The Paradox of Trump

In a fortnight marked by dramatic shifts in US foreign policy, particularly on Ukraine and Gaza, the changes being wrought by the Trump administration on its immigration policies should not come as a surprise.

- By UDITHA DEVAPRIYA

More predictably on Gaza, the changes being wrought by the Trump administration on its immigration policies should not come as a surprise. Yet immigration policies may become the crematorium of Trump’s approach to the world and his allies. For it’s not just undocumented migrants, drug peddlers, and criminals who are facing the risk of detention or deportation. It’s also citizens of some of Washington’s key allies, including Germany and France. Most if not all of them have complained of hampering and successive interventions, though US immigration officials have denied such claims.

The question is not how Trump can do the seemingly impossible – balancing between the withdrawal of US foreign aid from countries that desperately need assistance, harsh treatment of visa holders from US allied countries, and his rhetoric of being a peacemaker and a dealmaker on the world stage – but whether, in all seriousness, he wants to do it. The problem with many of Trump’s critics – on both the left and the centre – is that they rationalise his actions as part of a wider agenda, when that may not necessarily be the case. True, there is much more predictability – for better or worse – with the policies now, compared to the first few. Yet while there is much madness in his policies and the way he enacts them, there seems to be no proper, cogent method to them, yet.