On September 11th, 2001, some group of terrorists attacked the US using its passenger planes as bombs to blow up certain historic sites in US. They flew two planes into the twin wings of the World Trade Centre in New York and brought them down, killing about 2,996 persons. They flew another plane into the Pentagon, the military headquarters of the US and split it into two, killing about 184 persons. They tried to fly the fourth plane into the White House, US capital, but the plane was brought down by Americans in the plane. When they learnt about what was going on in the country, as they were hijacked, heading to the US capital, they conducted election in the plane and majority of them voted in favour of bringing down the plane. They, heroically, brought down the plane and prevented the terrorists from the joy of reaching the capital of US and the White House.
A cursory look at this unfortunate event revealed some spiritual truths. In my own little understanding, I told a friend then that the mere fact that the terrorists brought down the two wings of the World Trade Centre in New York was symptomatic of the imminent degradation of the US economy. The splitting of the Pentagon revealed that the US military strength will be seriously weakened by the time terrorism was fought against. However, the mere fact that the White House was shielded from attack by Americans, who democratically gave their lives to protect their system of government, shows that the democratic system of government, through which America chooses its leaders, will survive the test of time until God says otherwise. I wasn’t surprised, with time, to see America’s economy continue its gradual decline to the point that China is being touted to overtake America’s economy soon. US owes about $21 trillion and is still borrowing to meet up basic needs. The unfortunate war against Iraq weakened the US military that at the end of the war, more than 4,483 American servicemen lost their lives and the reason for the war, which was that Iraq had nuclear weapons, was found to be false. Till date, Iraq is still unstable, while the demise of Sadaam Hussein has emboldened Iran and twisted the power balance in the region to the detriment of the US and its allies. It would appear that the servicemen who died in Iraq, died in vain. Most members of the US Congress, who voted for the war, had confessed that they made a mistake.
The American system of government held sway since those upheavals until the coming of Donald J Trump, the 45th President of United States of America. To be clear, Rick Wilson, longtime Republican strategist and political commentator, in his best selling book, courageously revealed that “Everything Trump Touches Dies”. One may unequivocally respond, “except the government of United States of America”. To be honest, Trump did not deceive America while campaigning to be President. JEB Bush, who was a Republican Presidential Candidate, in the 2020 US Presidential election said that Trump was a chaos candidate who will become a chaos President if elected. Hillary Clinton who was the Democratic Presidential Candidate and the opponent of Donald Trump in that election described him as a fraud who will scam America if elected President.
On assumption of office as President, Donald Trump elevated lies and dishonesty to another level. He told about 30,000 lies in 4 years, averaging about 20 lies per day. Pat Robertson, America Tele-Evangelist, who supported Trump initially, lamented that Trump not only told lies but believed his lies. He is an autocrat but America is a democracy. He loves dictators around the world and cherished their sit-tight approach to power, America hates dictators and prefer their term limits. Trump is for Trump, Americans are for America. He is transactional in all his dealings and does not believe in making any sacrifice for America’s greatness but believes every other person should make 100 percent sacrifice for him. Americans believe in sacrificing all for their country. Trump believes that any person that dies fighting and defending his country is a sucker and loser and once asked his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, whose only son died fighting for America, what he stood to gain by fighting and dying for his country. Americans believe in transparency and accountability and loyalty to the Constitution and the country, Trump believes in lies and manipulation and loyalty to self. Ninety nine percent loyalty to Trump is a rebellion. You must be loyal to him as if he is a god. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s first Attorney-General, who was one of the earliest politicians to support Trump, for recusing himself and refusing to interfere in the Russian collusion probe against Trump, to skew the probe in his favour, in the finest tradition of America, was fired by Trump. Americans believe that nobody is above the law, Trump believes that the President of the United States of America is above the law. America’s system of government is completely at variance with Trump’s way of life.
What he did not reveal during campaigns was his utter hatred for the American democratic system of government, through which America chooses its leaders and ensured peaceful transfer of power from one leader to another through free and fair elections. His hatred for this system stems from his misconception of the concept of losing elections. Trump believes that whoever loses an election is a failure and he was brought up to believe that it’s either you are a winner or a fighter, there’s no room for a failure or loser. This belief runs counter to the doctrine of elections where there are clear winners and losers. Losing election is not a sign of failure as most successful politicians have lost elections at one time or the other. Even Abraham Lincoln, regarded by many, as the best President of America, lost almost all his elections but won the presidential election. Trump, sensing defeat at the polls, because of the incompetent and non-transparent way he handled the covid-19 virus, screamed to the whole world that there was a grand design to rig him out of the 2020 US Presidential election. He specifically accused the riggers of trying to manipulate mail-in ballots to his disadvantage at the polls. This he said because he was aware that Democrats predominantly use mail-in ballots to cast their votes. This was his unsuccessful attempt at voter suppression. Then came the d-day of the presidential election on November 3rd and Trump was handed a defeat by the Americans with over 7 million votes in favour of Joe Biden. Trump also lost the electoral college results by 306 votes for Biden to his 232 votes. He immediately rejected the election results and refused to concede defeat in total negation to the finest tradition of America.
Trump’s refusal to concede defeat and decision to fight the system should teach everyone a lesson. God rules in the affairs of men and all powers are ordained by God. It’s only God that is beyond losing anything. God makes us to lose from time to time to teach us humility. If you refuse to humble yourself and accept God’s verdict when you lose anything, God will humiliate you. When Trump lost and refused to concede, God handed him series of losses until he escaped from the White House in shame. After the election, he maintained that it was rigged but his own Cyber Security Chief, Chris Krebs, said that the US Presidential election was the most secure in US history. He fired him. His Attorney General, Barr, replied him that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election. He fired him. The principled stand of these gentlemen could not persuade Trump to concede. He continued making his followers believe absurdities that the election was stolen. He brought 60 cases against the election and lost all of them within about forty days interval, probably the first time in the history of US. Even his appointed Judges ruled against him. He wanted to stop the States from certifying the electoral results of each State and failed.
He had his last chance of aborting the US election on the 6th of January, when the Congress was billed to certify the presidential election. Having failed to persuade his Vice to rig the electoral college results in his favour, he decided to incite insurrection against the legislature of the US called the Congress. As Francois Voltaire puts it “those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”. Trump made his followers believe the absurdity that the US Presidential election was rigged and made them commit the worst atrocity against the US people and government by attacking the Capitol and putting the lives of every Congress person and their staff, including the life of the US Vice President, at risk. At the end of the insurrection, five people were dead. This was regarded as an attempted coup to abort the election victory of Joe Biden and prevent the legislative arm of government from carrying out its legitimate duty of certifying the presidential election results. At this juncture, America parted ways with Trump. He was impeached by the House of Representatives for inciting insurrection against the government of America. He has gone down in history to be the first US President to be impeached twice. His trial in the Senate will soon commence. All his loyalists, including his Vice President, Mike Pence, parted ways with him. When he departed from the White House, having refused to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Joe Biden, not even one renowned American or any high ranking member of his staff came out to wave him goodbye. What a failure and humiliation!
Another important thing to note is that no one person can defeat his country. There’s an Igbo proverb which states that when one man cooks for the community, the community will finish the food but when the community cooks for one man, he cannot finish the food. It pays to be law abiding and not think you are bigger than your country just because you have the privilege to be President, especially in a democracy, which tenure is temporary. America defeated Trump and if care is not taken, he might end in jail. What you fear most is what comes upon you. Trump had a morbid fear for failure and in a bid to prove he cannot fail, he became described as the worst President of America with a departing 33 percent worst approval rating in history, leaving about 400,000 Americans dead, within a year, from his mishandling of the coronavirus. When Richard Nixon committed an impeachable offence in America and lost the support of Americans, he did not try to destroy the system, he simply resigned and declared that “the interest of the nation is more important than any personal consideration”. We must place the interest of our country first before any personal interest because if the foundation be destroyed, there is nothing the righteous can do.
More importantly, America must research on what is going on in their environment that created the favourable atmosphere for the emergence of a Trump in America’s political hemisphere. Everyone thought he was joking when he first declared interest to contest the presidential election until he clowned his way to the presidency of America. America is a nation founded on the doctrines of God. Indeed, it is inscribed in their currency “In God we trust”. About 26 men of God helped author their Constitution. Prayers were compulsory in all governmental institutions before commencement of activities. The ten commandments of God were inscribed on stones and plaques in conspicuous places of public resort for every American to see, read, imbibe and practice. The ten commandments contain such instructions like, thou shall not kill or covet your neighbours property. It’s unfortunate that when America became powerful and prosperous, they started withdrawing from God. They abolished compulsory prayers in schools and public places and ordered the removal of the inscribed ten commandments on public places. America is now the greatest evangelists of homosexualism and same sex marriage for which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. If you take away Bible from children, students and youths, satan will replace it with bullets. It is in the midst of this cultural confusion within the hearts of Conservative Americans that a Trump emerged and exploited the confusion to brainwash and hoodwink Americans that he will restore America to the path of Godliness. Even the Christian Evangelicals believed Trump. One simply needed to watch the invaders of the Capitol to see how desirous they were to go back to God as they took time to pray to God for redemption of America in the midst of their insurrection. If America falls tomorrow, it will not be because of the presence of beings like Trump but because of the absence of a being like God