Trump’s orders draw disquiet and fear of chaos

When US President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Monday, he relished the moment terming it the commencement of the “Golden age of America”.

To millions of Americans this golden age presents a chance of recreating the American dream but to millions around the world, the new policies mean unprecedented chaos and an American nightmare. 

Some Trump orders will unleash unprecedented chaos around the world disrupting geopolitical and diplomatic arrangements that had taken decades to nurture. The changes will upset traditional foes and friends of the most powerful country in the world.

Trump spent his first day as the 47th President of the United States, signing into law a slew of executive orders that sought to reverse former President Joe Biden’s policies. 

Key among the orders included that to revoke the attainment of American Citizenship by birth, mass deportations for immigrants, pulling America out of the World Health Organisation and another out of the Paris Climate agreement among others.

His actions have now elicited a myriad of reactions including from the Vatican where Pope Francis termed his intended mass deportation exercise a “disgrace”.

“If true, this will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill” for the problem, Francis said. “This won’t do! This is not the way to solve things. That’s not how things are resolved,” he said on Sunday night.

Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino, was also quick to react to news by Trump that the US would, according to AA World “recover” the Panama Canal shortly after his inauguration Monday. He said the waterway “is and will continue to be Panama’s.”

“On behalf of the Republic of Panama and its people, I must reject in a comprehensive manner the words outlined by President Donald Trump regarding Panama and its Canal, in his inaugural speech,” he said.

Mulino denied any foreign presence in the administration of the canal, shortly after President Trump claimed that China was operating it.

By putting pen to paper on Monday, Trump targeted the automatic citizenship for US-born children of immigrants in the country illegally. He sought to make sure that documents recognising US citizenship for individuals who meet that criteria were denied 30 days after the order was signed.

Interestingly, birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th amendment and pundits argue that any attempt to revoke it must involve a constitutional overhaul. America’s current first lady  Melania  Trump was born in Slovenia while Vice President James David Vance’s spouse, Usha Vance was born in America but has Asian roots.  

“Some of those pronouncements that Trump made were unconstitutional and he can not get away with them. Such as that on revoking the citizenship by birth. His pronouncement violates the 14th amendment and one needs a Constitutional amendment to effect it, ”says International relations and history professor Macharia Munene.

In leaving the WHO, Trump accused the global body of mishandling the Covid-19 pandemic and other international health crises. Consequently, he announced that the USA would leave the WHO in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work.

Further, Trump declared a national border emergency at the Southern border and implemented several other immigration-related policies to help with mass deportation plans.

Then there was Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate agreement stating, “I am immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip off” as he outlined  during his inaugural speech in Washington DC. His decision comes after another in 2017, where Trump exited the Paris Agreement. But Upon taking office in 2021, Biden rejoined.

Munene now believes that the declarations by Trump amount to political “posturing” and were meant to scare other countries into doing what the USA wants.

“I think what Trump did is just posturing and wants to make sure that he gets his way in whatever he wants. He is doing all this to announce to the world that he is back in office,” he said.

Prof Peter Kagwanja, Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute and a former government adviser, noted that President Trump’s elevation to power was a blessing in disguise and heralded a new dawn for Kenya.

“It is a blessing for Africa in that we are going to make independent decisions about our future. Second, our relationship with America is going to be interest based and not based on super power, weak power relationship which was the case with Joe Biden,” he said.