Dawn of a Trumpian World

President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, as the 47th President of the United States, will usher in a non-Globalist, non-Woke world, and legitimise the return of nationalism and traditional cultural values in countries dominated or pressured by the West. A new ideological map of the world will soon emerge – multipolar due to the rise of BRICS and its partner countries – but with the United States, Russian Federation, and China as dominant poles.

The old Globalist regimes will come under strain: Canada’s Justin Trudeau has collapsed, Britain’s Keir Starmer is under stress for allegedly protecting child rapist gangs as Attorney-General, France’s Emmanuel Macron is cornered, Australia will probably flip quietly, while the leadership of the European Union will resist even as its constituent units tear it apart. It remains to be seen if the AfD can come to power in Germany. Austria opposes NATO’s war against Russia; New Zealand will change quietly.

The exit of the Biden administration will defang the global Woke agenda with its offensive promotion of “Trans” rights wherein schools in America and Britain groomed minors to switch sexual identities without parental knowledge or consent. George Soros and the World Economic Forum will lose power in the new world order.

The Muslim world is in deep crisis. The West has long exploited the Shia-Sunni sectarian affiliations to subjugate Muslim countries; the decimation of Syria with the blessings of the outgoing Biden administration completes the disarray. This subject is beyond the scope of the current article. Suffice it to say that Muslims will have to grapple with the distortions wrought in their nations and societies by Western colonialism and find their own solutions. Until then, Palestinians will continue to suffer in Gaza and other territory coveted by Israel.

Regarding India, the outgoing Biden administration began a healing exercise with NSA Jake Sullivan making a farewell visit to India and crediting his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, for the strength of the relationship. It remains to be seen if the new administration will scrap the absurd allegations of an alleged plot to assassinate Khalistani leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil.

Meanwhile, Trump revealed his global ambitions for America when he stunned the world by threatening to subsume Canada as the 51st state of the United States, demanding Greenland from Denmark, and full American control over the Panama Canal. He also called for renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”. Barring the renaming of the gulf, there is a deeper geopolitics at work.

Greenland hosts America’s northernmost military facility, the Pituffik Space Base. In 2018, it planned to build three airports with Chinese funds, but Washington worked out alternate financing with Denmark and Greenland. The island has abundant natural resources (rare earths being mined by China’s Shenghe Resources and Hua Sheng Mining) and could help America meet Russian dominance in the Arctic.

Moscow is currently spending $110 billion to build megaports across its Arctic coastline as a prelude to the opening of the northern sea lanes. Control over Greenland would give Washington a presence on the northern routes. The Arctic is also a key route for polar-orbit trajectories, which are often used for ICBMs. Missiles launched over the poles can reach their targets more quickly due to the curvature of the Earth. Senator Ted Cruz observed that Greenland is important for US national security as any ICBMs launched at America would have to fly over Greenland. Hence, securing Greenland is imperative for US national security.

Trump’s abrasive speech led Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede to retort: “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our years-long struggle for freedom.” Inuit Maya Sialuk added that the country was “still trying to recover” from three centuries of colonization. Denmark’s defense minister mooted $1.5 billion to upgrade Greenland’s security to take a “stronger presence” in the Arctic, not to deter America.

On January 7, 2025, Donald Trump announced that his son, Don Jr. and his representatives were visiting Greenland to negotiate the purchase of the territory. The local residents are reported to be in favour of joining the United States, rather than remain under Denmark. By January 11, Múte Egede announced that he was prepared to negotiate the future of the Arctic territory with Trump. No specific terms have been outlined so far.

According to the EurAsia Daily (Jan 11, 2025), Denmark could seek Moscow’s help to save Greenland. Asserting the Denmark would not accept the secession of Greenland, Danish MP Karsten Hønge expressed confidence that “Russia would not allow Greenland to become part of the United States. This is as unfavorable for Russia as it is for us.” Reports say Danish authorities contacted Trump’s team to discuss increasing the US military presence in Greenland to stave off his plans to buy the island. Reports that Denmark could invoke the Lisbon Treaty (paragraph 7 of Article 42) for assistance in the event of armed aggression by the US, are not likely to materialise.

Regarding Canada, Trump threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on trade and expressed anger at Canada’s failure to stop the flow of drugs and people (immigration); he proposed making Canada an American state with Trudeau as governor (Trudeau was since resigned and his Liberal Party is likely to be routed in the next year’s election). Trump pointed out that the US subsidizes Canada to the tune of about US$ 200 billion annually, among other things. Having a very small military, Canada essentially relies on the American military, and Trump wants Canada to pay its dues for this.

Regarding the Panama Canal, its administrator Ricaurte Vásquez said the canal would remain in Panamanian hands and would be open to commerce from all countries. Denying claims that China was controlling the canal’s operations, he said that Chinese companies operating in the ports on either end of the canal were part of a Hong Kong consortium that won a bidding process in 1997, while US and Taiwanese companies operate other ports along the canal. Trump dubbed the fees for transiting the canal (as $450,000 per transit) as “ridiculous” as this raised the price of gas and goods for American families.

Vásquez explained that fees are fixed with due process in the first half of the year to help clients plan their trips. The canal depends on reservoirs to operate its locks and two years of drought compelled it to sharply reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. Hence they had to increase the fees charged to shippers for reserving a slot.

The Panama Canal was built by the US in the early 1900s to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. The 51-mile-long canal saves ships from the longer and costlier trip around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. Washington relinquished control of the canal to Panama on 31 December 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. President Trump has called the relinquishment a mistake.