So many labels can be pinned onto Donald Trump. But two recently acquired ones – ‘former President of the US’ and ‘erstwhile Twitter user’ – give me a hell of a lot of satisfaction.
With his occupancy of the White House having been terminated on January 20, four years earlier than he would have wanted, this obnoxious fellow is no longer in a position to make decisions that leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many, yours truly included.
One such decision, especially for those of us who inhabit the African continent, was his recognition, in December – just over a month before he vacated office – of Morocco’s claim to the long-disputed region of Western Sahara, in exchange for Morocco normalising relations with Israel. With US backing, there is now significantly reduced incentive on the part of Morocco to cooperate with the United Nations (UN) in its decades-long effort to determine the fate of the desert territory through a referendum on self-determination, promised after the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991 to end 16 years of conflict between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975, following Spain’s withdrawal after nearly a century of colonial occupation.
Morocco’s continued occupation of Western Sahara means that the territory is the only one in Africa that remains a ‘colony’, with the coloniser being a fellow African country. But is Morocco really an African country? While the country is geographically located in Africa, its leaders seem to wish it were in a different neighbourhood. This is borne out by, among others, its puzzling 1987 application to join the antecedent organisation of the European Union. Understandably, the application was given short shrift.
Further demonstrating Morocco’s not-so-secret desire to be associated with Europe, its late king, Hassan II, once described the country as a “tree with its roots in Africa and its branches in Europe”.
As experts in North African affairs have pointed out, by dashing hopes for a referendum, Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara could rekindle war, as the people of Western Sahara might see violence as the only way to attain self-determination. Should this happen, there is the danger that Algeria, Morocco’s regional rival, would be drawn into the conflict, and the ensuing instability could cause flows of refugees to ripple outwards across Africa.
Of course, in crafting his deal with the Moroccans, Trump chose to ignore what Americans would call the clear and present danger of widespread loss of life. The primary concern for Trump – whose administration brokered a deal whereby the United Arab Emirates established formal ties with Israel in August, with Bahrain and Sudan following suit in September and October respectively – appears to be going down in history as the US President who broke the logjam in the recognition of Israel by Arab countries.
Now that he has been removed from the levers of political power in the US, Trump is no longer able to engage in reckless decision-making that is similar to his Morocco-Israel deal.
Trump on Twitter was more than an irritant. He used the platform to, among other things, insult, spew vitriol and peddle lies. In May, the New York Times analysed a week of his tweets, finding that, out of 139 posts, 26 were clearly false, while 24 lacked context or contained innuendo. For its part, the Washington Post identified 4 300 “false or misleading statements” that Trump tweeted from the time he took office until November 5.
One of the lies, of course, was his unfounded claim that his electoral loss to Joe Biden was due to a massive fraud against American voters.
Now that Trump is permanently banished from Twitter – following his supporters’ storming of the US Capitol – we will never again be exposed to his insults, vitriol and lies. That gives me lots of satisfaction.