President Trump’s actions cannot be brushed aside as inconsequential because they emanate from only one individual in one country. That one person is powerful enough to make the decisions most ruinous for humanity and the country he helms, the United States, is too big to ignore on the world stage. Its geographical area is 9.53 million square kilometers. Al – hough it is only 6.4 per cent of the world’s total land area, it is three times as large as India, 40 times bigger than the UK, and 27 times bigger than Germany. More important than this metric is its GDP’s size.

As per World Bank data, it was $ 27.72 trillion in current prices in 2023 against the world GDP of $106.17 trillion. That means this one country owns 26.10 per cent global GDP with a 4 per cent population share; the country’s population of 331.45 million by 2020, is roughly equal to 24 per cent of India’s. Although China is second to the US, its $17.79 trillion GDP is nowhere near the riches of the US due to its four times bigger population than that of the US. The per capita GDP of China is $12,614 (with about 18 per cent global population share) against the US’s $82,769.

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There may be some countries that claim much higher per capita GDP but they are not at all comparable to the US economy might. For instance, Luxemburg with a 645,000 population and 2,586 square kilometers area has the highest per capita GDP of $125,897. But its total GDP is only $81.2 billion which is $40 billion less than Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s net wealth of about $120 billion. Another notable fact is that the US dollar’s share in world foreign exchange reserves is ab – out 58 per cent: it was still higher at 70 per cent two decades back. More than anything else, the US is the strongest military power in the world ranking 1 in the global firepower index ~ PowerInde.

It spent more than $800 billion in just one year, 2011, which is 39 per cent of global military spending as per SIPRI’s (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) estimate. It not only possesses a fully self-sufficient defense industry but has 750 bases in 80 countries facilitating rapid response through NATO, etc. It sits on more than 5,000 warheads (88 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons are with the US and Russia as per the Federation of the American Scientists; and the US’ share is close to half of the pile-up). All this suggests the US is undoubtedly a number one superpower; it is dangerous to the world, and the people, including those in the US, if it leads to its government’s arrogance forgetting its founding principles of equality, fraternity, humanity, and world peace.

It reminds us of the saying of Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. President Trump’s actions are petrifying. The way his administration has been dealing with illegal immigrants demonstrates the inhuman highhandedness facilitated by the unbridled authority it assumed. The recent heart-rending me thod of deporting 104 Indians including 19 women and 13 minors huddled in a military C-17 Globemaster shows the extent of inhumanity that human beings are capable of; they were handcuffed and shackled during the 40-hour flight and the restraints were removed only upon landing at Amritsar, Punjab, as narrated by the victims.

Couldn’t the method of deporting be different? Aren’t we living in a civilized society anymore? Given the will, there could be a government-to-government discussion beforehand and an arrangement to deport with human dignity and without violation of human rights. All said this tragedy is not the end of it. About 18,000 more from India are understood to have been identified as undocumented by the US authorities. Deportations are not new. The external affairs minister S. Jaishankar says that a total of 15,756 illegal Indian immigrants have been deported to India from the US since 2009. Yet, India is not an unimportant country nor an enemy of the US. There are 5.4 million people of Indian origin as of 2024 among the American citizens accounting for 1.47 per cent of the population. Of them, 66 per cent are immigrants and 34 per cent were born there.

The US itself is a country of immigrants; the native Americans constitute less than 2 per cent of the population. Trump’s grandfather was a German immigrant while his mother migrated to the US from Scotland. So, the history of the country should make it empathetic to immigrants without criminal records and deal with them with a humanitarian approach. But Trump’s poll promise was to cleanse the US of all illegal immigrants, some 12 million, the majority of whom come from Central America and Mexico. How the US administration is going to deal with illegal immigrants of other countries is not difficult to guess after ob serving the way it deported those from its friendly country, India.

On the plea of an emergency situation resulting from the threat posed by illegal immigrants and the flow of drugs, including the deadly fentanyl, into the US, President Trump declared import tariffs on the country’s major trading partners including Mexico, Canada, and China although the US on the whole runs trade deficits; its imports ($4.1 trillion) in 2024 are more than its exports ($3.2 trillion) resulting in a trade deficit of $0.9 trillion as per as the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Unmindful of this and the resultant inflation in the country, the President continues to bully other partners.

The imposition on China has already come into force while those on Mexico and Canada are slated to start after a month. The severe adverse impact of these tariffs will not only be felt in the US and these few countries but will hamper world trade as a whole. The so-called America first approach has made Mr Trump blind to the civilized world’s “vasudhaiva kutumbkam” (the world is one family) concept.

He not only focused on inhuman deportations and tariffs but also unleashed drastic measures impacting the whole world. For instance, he is going ahead with dismantling USAID and withdrawing from WHO, UNHRC, etc. Not only will these measures tarnish the US image, but they will bring considerable damage to world trade and the economy. Equally distressing will be the human rights violation in the name of illegal migrations. Civilized and democratic governments and other democratic forces have no choice but to raise their voice to stall at once the inhuman and antipeople measures of the present American government.

The writer is a development economist and commentator on economic and social affairs