I have to be honest; before 2016, I knew little about Donald Trump. Since I wasn't a TV enthusiast, I didn't even know about the Apprentice. Mind you, I knew little about Barack Obama when he was running in 2008.
When Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, we happened to be in America. My wife was in a Rehab Centre recovering from hip surgery due to a skiing accident. As I watched the ceremony on television, I thought how remarkable it was that America had elected a black President. America had come a long way.
Unfortunately, Obama turned out to be a disappointment for many, not because of his blackness, but because of his policies, especially internationally. Then came Trump and his victory, which unleashed a kind of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with sprinklings of hysteria.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD ) is when a person has that he or she can't seem to control and that keep recurring (obsessions). They will often be followed by compulsions. These are behaviours that the person feels the urge to repeat.
There has been a reaction to Trump that is at times severe, though not isolated, and many people are exhibiting obsessive and hysterical behaviour. I saw this myself in an Australian person, who broke down emotionally when Trump won the election in 2016. I tried to point out the folly of the person's breakdown since they didn't live in America, and their life would be no different.
Perhaps the most disturbing phenomenon about Trump is where relationships have dissolved because of conflict over his election to the Presidency. Children have stopped speaking to their parents when they found out that they voted for Trump. People have been assaulted because they were wearing Trump hats. A neighbour of mine gives me unsolicited diatribes about Trump. Entering a rational discussion with this person is impossible.
Then there are the politicians, some of whom have lost the plot. One, in particular, Adam Schiff, suffers from OCD when it comes to Trump. He repeatedly for three years attempted to prove that Trump colluded with Russia, despite absolutely no evidence after several investigations. Yet he still keeps saying there is "evidence".
It reminds me of the movie, The French Connection with Gene Hackman. In the closing scene, Hackman is looking for the French drug kingpin, Charmier, in a derelict old warehouse. In the process, he shoots and kills a fellow detective, yet he pushes on, moving from room to room, with, "I know he is here somewhere".
The obsession with getting the goods on Trump and his supposed collusion with Russia is still there. At this point, this is delusional. The irony, of course, is that Clinton, Obama, the CIA and FBI implemented a scheme to take down Trump. This is now confirmed by recently released texts and documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
Trump, like many of us, has his pluses and minuses. He has been a womanizer, says outlandish things at times, and is not shy of self-aggrandizement. On the other hand, you have to look at what he has achieved in his time as President.
Trump has managed to bring The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain into a peace deal with Israel. Other countries, such as Morocco, Sudan and Oman, are looking to establish relations with Israel, through the Trump initiative. Kosovo and Serbia––long bitter enemies––signed a peace deal thanks to Trump. These are massive changes in the geopolitical landscape.
Trump stood up to China's unfair trade practices which have been going on for some time. Most importantly, he spearheaded the disintegration of ISIS, and he is committed to ending America's involvement in futile wars.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump's policies made the U. S. economy strong with the lowest unemployment figures for minority groups in decades. He also made America energy independent.
So by any objective measure, Trump's actions have spoken loud irrespective of his words. All politicians talk in hyperbolic terms. The bottom line is, what are their results; what do they manage to achieve?
Rather than engaging in an almost pathological obsession about Trump, I suggest people refer to the 1987 movie, Moonstruck, in which Cher tells her partner, Nicholas Cage to, "Snap out of it!". There are bigger things in life to obsess about.
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