FORMER United States President Donald Trump has sealed a historic victory in the presidential election comfortably defeating Democrat Kamala Harris in what polls had suggested would be a very tight election, after he swept several key battleground states and won a commanding lead in the national popular vote. He becomes the first former president to return to the White House in more than 130 years and, at 78, the oldest man elected to America’s highest office. In a true democratic spirit, Kamala Harris called to congratulate him on his victory emphasizing “the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and being a president for all Americans”. On his part the President-elect described his win as a magnificent victory for American people and pledged to make America ‘great again’.
Trump’s victory marks a dramatic reversal in his fortunes as he left White House in 2021 with plummeting approval ratings and the country reeling following the Capitol riot – which saw his sup-porters attempt to violently block certification of his loss to Joe Biden. He narrowly avoided convic-tion in the Senate after becoming the first president to be impeached twice by the US House. How-ever, he put up a brave face and successfully overcame numerous hurdles to regain the presidency. Kamala, 60, became the Democratic Party candidate in July, after incumbent President Joe Biden withdrew from the race after pressure from within the party. Despite availability of limited time for electioneering, Kamala gave a good fight till the last but lost the election for the coveted slot in a country that champions rights of women. In what will be a major boost for the Trump presidency, Republicans have won control of the Senate after wrestling three seats in West Virginia, Montana and Ohio from the Democrats and seeing off a competitive challenger in Texas.
Neither party seemed to have an overall edge in the House, which Republicans narrowly control. However, control of Congress would allow Trump a relatively easy path to pass his key proposals through the legisla-ture – including his pledges to enforce mass deportations of illegal migrants and to enact sweeping tax cuts. Analysts are unanimous in their view that his return to the White House is set to reshape the US foreign policy, promising potential radical shifts on multiple fronts. As is customary, the world leaders are graciously extending greetings to Trump expressing optimism about the possibility of maintaining close and cordial relations with the world’s only super power during his tenure but their thinking and expectations are clouded by memories of the past when he ruled the country from 2017 to 2021.
It is believed that the election outcome will have grave implications for US trade pol-icy, climate change, the war in Ukraine, electric vehicles, America’s taxes and illegal immigration. Trump won over swatches of Muslim votes with a promise to end bloodshed in the Middle-East and it is to be seen how he translates his pledge into reality despite family linkages with Jews. The slogan of ‘America first’ will affect many countries in different ways if implemented the way it was pursued in the previous term. It could be a matter of concern for Pakistan as well in view of the idea floated by Donald Trump to impose a ten percent or more tariff on all imports into the US.
The United States being the largest trading partner of Pakistan, this could affect our exports at a time when frantic ef-forts are being made to put the economy back on track. The President-elect is also obsessed with the idea of checking China and Iran in different ways with consequences for regional and global trade and stability and also repercussions for Pakistan’s foreign policy posture.
However, Prime Min-ister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to work closely with the incoming administration to further strengthen and broaden the Pakistan-US partnership and there is no dearth of avenues to realize this goal given goodwill and vision on both sides.
