It is perhaps more than ironic that on the eve of celebrating its 250th year of political independence in 2026, having wrested power from the then British monarchy in 1776, the United States of America should now be on the verge of becoming a country once more ruled by a ‘king’.

As spurious as this may sound, it is safe to say that if the necessary checks and balances reinforced in the American Constitution are not upheld and vigorously defended by the American people through their elected representatives, the incumbent President Donald J Trump seems hell-bent on taking on the trappings of a monarch.

Just barely under a month since being sworn in as the 47th president of the world’s most renowned and revered democracy, “The Donald” has embarked on a number of initiatives and made certain pronouncements which strongly suggest that he intends to rule with absolute power. Of course, in this context, there is the famous saying by British historian Lord Acton which states “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

It has been said that, given Jamaica’s proximity, when the US sneezes we catch a cold. With the advent of President Trump and his hard line MAGA (Make America Great Again)-inspired policies and enactments, it is perhaps safe to say that Jamaica may well end up with a serious case of pneumonia over time.

Already, the spectre of mass deportations hangs heavily over this fledgling nation with the possibility of numerous deportees returning to the country of their birth, among them criminals, murderers, gangsters, and homeless people who are likely to become a burden on the State in more ways than one.

In the meantime, the planned scrapping of US Agency for International Development (USAID) is likely to have devastating consequences for several voluntary organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGO), and civil society groupings that deal with such pressing issues as health, human rights, education, social development, and citizens’ advocacy. In this vein, the Jamaican Government will be hard-pressed in the long run to find the necessary funds to keep some, if not all, of these beleaguered bodies alive and well.

So far Prime Minister Andrew Holness has put on a brave face, declaring that we have to be independent, insinuating that Jamaica has to take care of its domestic business and not continue to rely so heavily on foreign aid. After all, foreign aid does come with several strings attached, and it has been observed, for example, that there were several attempts to “encourage” Jamaica to embrace certain cultural “norms”, inclusive of embracing the “rainbow coalition” which seeks to preach acceptance for the LGBTQ+ stance on matters relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals, a scenario that has found much resistance from the Jamaican clergy as well as other civil society groups that abhor this particular lifestyle. The flying of the rainbow flag at the US Embassy in Kingston raised many eyebrows and utterances of condemnation, and, interestingly, opponents of this cause may well take comfort in the stance taken by the Trump presidency, as he has stated unequivocally that in the United States only two genders are recognised, male and female.

In the meantime, it is instructive that many Jamaicans with US citizenship voted for Trump based on the aforementioned matter; immigration — yes, some Jamaicans believe that their brothers and sisters who are in the country illegally are posing a threat to them and their survival; as well as the view that the high cost of living under the Joe Biden Administration was unbearable. Well the pigeons have come home to roost, and apart from the deportation thrust, there has been no indication that the president is inclined to immediately pursue those bread-and-butter issues as was promised during his election campaign.

Meanwhile, his touted imposition of tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, not to mention some European countries, and the taking over of the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip, among other flights of fancy, are fast making “Uncle Sam” the laughing stock of the world. On the home front, the looming evisceration of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), led by “Co-President” Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has taken on a Rasputin-like posture in the White House, all in a bid to replace employees in the aforementioned organisations with Trump loyalists, are all part and parcel of ensuring that the king has full allegiance from all his subjects. All hail, King Donald!

In all of this, what boggles the mind is that Republicans, for the most part, have remained supine, allowing the incremental decimation of the GOP (their Grand Old Party) while MAGA rises like a Godzilla, reminiscent of the prophetic words of Irish poet W B Yeats in his seminal work
The Second Coming (a favourite of the late iconoclastic talk show host Wilmot “Motty” Perkins) “…And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem [Washington DC] to be born?”

The die has been cast… but is the cast dead? Will Democrats and well-thinking Americans take the bull by the horns and stand up to preserve the world’s most stable democracy (up till now)?

In terms of foreign policy, as far as Jamaica is concerned the big elephant in the room, which so far the Holness Administration has been dodging, is that of the relationship between China and Jamaica. Indeed, now that USAID and other American donor agencies may be debunked by King Donald, Jamaica may well have to turn more to the Chinese for assistance. But will Trump allow the Chinese influence as well as affluence in Jamaica and the Caribbean region to go unnoticed by his genuflecting State Department led by his key ally Secretary of State Marco Rubio? Is it only a matter of time before he cracks the whip? Already we see what he has been doing to Cuba, and the fearless Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley has fired a shot across the bow. In the final analysis, the Chinese curse may well prove to be more than relevant as we continue to live in “interesting times”.

Lloyd B Smith has been involved full-time in Jamaican media for the past 49 years. He has also served as a Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. He hails from western Jamaica where he is popularly known as the Governor. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or lbsmith4@gmail.com.