Ugandans seem so submerged in their own local issues of daily bread, businesses and their future that the impending return of Donald J. Trump as president of the US this Monday 20 January 2025 does not seem that much of a consideration. Many didn’t even notice the inauguration of Daniel Chapo, 48, the new Mozambican president who now stretches Frelimo’s five decades hold on to power since forcing the Portuguese out of the country through an armed struggle led by Samora Machel.
Seen by many as disgraced at home, with a felony conviction on his head for paying hush money to a porn star woman, Trump, returns to the White House on Monday wearing both 45 and G47 after defying events and making history returning on a nonconsecutive term as president since Grover Cleveland in 1892. Cleveland, was the first Democrat elected in 1885 after the civil war but lost in 1889. And Trump’s comeback also includes his winning the electoral college 312 votes against 226, the popular vote, and the Republican party reclaiming control of both the Senate and House of Representatives, otherwise called Congress.
His political adversaries Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their sidekick Kamala Harris, the figurehead Democrat presidential candidate who campaigned so aggressively to stop Trump’s comeback, must now eat humble pies. And in the US, like everywhere else, it is now proven that all politics is local, otherwise how did it end this way, when most of America’s high-profile celebrities endorsed Kamala! Compare that to the rise and fall, of recent British prime ministers, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, now forgotten, or Kemi Badenoch, the tory new leader, barely mentioned.
On his side Trump has enlisted Elon Musk, the tech investor, world’s current wealthiest man, world, owner of social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, and an equally abrasive fellow like Trump. Reading his braggadocious on X, one cannot fail to notice that perhaps, Musk thinks that they co-share the presidential powers with Trump, but we leave that to the shadows of time. The world, including our ‘shithole’ corners appear ready to welcome back a more transactional Trump. After all, he will most likely leave every goat at its own teether.
At least for now, there is no more expected escalation of conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, and hopefully in Ukraine, and the Middle East too where a new deal has just been inked between Israel and Hamas ceasefire and hostage swapping. Africa is unlikely to be on Trump’s first radar readings, and we can mind our own business, an opportunity to have quiet reflections, but also formulate what can lift us up. The European NATO warmongers may now need to find a new place where to pee.
Trump has his own load of immediate personal grievances to settle, the multiple legal battles in the courts, domestic politics, America’s rea; problems, and to break the neck of his ‘enemies’ who brought him all the humiliations before he can set eyes on targets in distant lands in the world’s periphery. With his mulling to own Canada, Greenland, and to rename the Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America, Russia’s hold on Crimea and Ukraine look pale.
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