Agony and ecstasy: Predictions for Trump's new term - opinion

Now much of the US election dust has settled, let’s examine both the unpleasant fallout and the expected improvements. At the beginning of the year, there was a time when the world of US politics was ill-defined and confused. Then it was evening and then it was morning, and a new dawn broke. In the succeeding days, President-elect Donald Trump spoke and brought light into the world. He is creating a cabinet of men and women with a clear instruction not to deviate from his direction. That is the plan for the next four years.

Just as in biblical times, so in our days greed and jealousy have taken over human conduct and are pervading every facet of life. Such is the situation that Trump and his administration are inheriting today.

While the Democratic hierarchy are licking their wounds and beginning to apportion blame for the loss of what they believed should have been an inevitable triumph for Kamala Harris, the fallout among their supporters is reminiscent of children throwing their toys out of the cot after not getting what they want.

There is an ingrained hatred that is bordering on hysteria, particularly by fanatic left-wing extremists, of any action that Trump proposes to take. They are spraying vitriol into the faces of the voters by their insistence that all pending legal cases against Trump be pursued to prevent him from taking the presidential oath on January 20.

The Democratic hardliners will not accept that their traditional constituency has turned their backs on having an extreme green policy forced on them. They no longer appreciate being told on what type of stove they should cook their Christmas turkey.

On the other hand, the Trump camp is celebrating an unprecedented victory. The Republicans did not only win the presidency, but while for the first time in many years garnering most of the popular vote, they also gained a majority in the US Senate and retained their majority in the House of Representatives, a historic achievement.

The Trump administration 

Another cause of contention is the Democrats’ misunderstood interpretation of Trump’s policy on abortion, which is far from a blanket prohibition as the Democrats claim. Much of that is driven by Democratic women who are demanding free choice, which means their choice and no other, with abortion rights unlimited to the end of the trimester. That’s debasing womanhood, in my humble opinion.

Such is some of the fallout that would have been embraced by a Democratic administration. Harris’s spending strategy was directed toward the crowd of the wine glass, while Trump concentrated on the working class. Although Harris spent 1.5 billion dollars in 15 weeks, large amounts of it on celebrity-studded events, she could not win even one of the seven swing states.

During Trump’s last term as the 45th president of the United States, from 2017 to 2021, his foreign policy was most advantageous for Israel. He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and designated the Golan as part of sovereign Israel. But that was between four and eight years ago.

Trump recently threatened “all hell to pay in the Middle East” if the hostages Hamas still holds are not released by his inauguration.

Although Trump says that he speaks the language of the Middle East and is determined to stop the war with Israel’s belligerent neighbors within weeks of moving into the Oval Office, he will find that it’s a tougher world today.

Leaders of sovereign governments must now look to the opinions of the International Criminal Court before making decisions, lest they face ICC arrest warrants.

It now remains to be seen how resolute Trump, his vice president JD Vance, and his team will be as they face increasing aggression from the Iranian terror regime.

At this stage, we can only hope that the important promises that the incoming president repeatedly made during his election campaign have been well thought through and do not turn out to have been campaign rhetoric.

Last but not least, there is not much one can give a man who cannot read anymore for his 101st birthday. All I want is to welcome home the remaining 100 hostages! ■

Walter Bingham, who turns 101 on January 5, 2025, holds Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest working journalist and oldest active radio host.