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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016
World
Trump triumph deals big blow to US brand N EW YORK―With his stunning election triumph, Donald Trump has emblazoned his name in golden letters on the brand of the United States. The superpower of soft power that produces much of the world’s most-loved music, movies and technology on Tuesday chose a president who is wildly unpopular in close US allies. Trump’s surprise election could have far-reaching effects for the US image with potential consequences for companies, universities and tourism. Still, the extent of Trump’s impact remains to be seen. Most foreigners presumably can differentiate between politics and people, and America’s best-known entertainers overwhelmingly backed rival Hillary Clinton. The presidency itself has long been key to the US global image,
with popular films and television series such as “Air Force One” and “The West Wing” depicting wise, principled presidents, and embassies around the world throwing election watch parties to showcase the peaceful transition of power. The harsh tone of the campaign, and the protests that followed Trump’s victory, undercut that message this time, said Nicholas Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School. “I think it’s unsettling to audiences around the world, especially as part of Trump’s approach is to be tough and to be rude around foreigners―saying he is going to teach China a lesson, or that China
has been ‘raping’ the American economy, or to say that NATO allies are not pulling their weight,” Cull said. “However, on the other side of that, I think people around the world are not stupid and they recognize an American version of a kind of politics that is occurring in many countries,” said Cull, referring to the rise of populist leaders. The foreign image of the United States has shifted sharply in the recent past. Outside much of the Islamic world, strong majorities in major countries have consistently seen the United States favorably since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, according to annual surveys by the Pew Research Center. The enduring popularity of the United States under its first African American president was a marked change after wide criticism of the country among European allies following president George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Trump, a brash tycoon who
has boasted of forcing himself on women and has no experience in government, has an abysmally low image in much of the world with Russia a rare exception. The Pew survey released in June found that only single-digit percentages in US allies France, Germany and Japan were confident about his decision-making in world affairs. The drag on the US image could be particularly acute to the travel and tourism industry, which has been growing steadily with help from the marketing firm Brand USA, set up under a 2010 law. The United States last year was the largest recipient of foreign tourists after France, with the tourism industry accounting for 7.6 million jobs directly or indirectly. Trump has called for a ban on all Muslim visitors and a wall to block the border with Mexico, the biggest source of visitors to the United States after Canada. AFP
North Korea warns new administration SEOUL―North Korea on Thursday warned the incoming Donald Trump administration will have to acknowledge it as a nuclear state, as the South said the maverick billionaire had pledged to protect it. The United States maintains it cannot accept North Korea as a nuclear power, despite it conducting five nuclear tests―including two in 2016―and has pushed harsh international sanctions against the Pyongyang regime. “If there is anything the Obama administration has done... it has put the security of the US mainland in the greatest danger,” said an editorial carried by North Korea’s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun. “It has burdened the new administration with the difficulty of facing the Juche nuclear state,” it said, referring to the North Korean ideology usually translated as “self-reliance”. The editorial, which did not mention Trump by name, follows growing calls for the United States to change tack on North Korea, with US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper last month labeling the attempts to denuclearise the North a lost cause. President Barack Obama has made talks with the North conditional on Pyongyang first making some tangible commitment towards de-nuclearization, but Thursday’s editorial called the goal an “outdated illusion”. Although Trump has not laid out a clear direction for his policy on North Korea, he has indicated that he would be open to
negotiations with its leader Kim Jong-Un in the US to talk him out of his nuclear ambitions. Trump caused consternation during his campaign when he threatened to withdraw the troops unless Seoul paid more for their upkeep, and suggested South Korea and Japan develop their own nuclear weapons to counter threats from Pyongyang. But in a phone call with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Thursday, Trump vowed that US commitment on protecting its ally against the North “will not waver”. “We are going to be with you 100 percent,” Trump said, according to a statement from South Korea’s Blue House. “We will be steadfast and strong with respect to working with you to protect against the instability in North Korea,” Seoul quoted him as saying. North Korea has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006. After Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, the Security Council adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date, targeting North Korea’s trade in minerals and tightening banking restrictions. Council members are currently debating a fresh resolution after the North’s fifth nuclear test in September. According to Security Council diplomats, the negotiations are focused on closing loopholes and zeroing in on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile technology industry. AFP
Threat seen to Fed policy, independence WASHINGTON―Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential race raises new questions over Federal Reserve policy in the short run and the central bank’s vital operational independence over the longer term. How his proposed, dramatic policy shifts impact the economy could influence Fed plans to resume raising interest rates after a year’s hiatus, which was widely expected to begin in December. Meanwhile, Trump’s sharp attacks on the Fed and especially Chair Janet Yellen during the campaign, some worry, could lead to greater political interference in monetary policy. “We are in a big, fat, ugly bubble. And we have a Fed that’s doing political things, this Janet Yellen of the Fed,” Trump charged during the campaign. “The day [President Barack] Obama goes out ... to the golf course for the rest of his life to play golf, when they raise interest rates, you are going to see some very bad things happen,” he said. In fact, the Fed has been hinting at raising rates for months and prior to the election most expectations were that it would do so in its December policy meeting. But that was when Democrat Hillary Clinton, who espoused continuity in economic policy, was expected to win Tuesday. With the Trump victory, some analysts say a rate increase could again be off the table. “As of right now, the chance of a December hike probably is no more than one in three,” said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics. Paul Ashworth, of Capitol Economics, however said it depends on how the markets generally respond to Trump’s election. If the markets turn negative and stay there, he said, “the Fed will hold off in December.” Yellen has steadfastly insisted that monetary policy moves are not influenced by politics, and she bristled at Trump’s accusations. Some say the combination of continued economic momentum, and the need to show independence from Trump, could in fact support a rate increase at the December 13-14 policy meeting. “We still think the Fed hikes in December,”said David Kotok, chairman of Cumberland Advisors. Trump’s announced economic policies, including spending big on infrastructure projects, tax cuts, and protectionist moves on trade, could add to inflationary pressure that would further support a Fed hike, according to Fed specialist Tim Duy. “There is going to be some concern that this next presidency will have a powerful fiscal stimulus,” he said. “A forward-looking central bank should be considering that and considering raising interest rates.” Even so, Trump’s populist, interventionist declarations have shaken the market’s confidence in the Fed’s ability to protect its independence. For two years Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attacked Yellen for not following their policy guidance, their views on bank regulations, and for not being transparent over the inner workings of the central bank. AFP
WAITING. Indian bank customers wait to deposit 500 and 1000 Indian currency notes at a bank in Amritsar on November 10, 2016. Long queues formed outside banks in India as they reopened for the first time since the government’s shock decision to withdraw the two largest denomination notes from circulation. AFP
Republican fared well despite sex-assault claims LOS ANGELES―Despite the sex assault allegations hounding him, fat-shaming a former beauty queen and his controversial abortion stand, a large number of women voters helped put Donald Trump in the White House. Though his rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, clinched 54 percent of the female vote, Trump was backed by 42 percent of women voters, which contributed to his stunning victory, according to CNN exit polls. Some 53 percent of white women voters supported the Republican candidate, CNN said, the majority of them (62 percent) non-college educated. The results upended predictions that sexist and degrading comments Trump made against women would sway female voters―who accounted for about
52 percent of the electorate Tuesday―in favor of a candidate that could have broken the glass ceiling. Experts said the outcome is not surprising, and reflects an election in which issues about the economy, jobs and immigration were much higher on all voters’ priority list than gender issues. “At the heart of it is what was driving all voters,” said Diane Heith, professor and chair of the Department of Government and Politics at St. John’s University in New York. Heith said although the leaked Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasted about groping women, and his disparaging comments about a former Miss Universe had made many women cringe, it was not enough to turn them against the candidate.
“There was no sisterhood created,” Heith said. “The issue of how he treated women did not overshadow the attitudes these individuals already had―being disaffected and how they had been treated by the establishment elite of which Hillary was absolutely part of.” Still, the real estate magnate’s shock win has left many women struggling to cope with the election of a president whose misogynistic behavior was disregarded at the polls. “More than half of white women voted for the man who bragged about committing sexual assault on tape, who said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade ... who has spent 30-plus years in the public eye reducing women to their sexual attributes,” wrote L.V. Anderson in an article in the online current
affairs magazine Slate. “White women sold out their fellow women, their country, and themselves last night,” added the author. “Most white women don’t want to be part of an intersectional feminist sisterhood. Most white women just want to be one of the guys. And we will all suffer for it.” One issue of particular concern for women―both Democrats and Republicans―will be how Trump deals with abortion rights while in the White House. Trump moved further and further to the right on abortion during his campaign, at one point suggesting that women who seek to terminate their pregnancy should be subject “to some form of punishment” should abortion be outlawed. He backtracked on his remarks following an outcry. But it’s unclear where he really
stands on the issue, especially considering his running mate Mike Pence’s views on abortion. As governor of Indiana, Pence pushed for some of the most abortion-restrictive regulations in the country and has fought to defund Planned Parenthood, which offers reproductive health services, including abortions, to mostly lower-income Americans. “American women who are seeking reproductive freedom should be concerned about a Trump-Pence presidency,” Heith said. Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Trump’s shocking win could be attributed to a disconnect―both among Republicans and Democrats―when it came to women’s voting. AFP