In the weeks preceding Donald Trump’s swearing-in and
his inevitable unveiling as the 45th president of the United
States, there were debates on whether his demeanour would
change. Donald Trump the businessman, Donald Trump the
campaigner and Donald Trump the president, would they
all be different personas, or would Donald Trump just be Donald
Trump, the brash, larger than life, say-what-I-want, when-
I-want man, who uses his Twitter account to fire at just about
anyone he wishes to?
When Trump stood outside the Capitol, harangued Washington
and its penchant to use its power to make money at the expense
of the people (his words), and then basically outlined his ‘America
First’ agenda, everyone saw the Donald Trump that over 50
percent of America detests and didn’t vote for.
Let’s face it. Donald Trump doesn’t really care what you think
of him. If he did, he would have toned down his rhetoric. He
promised the American people that
he would scrap Obamacare, professionally
known as the Affordable
Care Act, so he signed an ordinance
that would restrict certain facets of
the Act with immediate effect. With
the ordinance to restrict penalties
on people who don’t have health insurance,
Trump managed to throw a
spanner in the Obamacare works but
to change the entire Act would require a bill to be passed. That is
not going to be easy.
Even before he became president, he attacked car companies
who manufacture outside US borders but sell in America. He
slammed General Motors for selling Americans Chevy Cruzes
that were made in Mexico and threatened to levy a big ‘border
tax’. As a result Ford Motors cancelled plans to invest billions of
dollars into a manufacturing plant in Mexico.
This doesn’t mean that Trump managed to get Ford and GM to
manufacture cars within America; they were doing that anyway.
He has managed to shake up the auto industry a bit, an industry
that is probably America’s crown jewel when it comes to manufacturing.
Companies, even in other sectors, will now think
twice about manufacturing products for Americans elsewhere.
Institutions trump personalities, and this is what people will
soon realise about Donald Trump. It’s easy to stand on the outside
and criticise and berate the government. But running a government
is not the same as running a business. Every move that
Donald Trump makes will be watched closely by the two pillars
of democracy that were built to serve the people “ Congress and
the judiciary.
Donald Trump can tweet what he wants and make statements
that defy logic. But he will not find the Oval Office as easy a pulpit
when it comes to running America. This is where actions
speak louder than words, and actions is what Donald Trump
needs to prove himself.
