New reasons to hate America

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 28. Pic/AFP

When Muslim hijackers crashed planes into World Trade Centre towers, on September 11, 2001, Americans wondered: Why do they hate us? This tragic incident didn't elicit unequivocal condemnation outside the United States. French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique's editor wrote, "What's happening to [Americans] is too bad but they had it coming." Argentina's human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini admitted: "When the attack happened, I felt happiness." Chilean novelist Ariel Dorfman reminded that also on September 11, in 1973, his country's government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a US-sponsored coup.

These contrarian voices sprang from the awareness that behind the mask of liberalism, the American State conformed to the stereotype of the "ugly American," wantonly imposing its will on nation-states. But President Donald Trump has gone a step further - he has ripped off that mask and revels in making the US appear uglier, and scarier, than before - and providing new reasons to the world to hate his country.

That the animus against the US will likely intensify was glimpsed over the AI-generated video that Trump shared last week, showcasing his vision of creating a "Riviera in the Middle East" after expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, which Israel, with the American support, has devastated. Images from the video - gleaming towers, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sunbathing by a swimming pool, billionaire techy Elon Musk wolfing down a meal on a beach - testify that America plans to grow its power, and happiness, from the sorrow and suffering of the weak.

Yet another evidence of this was Trump's bullying of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a televised White House event. Trump was enraged because of Zelensky opposing, for good reasons, Washington's terms for ending the Ukraine-Russia war. These included Kyiv reconciling to its loss of territory to Russia, and entering into an exploitative colonial relationship with Washington that would have given the US access to Ukraine's resources without providing it, in return, security guarantees against Moscow. Nor extracting for Ukraine a concession from Russia that would have justified thousands of Ukrainian deaths in the war.

Trump's contempt for the weak has him transport on military planes illegal immigrants, their hands shackled and legs chained to seats. For a leader who accepted 124 civilian deportation flights last year, Colombian President Gustavo Petro found the mistreatment of his country's citizens so revolting that he returned two American military flights midair.

Then came Petro's turn to be humiliated. He caved in to Trump's threat of retaliating with a 50 per cent increase in tariff on Colombian goods coming into the US. As insulted were other Latin countries, who even agreed to accept citizens of other countries arrested as illegal immigrants in the US, afraid their defiance would invite Trump's stiff tariff impositions. Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves confessed: "We are helping the economically powerful brother from the north, who, if he puts a tax on the free trade zones, will wreck us."

In case Trump pursues his goal of deporting millions, Latin American economies would be unable to absorb them. They will seek to diversify their trade - for instance, turn to China - to reduce their dependence on the US, which makes them vulnerable to Trump's ‘tariff-mongering.' Yet there is no telling whether Trump would refrain from vetoing their right to choose trading partners. Wrecked economies and lives will brew resentment against the US. It's useful to remember French writer Jean Genet's warning, "The arrogance of the strong is always met by the violence of the weak."

The Global South has a long experience of America's arrogance, of which its allies in the North are now getting a taste. Trump's threats of starting a tariff war against Canada and turning it into America's 51st state have triggered a surge of patriotism there. They are boycotting American products, are wearing caps emblazoned with "Canada not for sale", and booed the US anthem as it played in a recent basketball match involving Canadian and American teams. France, Germany and Britain struggle to make sense of the world order that Trump has thrown in disarray, with many riled by his team promoting the Far Right in these three countries. Seldom has a country alienated so many without waging a war.

Many in the developing world overlooked America's proverbial ugliness because of billions of dollars of aid it provided - now put on pause by the Trump administration. This has already led to the closure of many soup kitchens in Khartoum, which were largely run on the US aid and fed over 80,000 people. Uncertain is the future of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEFAR, which has saved 25 million lives in two decades.

To this list of global grievances against the US, add Trump's decision to walk out of the Paris Agreement. With the US ranked second by share in global carbon emission, its refusal to abide by its commitment to battle climate change reduces the Paris Agreement's efficacy - and turns the superpower into a villain whom the world will come to hate for imperilling its future. India should know, acquiescence to Trump only encourages him to bully you further.

The writer is a senior journalist and author of Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste.
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