Living in the era of Donald Trump

Monday, 5 January 2026 03:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In the years to come, the world will be defined as the era-Before Donald Trump and After Donald Trump. The tycoon turned politician and now the 47th President of the United States of America, Trump has torn the rule book on world order for decades and thrown it miles out of the window.

Being the incumbent of the most powerful office in the world in an era when social media is what swings public opinion, he and his team have used these tools to directly communicate with the public and has won over a majority of the American population and also grudging admiration worldwide. His actions have left even the closest US allies bamboozled and struggling to keep pace with the man.

The latest action of flying US troops into Venezuela, capturing the country’s President Nicolás Maduro and flying him to the US to face charges for drug and weapons offences is straight out of a Hollywood movie than an actual government sanctioned operation but then this is the era of Donald Trump and one has to expect the most unexpected happenings to take place.

Beginning with his first term as the 45th US President and now in the second term, Donald Trump has not shied away from speaking his mind and acting on his wishes ignoring his critics. He has alienated many of the strongest of US allies in Europe, started to defund the United Nations, pulled the U.S out of several UN organisations, closed down USAID and done many things that many thought were impossible before Trump struck.

None in his administration are apologetic about raiding a sovereign nation and abducting its leader. “We are watching and monitoring the situation” has become a lame response to the unpredictable actions of the US leader. Condemnation has become meaningless.

Regime change is something the US has specialised for decades, just that it wasn’t done in such a blatant manner. From Iraq to Libya to Syria, regime change has been facilitated by various U.S. admirations under the pretext of ill-founded and bogus claims including the much touted Weapons of Mass Destruction(WMD) linked to slain former Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein. Where these so called WMD are no one still knows.

The recent spate of so called “people’s uprisings”, ‘Gen Z uprisings’ across South Asia also seem to be a US campaign. In Sri Lanka, the so called ‘Aragalaya’ saw the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa forced to flee the country and the allegations of US involvement in what transpired in the country are credible given the outgoing US Ambassador in Colombo Julia Chung taking it up herself to decide who should succeed Rajapaksa even though sanity prevailed and no one took her unsolicited advice.

But that was before Trump and now we have a man who goes for ‘direct action. After Venezuela, he could be eyeing Iran where public protests against the rulers are building up. Trump has already warned that the US will intervene if peaceful protesters are killed while writing on social media “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

What the world under Trump will wake up to tomorrow no one can predict. His actions would either make him a hero for some who want to see the back of the tyrannical rulers or he could drag the world into a full blown war. Till then all the rest of the world can do is wait and watch.