COMMENT Personally, I am not impressed with US President Donald Trump.

Unlike most people who were following closely the US presidential election, I was not interested in who became the next president. They are all the same.

That is the reason why I made no comments about the US presidential race until now. At the end of the day, they will come and go, but life still goes on.

Some 100,000 Malaysians signed the petition urging Barack Obama to intervene in former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s jail sentence, but Obama did nothing about it despite being confronted with a golden opportunity.

It was all empty promises for those of us who signed the petition.

We do not expect Trump to do anything about it, too. Trump, like Obama, will remain oblivious to what is happening in the world other what matters to the Americans.

Therefore, I would not expect Trump to do anything drastic to help Malaysians to get rid of the kleptocrats who are now running the nation.

Like Obama, Trump would rather be seen playing golf with even the allegedly most corrupt leaders in the world than to remove them, unless American interests are at stake. How would billions of ringgit missing from Malaysia affect the Americans?

What the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) did was probably just a show, but my suspicion is that under Trump, the case may be given the lowest priority. He would not even allow the new attorney-general to pursue the matter further than what was already done by the former attorney-general.

Unless, of course, if it is the supply of oil that is at stake - they would go to war for it. But if it is the killing of thousands of Christians or Muslims at the hands of the extremists all in the name of religion, Trump would not be interested. The key word is ‘American’.

If Anwar were American, his incarceration would be likely to attract Trump’s attention but despite worldwide condemnation of the jail sentence, Trump is unlikely to spend even a minute of his time on the matter.

He would not care what the world thinks about him. This is the American mindset. He could have done something to right the situation, but he would not budge simply because there are no self-serving interests at stake.

This is after all how ‘incorruptible’ America really is. No? We always think that America is interested in what is happening in the world, but for too long, America has departed from championing human rights. They will listen, but they will do nothing other than to achieve their own selfish objectives.

After all, this was exactly what happened when Obama was in Malaysia wooing the nation’s leaders to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.(TPPA). He held a talk with activists and students, heard them, but did nothing about it. He chose this non-interference stance because his priority was the TPPA.

For that reason, I do not have much confidence in Trump to be an effective world leader. It is America’s interests that come first. Eventually, it is ‘No Action, Talk Only’.

Trump’s success reflects American sentiments for change

Trump’s success in bringing back the Republicans to the White House is nothing phenomenal but a reflection of the American people’s frustration with the leadership of the Democrats.

They cannot tolerate another Democrat leader, especially the wife of a former president who was impeached for his involvement in a sex scandal. Not any Clinton, please, appears to be ringing in their minds when they went to vote.

There were issues that affected them on a daily basis. For example, the threat of being attacked by terrorists, yet Obama apparently did nothing about it.

It is also generally true that since Sept 11, the Americans are wary of the Muslim community at large. Having Trump become the president will certainly not help the situation in the world, because Trump would charge like a bull. Trump was seen as tough. He was the ‘right man’ for the job.

It is therefore no wonder that a group of ‘yuppies’ were caught on video shouting at Muslims attending a mosque in America.

They were wearing T-shirts with words that would even make the true evangelical Bible-believing Christians blush, because their behaviour simply did not match their profession of faith. I would prefer that they had identified themselves as members of a rock-and-roll group.

However, the incident in front of a mosque clearly shows the sentiments of the people in varying degrees and how Trump was able to resonate with the people and won the election.

Like it or not, he is able to use religion to his own advantage without even believing in the God of the Bible, just because for too long the Democrats had failed the people of America.

I was surprised that some Christian leaders were praying fervently for the president-elect that he would only do the right things, as others would for their own candidate, but Trump’s eyes were opened all the time, and looking impatient.

I am not sure if Trump was submissive to God, or was merely going through the process of being prayed over. I am not sure if all the people who prayed for him would not think twice now if they find that their president is overstepping his authority. Already one of his senior officials has expressed objection to the executive order to ban Muslims from several countries from entering America.

Trump’s job was to sign the executive order. Beyond that, he no longer makes sense like some of our politicians, and he would then blame others who objected against his executive order. That does not matter to him, or to the people who gave him the mandate to lead America. They just want to put a stop to all the excesses during the past two Democrat presidents, and nothing more.

Therefore, fencing off the Mexicans and banning Muslim arrivals are nothing but just symptoms that we are seeing because the bottom line is Trump knows he will have to appease the American public, many of whom are just nominal Christians.

There is really no difference between the politics played in America and in Malaysia. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak used the Rohingya issue and Islam to drum up support amongst the PAS grassroots in view of the coming general election, but he would not even condemn Trump for banning Muslims.

Is it a surprising that PAS leaders are not even seen urging Najib to condemn Trump for issuing the executive order? See my point? At the end of the day, it is the uninitiated PAS grassroots who will vote blindly, thinking that they are doing the right thing because their leaders say so.

We cannot blame the Americans, too, for supporting Trump.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.