Trump: Deliberately Unpredictable?

President Donald Trump's unpredictable political behavior is hugely trending news and views in contemporary world affairs.

- CHINTAMANI MAHAPATRA

He can be offensive, erratic, affectionate, lovable, angry, or irritable, depending upon his mood on the day and what he thinks to be correct or erroneous. Being the most powerful leader of the sole superpower in the world, he considers no other leader from any other country to be equal to him. He does not believe even symbolically in the principle of sovereign equality of nations.

Actually, he became the President of the United States in the backdrop of a spreading narrative about the relative decline of the US and the rise of a new superpower in the East—the People's Republic of China. He appears to have believed that the wrongs committed by his predecessors were responsible for the declining influence of the United States in world affairs and the growing assertiveness and mounting aspiration of China to replace his country as the supreme global power.

His agenda to "Make America Great Again" or MAGA is thus not an empty slogan. His determination to realize his agenda unfortunately has led to indiscriminate policy changes within the domestic polity and in US engagements with the world, culminating in economic, social, and strategic disruptions all over. He has been unforgiving to the American people and cannot thus be expected to be kind and nice to other countries.