The XXe century really began with the end of the First World War. The XXIe century could well have really begun with the return of Donald Trump to power. The observation is not mine. It circulates among political scientists. Every day for a week, Trump has announced to the Americans who his ministers will be. Some choices are questionable, but responsible. However, most of his appointments are extraordinary, even dangerous. Together, they shape the domestic policy of the country and the foreign policy of the planet. What experts fear is worrying. And of course, the Trumpists of this world, from the height of their crass anti-intellectualism, brush aside all their explanations.
1. How do American specialists react to the nominations?
Yesterday the newspaper The World reported the comments of Michael Luttig, 70 years old, Republican, former appeals judge. Luttig is one of the most respected jurists in the United States. He was speaking to jurists, lawyers, judges, etc., referring to the fathers of the American Constitution: “Never in their wildest dreams or nightmares would they have thought that this man and this day would come. And yet. And the authors would now say: this is the end of the first chapter of the great American democratic experiment. Luttig is neither a democrat nor an excessive man. His words clearly reflect the desperate astonishment of most specialists at the evolution of politics in the United States.
2. What can Trump do?
Trump has all the cards in his hands to fundamentally change the American political regime. He controls the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. In theory, with the nominations he has announced, voters should refuse to vote for him. After all, they constitute the ultimate safeguard of American democracy against sick autocrats. But they won’t. Only the army still resists Trump. However, a strong rumor suggests that Trump is ready to fire all 3-star or 4-star generals.
3. Why does Trump want to gut the state?
Trump wants to cut the state, at all levels. It could even abolish the FBI which, among other things, fights against espionage on American soil and which carries out investigations into companies. This in the name of an absurd conspiracy theory relating to a hypothetical network of individuals hidden deep within the state apparatus and who would control everything. Trump calls it the “deep state.” But in reality, Trump mainly seeks to deregulate economic activities to make more money.
4. Which conspiracy theorists did Trump name?
Adherents of conspiracy theories are everywhere among the ministers appointed by Trump. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes vaccines are harmful. He will be head of the Health Department. His beliefs risk leading to a drop in vaccinations and therefore an increase in deaths. Marco Rubio, who will become Secretary of State, is climate-sceptical. Tulsi Gabbard, who will head all intelligence services, believes Russian propaganda about Ukraine, to the point where she herself could be a Russian agent. And to think that Trump wants to exempt him, like many other of his ministers, from an FBI security investigation. How will these people be received among American allies? Bad, very bad.
5. What are Trump’s main directions?
Trump is destroying the United States from within. Trump has placed libertarians at the heart of domestic policy decision-making centers and radically anti-communist isolationists at the helm of foreign policy.
