton, America would still have earned the respect of the world. But with this election result, morality, virtue and fairness as preached by American democracy are in question.

Did the FBI email probe have anything to diminish the chances of Clinton in the election?

NO! NO! NO! White Americans long made up their minds to cast their votes for ‘one of their own’. In America, you can change your choice after you’ve voted insofar the voting period is still on. One would why voters didn’t change their minds after the FBI cleared Clinton – two days to the final count?

Will Trump deliver on his promises? No.

America is unlike Nigeria, where so much power is concentrated in the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari, who controls all the institutions. Checks and balances work efficiently in the US. A Trump presidency cannot unilaterally actualise those ‘crazy’ promises like building a wall across Mexican borders, banning Muslim, draining the swamp, deporting Africans, anti-China stance, etc.

He needs well more than half of the Senate to support his aspirations, despite having a majority in both houses. Mark the words of his acceptance speech, “No more division…”

Trump will go down in history as an American president, who will not achieve most of his impracticable electoral promises. Trump is waking up to the realisation that America needs the rest of the world just as the rest of the world needs America. Why did global markets slide massively upon Trump’s emergence? Only in Russia did stocks appreciate following his victory. Truth is, there’s no room for Trump’s idiosyncrasies and whacky nature in the White House.

The realisation of the impracticability of his weird promises and threats, I think, informed his more subtle and tepid acceptance speech – in which he spoke like a man not under the influence.

Surely, Trump capitalised on the average, uneducated Americans, whose votes did the kill. I wonder why Hilary only concentrated on the swing states and left out some traditional Republican states?”

It wracks to the marrow why America, which gives the most powers to women, failed to join the rest of the civilised world in having a female president.

From the ides of 9/11 to 11/9, America sure has to watch the ‘ember months’, lest Vladmir Putin contest and win the White House in November 2020.

God bless America, a country in paradox.