In light of Donald Trump's expected victory in the presidential election and the support received from various multicultural groups, teleSUR spoke exclusively with James Early, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Policy Studies. teleSUR
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00:00Let's now continue going deeper into the analysis post-election day.
00:03For that, we are joined by James Earley, member of the board of trustees of the
00:07Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C. Welcome, James, too, from the South.
00:13Good morning. Pleased to be here with you this difficult morning.
00:17James, how can we understand Donald Trump's victory, meaning that the fact that not only
00:21he won in the electoral votes, but for the first time also in popular votes?
00:25I think the most significant thing is that two-thirds of the American people,
00:32in their multicultural gender, ethnic expressions, support the policies and the attitude of Donald
00:43Trump towards democracy. So it is on the social base of voters that I think we should pay close
00:50attention. Donald Trump is an unpredictable racist, fascist, misogynist, accused of rape,
00:59expelled two times in the federal system for charges against him. But the American people,
01:09two-thirds of the voters, have spoken. That is where the real challenge is.
01:13To anticipate Trump's victory will reshape U.S. foreign policies, particularly
01:18in relation to China and Russia.
01:22That is an interesting question. It would appear that with regard to Russia,
01:29that he may be more aligned in trying to bring to some kind of end the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
01:39in which Ukraine will make the compromise that they probably should have made earlier,
01:44that they are not going to be able to continue this war. With regard to China,
01:50I think it remains to be seen. But Trump, as a personality, likes strong leaders,
01:56and the Chinese leader is a very strong leader of his country. So we will have to wait to see
02:02how that gets negotiated. I think the more pressing question in our continent
02:07is what will be the Trump administration's orientation towards Cuba. The Biden-Harris
02:14administration intensified the Trump economic warfare against Cuba. What will be the Trump
02:21administration's relationship towards the Venezuelan government with Nicolás Maduro
02:28is an outstanding question, and of course Nicaragua. What will be the Trump administration's
02:33relationship with Lula de Silva's administration in Brazil? These are outstanding questions,
02:39because immigration is one of the key issues that the American public on both sides of the aisle,
02:49Democrats and Republicans, have been concerned about. And these economic warfares by the Harris
02:55administration, by the Biden-Harris administration, also by the previous Trump administration
03:00against Venezuela, has pushed out several million people, has pushed out two million
03:06citizens in Cuba in the last few years. These are economic war pushouts, and so they put a lot of
03:12strain on the immigration policy. So we will have to see whether or not they will make some kind of
03:19compromise with both the Cuban government, as well as with the Venezuelan government,
03:27to try and stem the tide, breaking this blockade so that Cuba can stabilize its economy,
03:33and stopping the economic warfare against Venezuela so that so many Venezuelans are
03:38not pushed out economically, are intricately tied up with the issue of immigration.
03:44Well, I was going to ask about Venezuela and Cuba, but since you already touched on the topic,
03:48let's change the question and ask about its traditional allies, especially in Europe and Asia,
03:53given Trump's America First approach. He has spoken a lot about defunding NATO in a way,
03:59and calling other people to put more. How do you expect that to go on?
04:03I think it will be a tense and somewhat unstable relationship with NATO, as Trump demonstrated
04:10before. Objectively, Trump has stood against NATO, and I think that will have great influence on
04:21bringing to the table a just peace with regard to Russia and Ukraine. I suspect that the Europeans
04:31are very, very nervous today about Donald Trump, because they saw what he did in his first term.
04:37So I think that is going to be a more unstable relationship.
04:43The situation in the Middle East has also been a key issue during this whole electoral campaign,
04:48especially in terms of the Israeli aggressions against the people of Palestine and Lebanon.
04:54How do you see Trump's return to power shaping that conflict over there?
05:00Well, in some ways, that has already been shaped by the Biden-Harris administration's
05:04alignment with Netanyahu, who has already expanded his genocidal war against Palestinians to go in
05:13to actually try and control the government of Lebanon, and seems poised to attack Iran.
05:25This conflict is already set in motion, and I don't think it's going to be easily for Donald
05:30Trump's administration to simply walk back on that. We will have to see how this Donald Trump
05:38administration handles the U.S. military, with African-Americans, Austin and Brown,
05:45being the two leading men in the U.S. military. Will he keep them in their positions? These are
05:53some of the pressing questions that we must be concerned about, both here in the United States
06:00and with the international community. A question, James, in your view,
06:05what long-term implications can a new Trump's administration have,
06:09both for the United States and for the world?
06:13Well, this is much bigger than Donald Trump. Although Donald Trump is a very powerful kind
06:20of personality, it is the MAGA movement, which has taken over local, state and federal platforms
06:30of governance, which is the most significant thing. They now have an organized approach,
06:36including to the judiciary. We can expect that Donald Trump will appoint more right-wing,
06:43misogynist, racist, anti-immigrant justices to the Supreme Court, and that MAGA governments
06:51across the United States will be strengthened. So it is the institutions of governance
06:56that they are taking over. They have a very strategic plan with Steve Bannon, who is the
07:04international liaison with people like Orban, people like Bolsonaro in Brazil. So this is a
07:12very dangerous moment that is going to last more than four years because they are taking over the
07:19platform of governance. It's not just a personality in Donald Trump that is moving forward.
07:25Thank you, James, for your time here with us in From the South.
07:30It's our pleasure to have you.