IN a matter of days, Donald Trump, the 47th President of the United States of America (USA) will be celebrating his 100 days in office. While many proponents of discipline in governance around the world are applauding his decisions that suggest that national leaders must fix their countries democratically, economically and productively, others, including some Americans are of the view that the multi-billionaire leader is fast taking the nation that prides herself as God’s own country out of the dream of the founding fathers of America
To avoid the possibility of being grossly misunderstood, America is one of the countries in the world that has benefited from the immense contributions of foreigners in becoming, not only great, but extremely great. The man that has simply become known as the father of America, George Washington owes his roots to England.
His family’s roots can be traced back to the 12th century in Washington (formerly Wessynton), in the historic County Palatine of Durham in northern England, where their ancestral home was Washington Old Hall. In the 16th century, a branch settled at Sulgrave Manor in Northampton shire. John Washington, his great-grandfather, born 1631 in Tiring, Hertfordshire, England, arrived in the Colony of Virginia in 1657 after being shipwrecked. This marked the beginning of the Washington journey into the citizenship of the United States of America.
The American independence was initiated along with many European settlers with the dream of; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These lines have often been cited by groups seeking equal standing in American society.
This dream of the founding fathers of independent America in 1776 was slightly modified in 1931 by American businessman and historian, James Truslow Adams, who, in his book; The Epic of America defines the dream as; “not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”
These virtues were re-emphasised when the American Supreme Court upheld the constitutional amendment that states that; Birthright citizenship is explicitly guaranteed to anyone born under the legal “jurisdiction” of the U.S. federal government by the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (adopted July 9, 1868), which states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
Despite this law existing and guiding Americans for the past 157 years; President Donald Trump has continued to insist that it should be repealed. This line of thought was spelt out in one of his earliest Executive bills after being sworn-in on the 20th day of January 2025. Three different judges have blocked him on this issue. Yet, the American head of government believes that the Supreme Court can upturn the decisions of the three state justices.
Another disturbing issue that Trump has trumped up is the withdrawal of federal Government University funding in the US. According to the president, only the universities that purge themselves of anti-Semitism in their admission policies will henceforth be considered for Federal Government funding. Facing the risk of losing over $400m in funding, the Columbia University complied with the directive and yet the government is still withholding her funding benefits. The Harvard University and some others on their part have dragged the Trump administration to court over the matter.
Amid all these, the President scraped the department of education and transferred its functions of disbursement student financial aid and student loans to Small Business Administration while the US Department of Health and Human Services would assume responsibility for the education department’s special needs and nutrition programs.
Globally, the Trump’s headship of America has thrown many countries into serious health challenges with the scraping of the United State Agency for International Development, USAID offices around the world in addition to signing an Executive order withdrawing the country from the World Health Organisation(WHO).
Apart from all these, the recent imposition of tariffs that are in some cases as high as 125% on goods and services exported to America from China and other countries is unprecedented in the history of bilateral economic relationships in the world. This is already having severe negative effects on developing economies like Nigeria where the price of her crude oil – a major export commodity has fallen below $67 per barrel.
While recognizing the Trump’s vision of placing America first before any other consideration, focused must not be shifted from the fact that many of the drivers of the country’s economy, including Elon Musk, the richest man in the world are not indigenous Americans. The President must not therefore take for granted, the grace that has placed nine of the first ten richest individuals on earth as his people by citizenship in various forms. This is especially so, as they are all leveraging on the patronages from communities outside the US.
Many of the so-called illegal immigrants in the US are people who have volunteered themselves as slaves needed for menial jobs that are equally contributing to the growth of the country’s economy.
Given the avalanche of court cases and mass protests trailing many of the new policies of Donald Trump-led administration in addition to his current 67 percent poll rating in terms of bad governance – the poorest in 80 years, it behooves the president to have a rethink over these policy shifts that appear to be shifting the people from their believe of being citizens of God’s own country with the slogan of; “in God we trust”.
Therefore, trusting other things besides God will no doubts amount to the changing the American Dream to that of Donald Trump’s.
