Global Research

Trump’s second speech at Davos on Tuesday was all about what he described at the beginning of his talk as “The Great American Comeback”, which is essentially the fulfillment of his famous promise to “Make America Great Again”.

The American President rattled off a dizzying array of statistics for the majority of his speech to hammer home the point that the US economy has never been better. Whether it’s the record-high stock market or record-low minority unemployment, the end effect is what he proudly trumpeted as a “blue-collar boom” that he insists has been nothing but beneficial for his people. The reader can skim through his speech for additional details such as the fact that 25% of all foreign direct investment in the first half of last year went to the US if they’re interested in learning about all of his accomplishments thus far, but the point of this article is to analyze the larger theme of his speech so the author doesn’t believe that there’s any reason to needlessly take up space by republishing each and every statistic when they’re easily accessible in the previous hyperlink.

The essence of “The Great American Comeback” is embodied in the parts of the speech where Trump implicitly touches on his ideology. The key components thereof are his belief that “a nation’s highest duty is to its citizens”, ergo why he’s focused on pursuing what he described as a “pro-worker, pro-citizen, pro-family agenda (which) demonstrates how a nation can thrive when its communities, its companies, its government, and its people work together for the good of the whole nation.” He’s advanced his vision through several key policies. In his own words, “I knew that if we unleashed the potential of our people, if we cut taxes, slashed regulations — and we did that at a level that’s never been done before in the history of our country, in a short period of time — fixed broken trade deals and fully tapped American energy, that prosperity would come thundering back at a record speed.” This contrasts with his fear of “radical socialists” who he says are plotting to “destroy our economy, wreck our country, or eradicate our liberty”, especially under the cover of the climate issue which he regards as a scam for seizing “absolute power to dominate, transform, and control every aspect of our lives.”

Elaborating on his four main policy pillars, he told the audience how he “passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history.” As for slashing regulations, he bragged that “for every new regulation adopted, we are removing eight old regulations”. His global trade negotiations are well known, but Trump reminded everyone about his achievements with China, the USMCA that was formerly known as NAFTA, Japan, and South Korea, as well as his plans to reach a similar deal with the post-Brexit UK. On the topic of fully tapping American energy, Trump told the world that his country “is now, by far, the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world”, which has correspondingly freed up its foreign policy from its former dependence on the Mideast and hence why he encouraged the Europeans to follow suit by purchasing American resources in order to do the same vis-a-vis that region as well as Russia by innuendo. Altogether, these four interconnected policies are most responsible for “The Great American Comeback”.

In terms of the bigger picture, it can be said that the US’ domestic and foreign policy gains have been greatly advanced through the economic means that were described. Even if one disagrees with them for reasons of ideology, there’s no denying that they’ve been extremely effective in promoting America’s interests. In fact, it can even be said that Trump himself doesn’t even regard any of this through an ideological prism except for example his opposition to socialism since this billionaire businessmen understands it all as simply being the most pragmatic policies to implement. Of course, the argument can be made that he’s such a “capitalist ideologue” that he takes his ideology for granted and doesn’t even recognize that he has one, but in any case, it’s the ultimate outcome more so than the intent that counts. The US is truly experiencing “The Great American Comeback” even if everything obviously isn’t perfect nor likely ever will be by virtue of the system in which it’s operating, but the country’s recent gains in aggregate are comparatively better than anyone else’s.

After all, the American marketplace is so important for the rest of the global economy that Trump has been able to easily leverage access to it through primary and secondary sanctions/tariffs in order to achieve serious foreign policy objectives vis-a-vis his rivals. None of those states on the receiving end of this strategy have been able to successfully replicate it against others of a similar size, except perhaps China to an extent through its reciprocal tariffs that eventually resulted in restarting the “trade war” negotiations that have thus far led to “phase one” of a more comprehensive trade deal between the two. Even so, China hasn’t weaponized its economy against others without provocation because of the fear that this would reduce confidence in its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) which aims to establish a Community of Common Destiny with time. The US, meanwhile, only aims to retain its hegemonic role in the global system as opposed to completely revolutionizing its structural foundations like the rising underdog of China aspires to do, which therefore enables it to be much more “flexible” with is strategies since it doesn’t depend on soft power anywhere near as much as its rival.

All told, “The Great American Comeback” has both domestic and international implications, each of which are connected to this game-changing development that’s entirely attributable to Trump’s economic policy (“ideology”). By unleashing the full power of the American economy through tax cuts, deregulations, renegotiated trade deals, and energy independence, the President has successfully fulfilled his promise to “Make America Great Again” even if the outcome obviously isn’t perfect nor ever will be. The point in emphasizing all of this is simply to draw attention to the fact that he’s been extremely effective in implementing his agenda regardless of whether one supports it or not for whatever their reasons may be. Refusing to recognize this reality, as is regrettably the norm in the Alt-Media Community, is the definition of “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. While his supporters only have to pat themselves on the back, his detractors need to have an objective understanding of what he’s accomplished if they seriously attain to challenge it one way or another be it on the domestic and/or foreign policy fronts, yet few have reached that point of political maturity.

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This article was originally published on OneWorld.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.