With Donald Trump dramatically surviving two assassination attempts in the run-up to the US presidential election, you had to be naive to believe the surge of sympathy for him could somehow be neutralised by the charisma of his challenger Kamala Harris. Vice-President Harris came into play just a few weeks before election day in place of a blabbering President Joe Biden, who spectacularly bombed himself out of his own re-election campaign. She lent some cohesion to the fight against Trump, who was by then on the crest of a massive red wave. With a fawning liberal media building her up as the right antidote, the contest became tight. However, Harris lost steam by and by. Biden added to his list of follies last week by labelling all Trump voters as “garbage” hours before Harris was to make her closing arguments to undecided voters. Though the White House attempted a whitewash by sanitising the statement, the damage was done.
Trump has claimed victory and the Republicans seem set to gain control over both the House of Representatives and the Senate, giving the maverick president-elect the untrammelled right to mess around with his ‘cheque-book diplomacy’. The leaders of two global hotspots where his initiatives will be immediately tested—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—joined the chorus to greet Trump shortly after his victory speech. No wonder, they are on edge as he had promised to end both wars in a snap. Iran would be understandably uneasy and so would be the European Union, with which he had a sparring match in his first shot at presidency. If China could, it would have Trump-proofed itself with an insurance policy. Antics on the North Korean front could make for some interesting reality TV.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, greeted Trump, saying he looked forward to enhancing bilateral ties and promoting global good. Trump has already spoken about their mutual bonding, though he promised heavy levies on Indian imports. On balance, the admiration is mutual and the ties ought to bloom further. But the Pannun case trajectory would be interesting to watch. It’s remarkable that a nation that wears democracy on its sleeves chose to re-elect a person who fuelled insurrection when he lost four years ago. So, spare us the lectures, please.