Out with the discredited old-boy network. In with the new old-boy network.
If there’s one thing that best describes the underlying reality of the soon-to-be-installed government of Donald Trump, it’s what lies in store for those Americans who were led to believe that Trump would “drain the swamp” of all those he held responsible for America’s ills and catastrophic loss of jobs.
They will soon learn that the real beneficiaries of Trump’s policies will be an alternative elite linked to Trump who will ultimately be the only true winners.
Worse, in his insidious manoeuvres to win power, Trump never hesitated to utilize demagogic methods to polarize the American population by portraying those who oppose him as corrupt and in league with those responsible for the U.S.’s economic and political decline. He devoted particular attention to Hillary Clinton, who, he insisted, would be investigated for her alleged corruption once Trump was elected.
He has also skilfully neutralized much of the media by claiming they constantly attempted to discredit and undermine his election, a claim effective in undercutting serious and sustained attempts by the media to question his controversial policies and actions.
However, many Americans, especially those who feel they’ve been sidelined within American society in recent years, saw hope in Trump’s claims he would restore American political and economic power.
Many of those people’s lives did change dramatically as American firms downsized or moved offshore to places such as Mexico for cheaper labour. So Trump’s repeated insistence he would stop such hemorrhaging and bring back jobs was considered more important than his controversial sexual actions or scarcely concealed denigration of Mexicans.
Trump constantly denounced the so-called self-serving political and business elites who, he insists, undermined well-being of the U.S. under President Barack Obama and the Democrats. Yet he has moved quickly to replace such alleged destructive groups with an entirely new self-serving elite.
Many, however, are already embedded in the existing political and economic power structures, and their nominations and questionable backgrounds and qualifications have shocked even staunch Republicans.
Even Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008, described as “corporate welfare” Trump’s role in supposedly convincing the Carrier Corporation to reverse some of its planned transfer of personnel to Mexico.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry, nominated to be energy secretary, is on record as previously wanting to terminate that portfolio.
Trump’s unexpected nomination of Rex Tillerson, head of ExxonMobil, as secretary of state, stunned many, especially those familiar with Tillerson’s lack of experience dealing with the crucially important foreign-policy issues required of the second-most-important position in the U.S. government.
The oilman’s close personal connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin — receiving an award from Putin for assisting the Russian oil sector — causes considerable concern in the U.S.
Trump’s choice of financier Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary has been described as rewarding someone “profiting off the victims of predatory lending.”
Trump’s nomination of his business lawyer, David Friedman, as ambassador to Israel has been widely criticized by other Jews, especially since Friedman is an active supporter of the Israeli settler movement and opposes the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Several other Trump appointments raise grave concerns, including those of conservative power brokers who seem determined to end social programs or remove restrictions on expansion of coal mines, despite the Obama government’s international commitment to reduce carbon emissions.
At the end of the day, the ultimate beneficiaries of Trump’s policies are unlikely to be those who believed he would restore the America they once knew, but rather those who simply waited their turn to benefit from holding power with all its benefits.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator.
