Trump’s “America First” Weapon: Reigniting Anger and Winning Twice
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (78), a former real estate tycoon, succeeded in re-election in this presidential election by putting ‘America First‘ at the forefront.
He was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York, USA, as the fourth of five children of parents who were successful real estate businessmen. He graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1964, and four years later earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After taking office as chairman of his father’s real estate company ‘Trump Management’, he engaged in real estate business based in Manhattan, New York, including managing the Commodore Hotel and acquiring the development rights for Trump Tower. His report card as a businessman was not good as he filed for bankruptcy for four hotels and casinos he owned.
He showed interest in politics early on. Registered as a Republican in 1987, he ran a newspaper advertisement that year saying, ‘The United States should stop spending on defense in countries that can afford to protect themselves.’ In an interview with the New York Times in the same year, he said he was not interested in running for elected office, but left the door open, saying, “The presidential election is a different matter.”
In 2000, he ran in the presidential primary for the Reform Party, a new centrist political party, but was eliminated. As his business went downhill in the 1990s, he worked as an ‘influencer’ and gained public awareness. In 2004, he produced a businessman survival entertainment program and appeared on it for 11 years, gaining popularity.
President-elect Trump entered the 2015 Republican presidential primary. At that time, American society was full of anger. The decline of the Rust Belt (declined industrial zone) increased antipathy toward cheap imported goods and the endless influx of immigrants. Presidential candidate Trump at the time came up with the slogan ‘MAGA (Make America Great Again)’. He also emphasized pledges that are easy for the public to understand, such as ‘building a wall on the Mexican border’, ‘high tariffs on Chinese products’, and ‘receiving US taxes from allies’. he beat Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and entered the White House on January 20 of the following year.
His America First policy fractured the entire world. At the time, President Trump urged South Korea to increase its defense cost sharing and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries to increase their defense spending. It also announced protectionist policies targeting China, including high tariffs on Chinese products and sanctions on Chinese information technology (IT) company Huawei.
President-elect Trump held summit talks with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un three times, in June 2018, February, and June 2019. In 2019, he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit North Korea and the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom. However, no significant results were achieved regarding North Korea’s denuclearization.
President-elect Trump, who ran for re-election in the 2020 presidential election but lost his seat to President Joe Biden, became a defendant in a criminal case. In November 2022, a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate his alleged crimes, and he was investigated for charges such as unauthorized removal of confidential documents from the White House, charges of inciting the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021, and attempting to overturn the results of the presidential election. In March of last year, he was involved in four criminal cases, including being the first president in history to be indicted on charges of ‘silencing a sexual scandal.’