Donald Trump may have left the White House, but the seeds of discord he has sown are only just beginning to germinate, not only in the United States (US) but across the globe. It is no coincidence that his stint in the Oval Office overlapped with an exponential increase in misinformation and disinformation campaigns; and as the now ex-President retreats to his luxurious Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower residences, the rest of the world is left to ruminate over what’s real and what’s fake.
America has for years stood up for the rights of protesters across the globe who have cried foul over election results, joining hands with its Western allies to deliver stern warnings to governments to conduct free and fair elections. Yet, how is one supposed to reconcile that with the fact that American electoral authorities are saying there was no fraud in the recent US Presidential election, despite their own President and millions of American voters saying otherwise? If the scenes at Capitol Hill on January 6—when hundreds of citizens stormed a government building alleging that their election was rigged—had happened in any other country, those demonstrators would be seen as freedom fighters and guardians of democracy, not domestic terrorists.
In the final days of his presidency, Donald Trump and his supporters were banned or heavily censored on Facebook, Twitter, Google, Spotify, Snapchat, Instagram, Shopify, Reddit, Twitch, Youtube, TikTok, and Pinterest. Additionally, Trump’s e-mail service provider cut off his access to their servers, disabling him from effectively communicating with his supporters. To put these bans into context, Trump tweeted more than 34,000 times after announcing his candidacy in June 2015 and sent out over 2,500 e-mails in 2020 alone. At the same time, tens of thousands of Trump supporters’ social media accounts have already been deleted in the aftermath of the Capitol riots, while hundreds are being investigated for physically participating in the march on the Capitol. Therefore, when Trump and his voter base complain that they are being silenced into submission by the fascist forces of the left, such damning evidence does little to refute their claims.
In sharp contrast, when Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko secured a sixth successive term in August and nationwide protests against perceived electoral fraud were met with mass arrests and police brutality, the US State Department responded by calling for “truly free and fair elections”. The US has delivered similar responses to popular uprisings surrounding elections in Bolivia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hong Kong, Nicaragua, Russia, Tanzania, and Uganda, to name but a few examples.
This is not to say that the State Department’s statements were without merit or that there were no demonstrable irregularities in these countries’ elections. There is insurmountable evidence of police and military brutality, ballot-stuffing and vote-rigging, silencing of the press, internet and social media shutdowns, arbitrary term extensions or constitutional amendments to reset term counters, and banning and intimidation of political opposition. This has on countless occasions precipitated diplomatic and military interventions, and harsh sanctions from the US.
Many of these countries, which have been at the receiving end of the US’ “helping hand” or punitive measures, are now casting their eyes to Washington DC. One cannot blame them for questioning what warrants the US’ authority on the matter, given how severely the legitimacy of America’s democracy has been eroded since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential election. For example, following the Capitol riots, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa tweeted that the US has “no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy”, and called for the US to withdraw all sanctions on Zimbabwe, which have been in place since 2002 under the Bush administration for humanitarian abuses and electoral fraud.
Comments like those by Mnangagwa have laid bare that Trump’s tenure has gravely diminished the legitimacy of the US’ democracy and seriously weakened the credibility of its evaluations of other countries’ electoral systems. At the same time, however, it has also paved the way for other incumbent leaders to replicate the US’ missteps, wherein electoral losses are dismissed as ‘fraud’ and popular discontent is characterised as domestic terrorism, both of which serve to weaken the already brittle pillars of democracy in countries where such political suppression is routine.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, for example, pointing to “what happened in the American elections”, has already indicated that he will reject the results of his country’s presidential election in 2022 if he loses. He has baselessly alleged that Brazil has a lot of “electoral fraud” because the country uses an electronic voting system that he says can be easily ‘manipulated’, which is eerily similar to Trump’s complaints about mail-in ballots.
In contrast, those who win elections under dubious circumstances can just as easily mimic Trump’s detractors and American law enforcement agencies, who have categorised participants of the Capitol riots as domestic terrorists. The governments of countries like Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, and Uganda have historically used virtually identical tactics to silence political opponents, activists, and dissidents. Regardless of the fact that American law enforcement agencies have been justified in charging and arresting the rioters, other world leaders can now use similar strategies as a pretext to further entrench their power and justify their actions by pointing to the measures undertaken by the self-anointed world’s foremost democracy.
Trump’s term in office and the trail of destruction he has left in his wake have effectively blurred the line between domestic terrorists and protesters and placed a dark cloud over future claims of electoral fraud. This may push people to conduct more thorough research before forming their opinions and ideologies; however, what is unfortunately more likely is that this sets the stage for corrupt leaders to foment the continued disintegration of democratic rights around the world.
The Trump Presidency Has Left a Corrosive Stain on Democracies Worldwide
Donald Trump’s final days in office severely eroded the legitimacy of democracy both within the United States and across the globe.
January 27, 2021
IMAGE SOURCE: LEV RADIN / PACIFIC PRESS / LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGESTrump supporters storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021