| Photo by Andy Li on Unsplash
Congratulations to President-Elect Donald J. Trump. It was a well-run campaign, indeed. I have constantly looked for Confederate flags in his rallies and found none. The Republican Party made a conscious effort, although the isolated presence of non-white supporters remained elusive.
Border security is among the most popular points in the Trump campaign. Regardless of your political persuasion, as Filipinos, especially the TNT Filipino, the Trump victory is quite sobering. There are a significant number of pro-Trump Filipinos. Whether that means support for Trump on border security extends to Filipinos assisting border patrol in identifying and deporting fellow Filipinos remains to be seen. Will Trump provide cash bounties to carry out the promised massive deportations? How many Filipinos will avail of such bounties and become ‘makapili’? While legality can be invoked, there may be room for some compassion.
The MAGA movement tapped into a demographic in U.S. politics that had traditionally been alienated by the Republican Party – the lower-income, non-college-educated. The Democrats lost their way and their connection to this demographic. In a time when the stock market was setting records, incomes were at least marginally staying ahead of inflation, a previously high number inherited from the first term of Donald Trump, the messaging from Democrats overly emphasized their social agenda in almost total ignorance of those non-college Americans, traditionally lower-income Americans who were the most affected by rising food and gas prices.
Juxtapositioning these economically disadvantaged with billions of dollars spent on illegal border asylum seekers required little genius from Republican strategists while simultaneously satiating a segment of the Republican base who were xenophobic white supremacists. And in a stroke of utmost genius, Republicans started gaslighting the Democrats on the issue of racism – that of reverse racism against White Americans in a country that remains 3/4 White.
If Donald Trump is to be held to his campaign rhetoric, the United States will morph into its most nationalist, isolationist self. Foreign policy will shift dramatically to America First. Whether this results in a world of chaos due to America withdrawing from the global arena remains to be seen. It is quite conceivable that the farmers of America who represent the outweighed base of the Republicans will ultimately be sacrificed at the altar of tariffs designed to bring manufacturing back to America due to retaliation by trading partners who buy American agricultural output only to mitigate a chronic imbalance in that trade.
“The U.S. can withdraw from the world. The U.S. can withdraw from globalization. The U.S. can cause severe economic dislocation for countries like the Philippines – repatriation of 300,000 Filipino TNTs who support at least 1,000,000 Filipinos in the Philippines …”
Some prognosticators believe an economic resurgence will ensue from the trade policy shift. This may be true, at least in the 4 years that Trump will be in office. After the world adjusts to the new normal, friends and adversaries alike, will there be markets for Made-in-America products? Will the threat of force or a precision strike aimed at despots keep its deterrence? In Ukraine, will restoring Crimea as a base for Russian Baltic naval troops serves as a strategic advantage for Europe? This is the least of the proposed concessions for ending the Ukraine conflict.
If territory for peace becomes policy, will the disputed islands, shoals, and sandbars in the West Philippine Sea be ceded to China in exchange for access to sea lanes encompassing the China 9-dash line? Will Taiwan become irrelevant under the Trump administration after the semiconductor factory(ies) are completed in the U.S.? Will American forces protecting the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea withdraw in an America First-MAGA doctrine? Will American military presence in Japan end? Will Europe be left to Europeans to defend?
All these decisions can significantly reduce U.S. military spending. The U.S. can remain ‘neutral’ in the event of conflict and become the world’s arms supplier—this, too, can create jobs in the U.S. until the next ‘Pearl Harbor’ redux when the U.S. reluctantly joins the fight in the next World War. By then, Trump would be an 82-year-old former POTUS.
The U.S. can withdraw from the world. The U.S. can withdraw from globalization. The U.S. can cause severe economic dislocation for countries like the Philippines – repatriation of 300,000 Filipino TNTs who support at least 1,000,000 Filipinos in the Philippines, semiconductor industry dead or dying employing around 3.2M directly and indirectly. Business process outsourcing jobs, including call centers, account for 1.4 million workers; yes, a U.S. policy consistent with America First will be felt in the Philippines, no doubt. How many Filipinos voted for Trump? By the way, if across-the-board 20% tariffs rule the day, bagoong, lechon sauce, otap, and everything imported from the Philippines will all be a bit more expensive!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crispin Fernandez advocates for overseas Filipinos, public health, transformative political change, and patriotic economics. He is also a community organizer, leader, and freelance writer.
2 comments
Hi, Dr. Cris. Thank you for writing an objective viewpoint about Americans of Filipino descent that supported the Trump-Vance slate. However, the number of the so-called “TNT Filipinos” (to use your term), the number may be more-than double than your estimate. A Filipino-American member of an Asian-American Task Force on Amerasian Children, told this journalist of the higher estimate of Filipinos with approved petitions in the U.S.
Amerasian children are those fathered and abandoned by their U.S. fathers that served in then-U.S. military bases in Asia, including the Philippines. The Filipino member of the Amerasian Task Force said that there are at least 650,000 Filipinos with approved petitions by their American-citizen kin. The figure probably includes DACA descendants. If all the Amerasian children in the Philippines were to be admitted by the U.S., they will further increase Filipino-American percentage in the U.S.
I am not one if the investor of your planned , Bsnk but I don’t agree either with joining the IFB to Land Bank.