Commentary
By Venkatesh Raghavan
President Donald Trump has challenged the election verdict in the Supreme Court besides stating that if the counting takes place right, he will continue to remain in the hot seat. As the litigation is entering an interesting phase, foreign heads of states are treading cautious in handing over compliments or uttering any adulatory messages in favor of Democrat Joe Biden, who has crossed the 270 electoral votes goal post. Trump has expressed confidence about judicial intervention changing the fortunes of the electoral battle in his favor. Besides, there are no signs of the legal battle coming to an end very soon. Some say it might take a protracted turn.
However, there were people who point out that the Trump has “slightly” climbed down from his high horse after exhibiting brazen confidence in his pre-election speeches. On the allegation that his performance was poor in combatting the pandemic, initially, Trump responded to the challenge with public speeches on the vaccine for Covid-19 being well on its way by April 2021. He also tried to downplay the situation created by the pandemic saying, “We just want normal. The virus will soon disappear.” Trump also tried to cash in on his efforts made on the international front, firstly making Israel agree to seek cordial ties with Saudi Arabia and other neighboring Arab states and secondly easing Sudan out of its highly stigmatized “Exporter of Terrorist” label and bringing about normalization of relationships.
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The Democrats camp of Joe Biden at that stage got a shot in the arm with former President and a man of star value, Barack Obama pitching in to support his poll efforts. The Democrats on their part wanted to capitalize on President Trump’s failure in combating the Corona virus in a timely manner and blamed the huge number of deaths in America to the President’s apathy.
Things went well for the Biden camp well ahead of the November 3 polls with even the conventional Republican stronghold of Florida harboring strong anti-Trump sentiments. Florida is a land of huge numbers of pensioners. Needless to say, Trump’s inability to cater to the needs of the aged had angered this segment of the Florida electorate.
Post the election day, when counting began, it turned out to be a story of how Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona are going to behave in the dying moments of the vote count from the electoral college. It was nearly 18 hours before Biden who stood at 264 leading comfortably with Trump’s count standing at 214, moved past the 270-goal post. Biden was declared President elect at that point of time, when Trump kept stressing on his bid to seek judicial intervention from the Supreme Court to stall the mandate. However, it was reported that with passage of time, Trump mellowed down in his public speeches indirectly indicating that he did not entirely rule out a regime change. Trump’s ardent bid at fighting a legal battle though casting a shadow of doubt on the poll verdict, seems to have made him more cautious when treading on the public platform.
Though not many gave Trump a chance for his second term, the President sounded upbeat about his policies being instrumental in giving the American GDP a boost. However, the stocks had tumbled and the US share market had hit a nadir, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the investing community. Compared to the support he enjoyed in 2016, Trump had lost by a mile in many states owing to his radical shift from the pro-people approach that was adopted by the previous Obama regime.
The glaring instance was that of health care which the Obama regime had implemented after a tough round of negotiations with the numbers game in the Senate. There were two things that the Trump administration will be distinctly remembered for. First, the annulment of the health care insurance benefits and second the withdrawal of America from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) of 11 countries. President Obama had devised TPP as a means to counter China’s bid to increasingly create a monopoly on the world trade scene. Trump however, decided to nip it and put America on a sticky wicket when it came to international trade.
Though faced with a trying circumstance owing to litigation, the story so far has been that Joe Biden riding on the crest of achieving the magical goal post of 270 electoral votes and beyond has much to thank for Donald Trump’s lackluster performance on the bid to counter and curb the damage wrecked by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic across the country.
