What a travesty. Every ill that Western officials and pundits would charge Third World countries of practising is now being applied under the Trump administration. Imagine the US constitution being amended so that Trump, who has barely begun his second and constitutionally last term, could run for a third. Yet, the British Daily Mail recently reported that Congressman Andy Ogles proposed just that. He introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to amend Article 22 to allow a president to be elected for up to three terms. Trump would need eight years to rebuild the US after Joe Biden’s catastrophic rule, he argued.
Then Trump violated his country’s constitution with an executive order revoking birthright citizenship for anyone born on US soil. Clearly, constitutions are not as sacred and inviolable as they claim in Western democracies. The real mentality is: if the constitution does not serve the aims and ambitions of the ruling regime, change it.
In another departure from established norms and regulations governing transparency, Trump administration officials have made a habit of keeping his contacts with foreign leaders, secret.
According to The Washington Post, Trump often gives foreign leaders his personal mobile phone number, inviting them to use that instead of calling him through official channels. During his first term, the Canadian government released a readout of a telephone conversation between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the White House had not publicised. Additionally, Trump had two phone meetups with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2017. The press was informed only of the first. The White House only confirmed the second after the Kremlin reported it. The pattern was repeated with other foreign leaders. Only after reports of Trump’s calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared in the foreign media did the Trump White House feel compelled to acknowledge that the calls took place. It did not feel obliged to provide the US public with further details.
Is this the “institutionalised governance” we lack in the Third World?
* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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