Do not Lose Hope in Trump, America’s Expectations Can Still Come True

A File Photo of President Trump and fellow Indian Americans at Diwali 2016
By A.D. Amar

Since in office, Trump has given a very favorable treatment to many Indian Americans by appointing them in key Federal positions in his administration. He has also given India whatever it asked for. Additionally, Trump started to band with India in Asia-Pacific and other parts of the world against India’s archenemies. Indian Americans definitely appreciate that, says the author.

In 2008, when I was contesting for the US Congress from the New Jersey’s District 7, I met with many seasoned and intelligent politicians from both parties. They all agreed on one thing that America’s problems were too big. They also agreed that they knew of no politician who had the capabilities to solve them.

When I focused on these problems, I found out that there were just two big sources of most of America’s problems. They both had to do with the poor boarder control. One due to the lack of control of human inflow into the country and the second due to the lack of control of goods flowing in from all over the world. In other words, it is due to the illegal immigration and unchecked importation of goods. This is how America from being the world’s biggest and best-quality producer became the biggest importer and became a laughing stock of those countries that imported to America and even of those living in America, for its poor quality.

In the process, from being the richest country in the world, it needed to borrow money from almost all countries around the world, with our biggest creditors being those who sold their goods to us, such as China, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Korea, etc. Because of the large inflow of the low skill workers from poor countries, American wages fell. Americans lost their jobs and riches to those who had forced themselves in through the borders, mostly along the South. The unemployment costs increased on the states and, because most of the illegal immigrant businesses run underground, the tax base decreased. Furthermore, the increased school, healthcare and other costs made the states and the Federal government operating in deficit.

I believed that if we fixed these two problems, we could revive our economy and, with that, our financial problems will disappear. Furthermore, as money comes back in the system, slowly but surely everything will come back. America’s problems will disappear.

In 2015, when I decided to support Donald J. Trump for the US President and, on December 25, 2015, with a friend, decided to form a committee to promote Trump, I knew that Trump would be able to deliver what America needed to fix its problems. Therefore, with my friend and another colleague, in January 2016, I registered a PAC called Indian Americans for Trump 2016. I did so because I had faith in Trump’s ability and temperament to be able to take on America’s problems. I expected Trump’s temperament as his big strength since the approaches of all other so called “normal” presidents had not succeeded in solving our problems, economic as well as foreign policy.

During the primary campaign period, according to the records of the Trump for President, I was one of the three academics to had endorsed Trump for President. The political action committee we formed and I led was the first Indian American group formed specifically to openly favor Trump for President. The PAC worked very hard, reached out to Indian Americans and others in many states to campaign for Trump. President Trump, after his victory, agreed that Indian Americans played a critical role in his victory.

Since in office, Trump has given a very favorable treatment to many Indian Americans by appointing them in key Federal positions in his administration. He has also given India whatever it asked for. Additionally, Trump started to band with India in Asia-Pacific and other parts of the world against India’s archenemies. Indian Americans definitely appreciate that.

Another issue is that the countries who are “our friends” believe in keep taking money from us whether we have it or not. The story is the same whether these were countries who would keep selling to us their products without buying anything form us, or these were the countries who were living on aid from America; they all disdained America if America tried to cut their stream of cash coming from the USA. Both these groups of countries believed that they had a right to those streams, whether it was Japan, Germany, South Korea, Canada, France, and many others in this class. On the other hand, these are the countries that had been living on the aid coming from the USA. They include Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, etc. They also believed that it was their right to receive these monies without any obligation. Trump already had bitter arguments on this with the leaders of these countries such as Angela Markel of Germany and Khwaja Asif of Pakistan.

Another big problem that muddies up things in the USA is the political lobbies. They engage in pay-to-play. Politicians get contributions, and, in return, they do what the lobbyists want them to do. Many question why when Presidents were candidates, contesting for election, talked about these problems, but accepted them on their election. Others said that these have been happening for so long that they have become the “American Way”, America’s tradition. Among other American Presidents, Obama criticized the practice and promised never to do that and promised to change them, but did not dare go against the lobbyists. In fact, he let them run the White House, such as David Axelrod and Rahm Immanuel. The presidents, who changed, as Obama did, did not want to take the “risk”. They wanted to have their 8 years and retire, shifting the responsibility on the next President.

Trump has been in office less than a year. All voters are watching. So far, he has been doing all right. If election were held today, he will win. However, if illegal immigrants continue to stay in the country and others, somehow, are allowed to sneak in, and the unchecked importation of foreign goods is allowed to continue, America’s problems will not go away. The stock market rise will be temporary and will make some rich, nevertheless, the problems will continue.

However, Trump’s performance for the 2020 reelection will depend on his ability to handle the sources of America’s biggest problems listed above. If he cannot handle the trade imbalances, the illegal immigrant problems, and the power of the lobbyists, it will be difficult for him to get votes of those who made him win in 2016, Indian Americans or not.

(The author is Professor of Management, Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University. He can be reached at  Ad.amar@shu.edu / Tel: (973) 761 9684.)

     

 

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