In the midst of his impeachment process in the Congress of the United States, President Donald Trump continues focussed on his re-election campaign for November 2020. The President divides his agenda into three parts. We shall see if the evolution of the impeachment changes his strategy.

In the first place, since he came to power, his agenda prioritized the creation of conditions to ensure his re-election for another period of four years, at least. Secondly, place, he wants to consolidate the divisions among the subordinate classes (workers, ethnic groups, gender and others) in order to guarantee his watchword ‘Make America Great Again.’ Thirdly, he wants to modify the balance of power on a world scale, attacking the policies of globalization, in order to bring about his slogan of ‘America First!’.

The battle cry ‘America First!’ implies accentuating the imbalance among nation states on a global scale in favour of the United States, undermining their adversaries and weakening their allies. Protectionism implies weakening the relations with other countries–trade agreements, cultural treaties and even military ones–as well as ‘closing’ the borders with undesirable countries. Trump’s ‘Wall’ put aside the project of his predecessors that emphasized ‘globalization’, renovating the open and aggressive style of the arms race, as well as making China into a new strategic enemy on the world scene.

The confrontation among classes and class fractions contributes to his project to ‘Make America great again’ inasmuch as it distracts the subordinate classes that have trouble identifying their own interests. The nationalist-from-above variant has as a corollary racism and the ideology of ‘white supremacy’. Policies aimed at containing the emergence of a ‘multicultural’ country. In the inauguration of his presidential campaign, at the end of 2019, Trump announced a qualitative change in his slogan that would become ‘America is already great again’.

To achieve these objectives, Trump has tried to construct a political apparatus that controls the principal organs of the State: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. In the White House he has a ‘Circle Zero’ that fulfils the task of orienting his objectives. On the one hand, he has his confidential advisor, Stephan Miller, charged with promoting his watchword of making ‘America great again’ and exacerbating the differences between the diverse sectors of subordinate classes. On the other, he relies on his Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, who brandishes the slogan ‘America First’, putting an end to treaties and alliances on an international scale. The ‘zero circle’ is closed (or perhaps opened) with the couple formed by his daughter, Ivanka and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who are his agents on many battle fronts.

In Circle 1, Trump relies on his ministers of Commerce and Treasury, Wilbur Ross and Steven Mnuchin, respectively. There is also his political advisor, Kellyanne Conway, who is constantly alert to detect problems. In Circle 2, he has Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade representative, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State and Mitch McConnell, the speaker (or president) of the Senate, who controls the agenda of the Upper House of Congress.

Miller appears to have become the Tsar of nationalist policies and of White Supremacy since Trump got rid of Roger Banner. On the other hand, on the ‘global’ front, Trump counts with Navarro, who has to team with Ross and Mnuchin. Trump sacked Matis (Minister of Defence), Tillerson (Secretary of State) and Garry Cohn (head of the Economic Council).

At the level of social communication, Trump counts only on himself, through Twitter and meetings with his support base in arenas and sporting events. Trump is his own Secretary of State and directs the Ministries of Defence, Security, Treasury and Commerce. In addition, he personally manages his network of communications. He has advisors and councilors, but Trump makes all the decisions. There are occasions on which he listens more than others. According to employees of the White House, the only voice that bears weight for the President of the United States is that of his daughter Ivanka.

We should not omit Henry Kissinger–even though he is not in the White House–who makes his intellectual influence heard in Trump’s policies. The master of the geopolitics of imbalance confounded ‘the establishment’ and the world when he played Trump’s Russian card against the Chinese card of the strategists of globalization.

January 30 2020

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop and Joan Remple).

- Marco A. Gandásegui, Jr. is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Panama and Associate Researcher with the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos Justo Arosemena (CELA)

https://marcogandasegui19.blogspot.com/

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