Will Trump Fuel or Finish Wars?

No one Is Sure what to expect from an unpredictable Donald Trump

- Seema Guha

THE political map of the United States is awash in red, with just a tinge of blue near the two coasts. In the end, it was not a close race. Donald Trump has stormed through stronger than in 2016, with more support from women, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and even Arabs and Muslims. He has won the Electoral College votes, the popular mandate, and ensured a majority in the Senate. This will make him unstoppable to appoint or sack whom he wants and run the country as he likes for the next four years. Axios, the prominent American website, has dubbed Trump as the most powerful Republican of the modern era “vanquishing the Bushes, the Clintons, the Bidens, the Obamas… and backed by a party that is wholly remade in his image”.

While America comes to grips with Trump’s stunning victory, the world is bracing for a second Trump presidency. What happens to the ongoing wars—Israel’s in Gaza and Lebanon, and Russia’s war in Ukraine? Trump will again walk out of the Paris Climate Agreement and unfreeze bans on drilling for oil, including in the Arctic, to help companies make money by allowing fracking. In short, it will be a body blow in the fight against global warming. America under Trump will be more protectionist and inward-looking with trade wars with China and other countries.