The ascent of President Trump

What once seemed like a stunt and a fantasy is now real. Donald Trump was sworn in on Friday as the 45th President of the United States of America with his favourite mantra 'America first' and 'Make America Great Again', a veiled warning of exclusion of outsiders in America and protection of American trade and manufacture.

He was sworn in with the lowest approval rating of 40 percent compared to 82 percent of Barack Obama. Trump won the presidential election by a majority of Electoral College votes and was short of 3 million popular votes raising the question of legitimacy of his election. Over sixty US congressmen abstained from attending his inauguration as a mark of anguish, disapproval and protest.

Donald Trump has been derided as a racist, xenophobic hate-monger preaching the ban of Muslims' entry into America and the closure of mosques, denouncing the rights of religious minorities, deportation of illegal immigrants and insulting Mexicans, Latinos and African Americans. He has been despised as a sexist misogynist who boasted of groping women and who humiliated them. He has been called a megalomaniac fascist demagogue given to calling dissenting reporters "dishonest disgusting scum".

What future does his presidency hold for the Americans and the world?

His usual combative and impulsive attitude and utterances about domestic and foreign policy issues are a matter of deep concern. Within hours of taking office, President Trump signed an executive order to start rolling back Obamacare, the landmark affordable health care insurance programme which provides health insurance coverage to more than 22 million underprivileged people and 3 million children. He was angry with the US intelligence community for their briefing of US congressmen about Russia's interference in the election as well as an unsubstantiated intelligence Russian dossier containing compromising material on Trump. Trump compared the US intelligence with Nazi propaganda and dismissed the report as phony.

Trump said he will revisit women's rights concerning abortion. He said he will walk away from the Paris Agreement and will dismantle the nuclear deal with Iran. He said he will review relations with NATO which he considers obsolete. He dismissed the EU as a puppet of Germany. His comparison of German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Putin was repulsive and certainly raised eyebrows of disapproval in Germany and Europe. He infuriated China by dismissing the 'One China' policy. His decision to shift the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem makes a mockery of the two-state solution. These are disturbing signs that do not bode well for the future.

The choice of his cabinet of billionaires, bankers and generals does not offer much hope and comfort either. Certainly they will not serve the avowed interests of poor working class Americans who largely voted Trump to power. The character and composition of the cabinet confirm the suspicion that they will only implement and strengthen the populist, far-right, illiberal, reactionary and intolerant views of President Trump without healing the fractured American society. There is no doubt that America and the world have been thrown into a vortex of shocks and shudders.

The new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is the CEO of Exxon Mobil and the biggest oil mogul on the planet. The new Energy Secretary Rick Perry is an oil man and a climate change sceptic. Scott Pruitt is the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a body he has spent much of his career fighting as Oklahoma Attorney General. All three of them are pro-carbon and anti-climate change. The new Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is a former Goldman Sachs investment banker whose stated policy is to cut corporate tax by half. He will join former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Bannon who is Trump's chief strategist. Gary D. Cohn, Goldman Sachs President and COO, will be the chief economic adviser.

Tom Price, who will lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is a critic of Obamacare. The controversial Betsy DeVos, daughter-in-law of billionaire Amway cofounder Richard DeVos, will be the Education Secretary. There is apprehension that Senator Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General will roll back voting rights for African Americans. In all probability President Trump's pick for the new Supreme Court justice will ensure a conservative majority.

Generals will occupy key roles in his cabinet. James Mattis, known as 'Mad Dog Mattis' for his tough ruthless persona as military commander and who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the Secretary of Defence. The temperamental Islamophobe Michael Flynn is the national security adviser. John Kelly will be in charge of the Department of Homeland Security and Mike Pompeo will be the new CIA director. Trump's cabinet thus raises the dark spectre of escalating drumbeats of war in the Middle East and conflict with potential adversaries.

Is this the beginning of parochialism, deception, exclusion and hatred of atavistic tribalism? Is this the end of decency, grace, human dignity, fairness, inclusion and compassion in American politics?

The writer is a former diplomat.