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Trump Assumes Office In a Storm of Controversy

News Analysis
Okechukwu Uwaezuoke with agency reports
By noon (local time) today, Donald John Trump assumes office as the most unpopular newly-elected American president in at least four decades. Two polls, released on Tuesday, agree on the fact that the billionaire, who becomes the 45th American president, holds the lowest approval ratings record in recent memory.

Indeed, both ABC News/Washington Post and CNN/ORC polls showed he had dismally poor approval ratings. According to these polls, just 40 per cent of Americans view him favourably. The former rates his six predecessors as follows: Jimmy Carter (78 per cent), Ronald Reagan (58 per cent), George H.W. Bush (65 per cent), Bill Clinton (68 per cent), George W. Bush (62 per cent) and Obama (79 per cent), while the latter rated Clinton (67 per cent), George W Bush (61 per cent) and Obama (84 per cent).

Meanwhile, Trump has dismissed the polls as “phony” and “rigged”, arguing in a tweet: “The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before.”

Indeed, the same survey had said that 44 per cent of Americans believe that Trump is qualified to serve as president, while a majority (52 per cent) say he is not.
While on the campaign trail last year, Trump had frequently blasted them out on Twitter. This was even when they had good news for him. But he would accuse media organisations of rigging the numbers when they showed him behind his rivals.

On the eve of the general election, Trump narrowly trailed his main rival, the Democratic Party nominee, Hillary Clinton. The latter hovered anywhere from 2 to 4 percentage points over her Republican rival.

Curiously, Trump captured the Electoral College to win the presidency, while Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million (65,844,954 to 62,979,879) — an advantage of slightly more than 2 per cent.

Add to Trump’s unenviable record-the fact that his cabinet will be the first without a single Latino member since the Ronald Reagan administration. The Washington Post says that every previous administration has had a secretary or top ambassador of Latino descent. This began with Reagan’s appointment of Lauro Cavazos as education secretary in the waning months of his presidency in 1988. The Post also observed that “Trump’s Cabinet won’t have a Democrat, just three women, one African-American man—and no Latino.”

A feud between the newly elected president and the civil rights’ icon and congressman, John Lewis, has led to a rising number of Democratic lawmakers planning to boycott his inauguration. Already, over 50 House Democrats have confirmed that they will not witness Trump’s swearing-in ceremony as the 45th US president.

To Lewis’s assertion last Friday that Trump’s inauguration would be the first one he would miss since being elected to Congress in the 1980s, Trump pointed to Lewis’ absence from George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2001. “John Lewis said about my inauguration, ‘It will be the first one that I’ve missed.’ WRONG (or lie)!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “He boycotted Bush 43 also because he… thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush’s swearing-in….he doesn’t believe Bush is the true elected president.’ Sound familiar! WP”.

“WP” in Trump’s tweet is an allusion to the Washington Post, which in its January 21, 2001 edition had reported that Lewis was among a group of Congressional Black Caucus members who had decided to boycott George W. Bush’s first inauguration. Bush’s ascension to office was tarnished by a contentious Supreme Court decision over the Florida recount.

The Washington Post had said that “John Lewis, for instance, spent the day in his Atlanta district. He thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush’s swearing-in because he doesn’t believe Bush is the true elected president.”

Lewis had courted controversy when during last Friday “Meet the Press” interview he said he does not consider Trump to be a “legitimate president”. Trump’s volley of tweets followed on Saturday morning and continued into that evening.

But Trump’s feud with Lewis at a time when the US is commemorating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. led to the increase of Democratic lawmakers from the initial small group who had planned to boycott the inauguration to over 50, many of whom cited Trump’s tweets about Lewis as their reason.
Perhaps, in a bid to ease tensions, Trump met with Martin Luther King III in New York on Monday to discuss voting rights.

Yet, his ill-advised brawl with Lewis – a man who was clubbed by the police and hospitalised during the 1965’s historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery – could potentially further hurt his relations with the African-American community and even pitch the Democrats against the Republicans.

It is ironic that Lewis’s charge of illegitimacy should be a source of irritation for Trump. Did he not spend years trying to prove the same about his predecessor’s presidency? Besides, Trump’s quirky habit of tweeting his response at a slightest provocation remains a cause for concern among those who think his tweets could unleash unsavoury global consequences.

Lewis based his decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration on the alleged Russian interference in the November election. Hence, the civil rights icon’s allusion to Trump’s illegitimacy.

But even with the controversy swirling around him, Americans have one good reason to look forward to his presidency: job-creation.
The real estate developer’s last November’s win at the presidential polls seemed to have spurred many companies to announce the creation of new factories or jobs in the US. Among them are the air conditioning manufacturer, Carrier, Japan’s SoftBank, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Amazon, which famously promised to create 100,000 jobs.

Also, there were cheery announcements by Wal-Mart and General Motors. While the former announced on Tuesday that it would invest $6.8 billion in the US and create 10,000 jobs, the latter offered $1 billion in new US investments and pledged to create 5,000 new jobs.

For this, Trump took the credit in his Tuesday tweet.
“With all of the jobs I am bringing back into the US (even before taking office), with all of the new auto plants coming back into our country and with the massive cost reductions I have negotiated on military purchases and more, I believe the people are seeing ‘big stuff,’” he claimed.

Trump last month also denounced the $4 billion price tag on the next presidential plane, which is currently being developed, with a threat to cancel the order unless the price came down. This led to the visit of the aviation giant Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg to Trump Tower in Manhattan on Tuesday. Muilenburg would tell reporters afterwards that he and Trump were “on the same page” about the cost and value of the jet.
On the foreign scene, while his foreign policy proposals had appeared vague and contradictory during his campaign, Russia and Israel had openly rooted for his presidency. Meanwhile, his NATO allies were discomfited by his recent remarks to the effect that the alliance is obsolete. He came short of berating Germany for its open-door policy on refugees.

Meanwhile, preparations for his inauguration had entered the final stages since Sunday when organisers carried out a rehearsal of the ceremony and parade, with a military officer who is the same height as Trump standing in for the president-elect. Washington DC’s central axis, running from the White House to the Capitol, where Trump will be sworn in, has been cordoned off.

The task of ensuring safety at the event has been entrusted to about 28,000 security forces, some of whom are already on duty in the streets of Washington. Perhaps, a major security challenge is the planned protest march by hundreds of thousands of protesters on Friday and Saturday.