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Donald Trump’s time in the White House is running out. Following the Electoral College decision, the Americans’ election is now official and Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States.
But if you think this will make Donald behave decently and end his term peacefully, you are deeply mistaken.
While the world was busy watching him defy the American vote to the end, spreading allegations of election fraud and lawsuit after lawsuit, deep down he began active work to guarantee one thing: that his time in power will not be enough. so easily erased.
And this new Trump leadership seems to have several clear manifestations, mainly in foreign policy, that aim to tie the hands of his successor and leave him without a useful move, except to follow the line drawn by the Republicans in this legislature.
The clearest example of this was the announced withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Contrary to all his military advisers, Trump has vowed to bring US troops out of these troubled sectors as soon as possible. Thus, on November 17, news appeared of a partial withdrawal order for US forces in both countries.
The Pentagon has ordered that by January 15, the troops there be reduced by between 2,500 and 2,000 in Afghanistan (almost half) and 500 in Iraq.
There are currently between 4,500 and 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and more than 3,000 in Iraq. Under the planned order, the cuts will be completed just five days before US President-elect Joe Biden takes office, putting him in a tough spot.
If the withdrawal from Iraq is not so problematic in foreign policy, then the reduction of the American contingent in Afghanistan could break any stability built so far in an extremely unstable country.
For years, the Americans have tried to achieve peace between the Kabul government and the Taliban amid a growing threat from the Islamic State, which continues to control new territories.
Withdrawing the Americans and reducing the number of troops and equipment remaining on the ground will mean carte blanche for the Taliban to confront government forces and a chance to seize power for the first time since 2001. Of course, then they will have to contend. with the black flags of the ID.
However, it is certain that the withdrawal of the Americans will almost certainly lead to the collapse of their local allies, something that in no way plays a positive role in the image of the United States.
This way, you will be left with much less force on the outside in regions that are still too unstable. And Biden’s foreign policy will either have to depend on the return of troops, who will be received extremely poorly in his homeland, or he will have to deal with significantly less force on the ground at these trouble spots.
If this government had any clear objective in terms of Middle East policy, it was surely the isolation and weakening of Iran. And now the president tries to defend it with all his might.
In this context, the Trump administration, and in particular his son-in-law Jared Kushner, tried to push for an agreement to solve the Palestinian problem, although it was not accepted by the Palestinians themselves and even met with many opponents in Israel, which allowed Washington to raid the way. for understanding between Israel and various Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The other major US partner in the region, Saudi Arabia, did not participate in the deal, as the current King Salman takes the Palestinian cause seriously and refuses to engage with Israel on the issue.
The key move in this direction is the unofficially confirmed meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, mediated by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Of course, this meeting was denied by Saudi Arabia, but there is clear enough evidence to do so, from internal Israeli media sources, through reports on flights from Tel Aviv to Neom (the prince’s super-city project) and from I return that night.
Furthermore, just days later, an assassination attempt was carried out against Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fahrizadeh, considered the father of Iran’s nuclear program and one of the key figures in Tehran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.
This can only be speculation, but it is unlikely that the White House was warned of this move, which clearly points to Israel as the mastermind behind the assassination.
The new Joe Biden administration is likely to seek a new nuclear deal with Israel, with countries like Germany already campaigning. And such a thing is definitely not part of Trump’s plans for the Middle East.
Along these lines, Fahrizade’s removal and Iran’s possible response to Israel, as well as the general heat of the situation, will drive Biden’s team away from any deal with Tehran. Or at least that’s what the White House hopes now.
Trump administration officials are also drawing up plans to impose new sanctions on Iran, and according to a New York Times publication and his source in the administration, Trump has even considered a direct military conflict with the Ayatollahs, but in the end he let it be. his experts convinced him that such a move was a bad idea.
Overall, American diplomacy will try to move the country away from the Iran deal until at least January 21, while strengthening ties between its various partners in the Middle East, countries that are not as well known for respecting human rights.
The idea is that if the United States takes up the case for human rights in those countries, they will have already built this shield against Iran’s ambitions.
Internally, he is also quite busy trying to obtain oil drilling concessions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska.
Since the beginning of November, the White House administration has done everything in its power to organize a tender for the right to extract oil in the region as soon as possible, a dispute that has been developing for decades.
If these efforts are successful, the sale of mining rights will likely take place days, maybe even hours, before Biden officially comes to power and stops the deal.
The administration’s announcement sets a strict schedule for the concession, which may appear around January 17 at the earliest.
Several environmentalists protest against the decision, but at least for now, the president and his associates are convinced that they want the agreement to be concluded as soon as possible. Or at least before Biden stopped him for environmental reasons.
The rush was seen in Trump’s actions and during the federally ordered executions. In addition to returning federal death sentences in the summer after a 17-year suspension, the government has so far ordered the execution of 10 death sentences and four more sentenced to death pending a decision.
The last time more than 10 people were executed at the federal level in the United States was in 1896, when 14 people were executed by authorities. Grover Cleveland was President of the United States at the time. Donald Trump also goes down in history as the first president after Cleveland to allow executions after losing a presidential election.
The latest to be executed is 56-year-old truck driver Alfred-Bourgeois from Louisiana, who killed his 2-year-old daughter. At 8:21 pm on Friday, he was killed by lethal injection in the Indiana federal prison. This was the second federal execution in two days.
In both the Bourgeois case and the one executed the day before, Brendan Bernard, an accessory to the murder of a religious couple from Iowa in 1999, there are circumstances that call into question the death sentence. In both cases, however, all protests were ignored and action was taken as soon as possible.
Instead, Trump decided to show mercy by forgiving another prisoner, his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
In 2017, he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and was put behind bars. However, by Thanksgiving, Trump decided to grant the former US general a full pardon.
Some of Trump’s actions are largely unchanged, such as nominating judges for life or appointing his supporters to governing councils on terms that exceed Biden’s likely term. After the process and the adoption of the names by the Senate, Biden will have very little to do to change things.
These nominations include positions on the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the terms of the next elected members will last at least until 2024, and some until 2030.
All of this will make the job of Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, much more difficult and the course of American politics much more difficult to reverse.
The big question is whether they will still be able to impose their vision on these issues or, despite their efforts, will they have to adapt and live in the legacy of Donald Trump, just as he left them.
