Donald Trump may go down as the worst American president

What you need to know:

  • Today, Trump celebrates the first anniversary of his presidency.
  • He has performed so poorly during his first year in the Oval Office that it will be difficult for him to convince the American people and the rest of the world that he deserves being president of that great country.
  • Trump has denied that he is a racist, but he declared during the campaigns that Obama was not an American.

On November 19, 2016, I wrote in this column that then Us president-elect Donald Trump was bracing himself for the most difficult job in his life, that of presiding over a divided and discordant America.
Trump was at the time yet to be inaugurated, but protests had started in New York and other big American cities over the awful declarations and abuses of his opponents that he had made during the election campaign.

Today, Trump celebrates the first anniversary of his presidency, but he has performed so poorly during his first year in the Oval Office that it will be difficult for him to convince the American people and the rest of the world that he deserves being president of that great country.
Unfortunately, there is neither enough evidence yet to prove his incompetence, nor a constitutional provision, impeachment inclusive, under which he can be removed from office.
He seems to appreciate his weaknesses because he said on one occasion that he hoped the investigator, who was appointed to look into his alleged collusion with the Russians to de-campaign Ms Hillary Clinton would judge him favourably.

Only voters can determine his future, but there are no elections in sight, and the mid-term elections are still far ahead.
America continues to be more divided and discordant today than it was when Trump took office, and almost the whole world is on tension because of the erratic and disorderly manner in which he is conducting himself in both the domestic and international arenas.

The New York Times has described his behaviour in office so far as ‘impulsive, erratic, dishonest, childish and crude’.
His attempt to disrupt the relations, which Obama had resurrected with Cuba has not succeeded, but the latest accusation against him is that he made a statement in the Oval Office a few days ago in which he described African countries, Haiti and El-Salvador as ‘shithole’ countries whose citizens should not go to the United States.

Some leaders of the countries he insulted have formally protested about Trump’s vulgar language, but to me, the radical response should have been a massive recall of the ambassadors to the United States of the countries he insulted until he apologises. He should also be told that America itself is a ‘shithole’ country in many aspects.

Trump has denied that he is a racist, but he declared during the campaigns that Obama was not an American and is trying to undermine all the policies that the Harvard graduate put in place, including the international agreements which he made with foreign countries.
In pursuance of his top priorities, Trump foolishly pulled out of the group working on climate change, only to watch America being attacked by fires and hurricanes that caused dreadful floods and inflicted untold damage to areas in their path.

His other priorities included dismantling Iran’s Nuclear deal with America and European countries, calling it the worst deal in the world that was disastrous to Israel, the USA and the rest of the Middle East.
He now wants that deal to be renegotiated, which obviously implies that he hates the present version because it was negotiated by Barrack Obama. Russia, among others, sees no reason for renegotiating the deal.

To stop North Korea from developing a nuclear bomb, Trump vowed to wipe that country off the surface of the earth. Nothing like that has so far happened, and it looks like he was joking because he later complained that while the North Korean leader had said he (Trump) was old, ‘I have myself not said he is short and fat”. Furthermore, Trump has lately claimed that he has a special relationship with the North Korean leader!
Trump also talked about giving some top American generals 30 days to work out a solution to the Syrian crisis, but nothing has so far materialised. The Mexico Wall, he said would be built and paid for by Mexicans to prevent them from immigrating to the United States has not been built and may never be built, and many of his threats to repeal laws and revoke all the policies and schemes that Obama initiated to help the poor remain on paper. He lacks the ability to replace them.

Finally, while he was struggling to make friends with some Arab countries, he blundered and recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. His decision was rejected at the United Nations where 129 countries voted against it with only nine countries approving.
Ashamedly, countries such as Uganda, which still crave for foreign aid abstained, yet apart from abusing Africa, Trump has not said anything promising about Africa. I even doubt whether he knows where the continent lies on the world map.

Mr Kiwanuka is a journalist, Retired foreign service officer and author
Email: [email protected]