Politics will not be the same again in the United States of America, particularly in Washington, DC, where old-school politicians are keenly watching with trepidation as President Donald J. Trump, on January 20, transitioned from the 45th to the 47th president.
The palpable fear is driven by the impending rollout of his revolutionary policies, intentionally designed to change the old world order to a new one, in line with his Make America Great Again (MAGA) mantra.
As President Trump was inaugurated into office under very chilly weather, a majority of the inhabitants of the U.S. capital, Washington, DC—who form the bulwark of the bureaucracy, infamously referred to as the political ‘swamp’— were particularly hit by the cold, beyond their skin, perhaps to their bones. That is because they represent the swamp in Washington that President Trump has vowed to drain.
As the conventional wisdom goes: the greatest threat to man is change. And President Trump has been quite upfront and unabashed about his change agenda.
So, the draining of the swamp, which is a euphemism for removing the bureaucratic bottlenecks that have been clogging the wheel of government in the earth’s most powerful and richest nation, has been assigned to the world’s richest man, Mr. Elon Musk, and former G.O.P. presidential contender in 2024, Mr. Vivek Ramaswamy.
Apart from Ramaswamy being a politician and billionaire, like Musk, he is also a tech entrepreneur, and both have been tapped by President Trump to lead the new department that will drive efficiency in government, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It is not surprising, therefore, that President Joe Biden, who just yielded the mantle of leadership of the U.S.—the nation that prides itself as the greatest on earth—to President Donald J. Trump, derogatorily referred to America’s legendary presidential system of government under Trump as likely being a Boligarchy, a parody of Oligarchy, which is broadly defined as a small group of people (in this case, mainly billionaires) having control of a country or an organization.
This contrasts with or is antithetical to a democratic governance system, which is “Government of the people, for the people, and by the people,” a principle that has been in practice in the U.S. since its founding in 1776.
Was the immediate past President Biden altruistic in indirectly painting the just-evolving Trump administration with a black brush when he gave his farewell speech to the nation last Wednesday (January 15) in the following words?
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.” Drawing attention to what he sees as danger, Biden stated, “A dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
He is clearly alluding to Trump’s association with billionaires such as Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (now Meta).
But being an irrepressible politician, the 47th president, Donald Trump, responded in kind to the 46th, Joe Biden, in his ‘victory rally’ held on Sunday (January 19, 2025) in the Capitol, a day before his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
President Trump did so by criticizing Biden’s term as a “failed administration” and promised to “end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment.”
Continuing, Trump reminded his enthusiastic audience: “Tomorrow, at noon, the curtain closes on four long years of American decline, and we begin a brand-new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity, and pride.”
The trading of barbs between the outgoing and incoming presidents of the U.S.—touted as the greatest democracy on earth—exposes the nature of politics worldwide and the reason it is generally believed that all politicians are cut from the same cloth, irrespective of race, nationality, or creed. They never fail to seize opportunities to take jabs at each other in their quest to get ahead.
Ordinarily, one would have thought that, with the Democratic Party having overwhelmingly lost the November 2024 presidential election to the Republican Party, outgoing President Biden would admit wholeheartedly that Americans have rejected his brand of politics and leadership style, and embraced the proposition made by Trump, which he has just begun to unfurl.
Incidentally, that was the central campaign message of the Democratic Party, which obviously failed to resonate with American voters, as their presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, was roundly defeated by Trump.
Following the overwhelming votes cast by Americans—49.8% or 77,303,568 votes for President Trump—this has enabled the Republican National Convention (RNC) to take control of all branches of government: the presidency (executive branch), the Senate, the House of Representatives, and a friendly Supreme Court. Trump’s party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), has now commenced calling the shots, with Trump at the helm of affairs in the White House starting January 20.
With the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, in President Donald Trump’s camp—actually, as his government efficiency czar—having appointed Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as co-heads of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), what is evolving as the Trump Effect will not only grip the U.S., where the legendary Washington swamp is expected to be drained, but it is on track to spread beyond the shores of the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, Panama, Greenland, and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, where Musk is stirring up the hornet’s nest by aligning with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, a right-wing populist party in the U.K.
Already, the Trump storm has swept through Canada, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau becoming the first casualty. He has announced his resignation from office rather than waiting to be voted out, owing to his worsening unpopularity.
The likelihood of Trudeau being re-elected worsened due to his sour relationship with U.S. President Trump during his first tenure from 2016-2020.
After his 2023 electoral victory and return to the White House as the 47th president on Monday, January 20, Trump’s threat to slam Canada with a 25% tariff and his contemplation of making Canada the 51st state of the U.S. likely informed a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s personal residence, to seek a détente. But it appears as though Trump did not accept a reconciliation. Hence, Trudeau opted to step down from leadership of the U.S.’s neighboring country with the longest shared border, rather than waiting to be pushed out by his opponents in a re-election bid.
Just as Canada has already lost its PM Trudeau to the Trump Effect, leadership in the United Kingdom is also being rattled. Trump and his ally Musk have been backing Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, which made significant gains in the last elections, leading to the Tory party’s Keir Starmer becoming Prime Minister and occupying the number one seat at 10 Downing Street, the seat of power in the U.K.
It is not only Canada and the U.K. that are feeling the impact of Trump’s return to the White House. The rest of Europe, stretching from France to Germany, is also quaking under Trump’s influence. The Middle East is not exempt.
Practically on the eve of his ascension to the presidency, over 400 days (since October 7, 2023, more than 15 months) of war between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East was suspended following a ceasefire deal reached on Sunday, January 19.
President Trump is, in my view, justifiably taking credit for the ceasefire because the deal proposed under Biden’s administration had consistently failed to materialize, even after the administration’s and international negotiating team’s best efforts.
Given that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had defied then-President Biden’s threats to withdraw aid to Israel if he failed to accept the ceasefire terms put forward by the U.S., and Hamas also defied the U.S. by refusing to release hostages, including Americans, Trump’s threat to both parties—that there would be “fire and fury” if they failed to reach a mutual agreement to end the bloodshed—appears to me to be the deal clincher.
Although Trump’s critics would not concede to him the successful execution of the ongoing Israel-Hamas ceasefire, it is no coincidence that both Israel and Hamas accepted the arrangement they had previously rejected on multiple occasions.
China is also under threat of being slammed with a 60% tariff, and the second-largest economy in the world has also sent Vice President Han Zheng as a special representative to President Trump’s inauguration.
The only continent that has yet to receive President Trump’s attention, except for the clear and imminent danger that Africans will be negatively impacted by the new president’s plans to deport undocumented immigrants from day one of his presidency, is Africa.
It is unlikely, in my view, that President Trump will be hostile to Africa. One is convinced that the 47th president of the U.S. now understands Africa better than he did during his first tenure from 2016-2020.
If nothing else, the marriage of Trump’s daughter Tiffany to Michael Buolos, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Sarah and Massad Buolos, who are Lebanese, French, and American citizens, has provided the opportunity for Trump to know Nigeria, and by extension Africa, better.
