Trump takes action: what if this is just the beginning?

A look at the news - Nicolas Jutzet

The world is in a state of panic because the entrepreneur-turned-«leader» has simply decided to implement the platform that got him elected—to the letter. Once again, he has proven the vast majority of the «experts»—whom he takes a certain pleasure in humiliating throughout his speeches—wrong. We had expected «business as usual.». Not at all, He’s taking action. After criticizing him for what he said, we’re now criticizing him for keeping his word. You’ll readily admit that we’re in a bit of a bind—an untenable position. And we’re to blame.

This schizophrenic attitude, which we see just as much in the press as in the new public sphere—social media—will be our undoing. In just a few months, Trump and the others we dismissively call «populists» will have called our model into question and destroyed the credibility of the press and analysts. And we continue to believe that they stand alone, that Trump’s madness is an individual phenomenon, forgetting that they are widely supported by the masses. To claim we want to «wake up from this nightmare» is to believe that the fault lies solely with the intellectual elite, when in fact the roots of the evil run deep, and the cancer has metastasized. Will we even be able to save the patient?

For far more than the substance of the matter, the great danger of Trump’s «unconventional» policy—or of Theresa May’s «hard Brexit»—lies in the fact that it sets a dangerous precedent. Didn’t we claim that all of this was impossible? That Brexit and Trump’s election would lead to immediate financial collapse? We have been defeated because, out of laziness, we refused to fight. While we lament the future of «our» world, Trump is building a wall, closing borders, and tomorrow—who knows?—he might start a trade war. While we predict the apocalypse, the stock markets are soaring, more euphoric than ever.

Democracies in the Western world are crashing against the short-term/long-term dichotomy. There is no doubt that Trump is leading his country toward disaster in the long run, but in the short term, there is no indication that market euphoria and economic conditions will decline. He is, in fact, paving the way for other populists. Who will dare to claim that their agenda is unworkable? That leaving Europe and its currency is sheer madness? Who will dare to say that closing borders is impossible? That protectionism, even in its «smart» form, is an aberration? Who can ignore the fact that today, Marine Le Pen has only one dream: to take on the globalist, the friend of the financial sector, Emmanuel Macron?

The trap is closing. I marvel at our gullibility. Just yesterday, we were despairing over how little power remained with the leader of the forces of good—a master of nothing except political marketing—Barack Obama, and today we reassure ourselves by thinking that Congress will be able to keep the new leader in check, at least to some extent. On January 20, when it came time to take stock, we refused to admit that Obama’s tenure was one of rare mediocrity, and yet today we accuse Donald’s supporters of lacking clarity? Are we sure that hell is other people?

Write to the author : nicolas.jutzet@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: Le Figaro