POTUS Trump Is Fluttering Many A Dovecote To His Country's Own Detriment

News18

6 days ago

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Business owners and workers across the US are reeling from the chaos and confusion unleashed by Trump's trade policy
Ever since his inauguration for a second term on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump has been initiating dramatic and drastic measures both on the domestic and foreign fronts.
First, he challenged the age-old citizenship law that conferred US citizenship on anyone born in the country. His amendment said that principle of law despite its hoary antiquity across the globe would apply only to the children born to the US citizens. That stopped what is known as birth tourism much to the chagrin of the Democrats and resentment of Hispanics from Cuba and Mexico. And with the US Supreme Court upholding this seminal amendment a few days ago, this has been his sole victory thus far in governance marked by cantankerousness. In a way that was the first concrete measure towards ushering in America is for the Americans fierce and triumphalist assertion.
His much-vaunted attempt to downsize the US bureaucracy and federal spends under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative by a massive $2 billion came almost unstuck after Elon Musk at its helm threw up his hands apparently in exasperation, citing expiration of 130 days to actualise its mission which BTW achieved only one thing—abolition of Department of Education. Musk perhaps realised that he had bitten more than he could chew and that the nation after all needed a bare-bones bureaucracy like inland security, FDA, FBI, Federal Reserve and so forth. That marked the break in the Trump-Musk bromance.
Their fascination with cryptocurrencies however has dark portents— undermining the greenback the only legal tender of the USA. Musk, a couple of years ago, wanted to accept Bitcoin in return for Tesla cars. The incipient move to usher in a dual currency regime was repelled by the Federal Reserve and other authorities on the legal and tenable ground that only the US dollar enjoys the legal tender status in the country. But the never-say-die spirit in Musk has revived the idea again this time round for his new favourite cryptocurrency Dogecoin which is being accepted for online sales of Tesla cars and for acquiring special privileges in the X social media platform which, too, is owned by Musk once again in the process thumbing his nose at the authorities. There are also reports of Trump Administration winking at cryptocurrencies, which has no body to kick and no soul to damn, in order to give a leg-up to the cryptocurrency being toyed with by his family under its World Liberty Financial (WLF).
Although pegged to the US dollar, its propping up has sent shock waves in knowledgeable circles. How can the ruling dispensation marginalise the country's own legal tender which holds sway as much within the country as abroad, is the refrain.
Remember cryptocurrencies have no sovereign guarantees much less have underlying assets such as commodity currencies like the Australian dollar.
Now let us shift focus to his conduct of international relations. He has made X formerly tweet as his favorite medium of communication to leaders of India, Pakistan, Iran and Israel. He announced ceasefire between India and Pakistan on X and a few weeks down between Israel and Iran, more with view to seeking publicity among his domestic audience. Not satisfied with propping up and provoking Israel to strike Iran, he ordered his Air Force to drop bunker busters on four nuclear facilities in Iran with a view to defanging it which by the way is a signatory to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and went on to rationalize it as being necessary to end the Israel-Iran standoff just as it sought to end the Second World War by dropping atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August respectively of 1945. Touche! Did he know the Holocaust vaporized some two lakh human bodies leaving no mortal remains? It was as despicable as Hitler slaughtering some six million Jews in gas chambers. That the resultant moves to impeach him was stillborn doesn't make his jingoistic tendencies acceptable. In the course of all these, he ticked off his own intel director Tulsi Gabbard who contradicted his claim that Iran was making nuclear bombs.
His tariff retaliation regime that kicked in on April 2, 2025, the so-called liberation day, has been chaotic with more than 50 new or revised tariffs, pauses, backdowns, escalations and de-escalations in a clutter of confusion. Business owners and workers across the US are reeling from the chaos and confusion unleashed by Trump's trade policy which bears out the critics who averred that his ham-handedness would hurt the US more. With just two trade frameworks inked and dozens to go before the July 9 deadline, that timeframe appears increasingly unlikely to be adhered to. America's economy might be taking a turn for the worse as a result of this confrontationist approach to trade. If he wants to make America great again, he has to goad investments in import-substituting activities and his workers to settle for more reasonable wages till the US catches up with the Asian giants China, the master of reverse engineering, might give Musk's Tesla a run for its money with its extremely competitive electric cars. Protectionism is not the answer to the US's trade deficit problem.
The writer is a senior columnist. His X account is @smurlidharan. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views
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First Published:
July 04, 2025, 13:20 IST
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