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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said US President Donald Trump could become a "lame duck" in domestic affairs following the US midterm election results, as he may find it difficult to secure support for major legislative initiatives, while retaining considerable powers in foreign policy.
Tharoor said the change in the composition of the US Senate could make it difficult for Trump to push through key decisions, including the appointment of ambassadors, which requires Senate confirmation. "US President Donald Trump has become what they call a lame duck. That is, now he cannot take any new major legislative initiative because he will find it very difficult to get a majority. Even in the American system, if you want to appoint an Ambassador, that Ambassador has to be confirmed by the Senate. The Senate now is in the hands of the Democrats who are not going to oblige Mr Trump," he said. However, Tharoor cautioned against assuming that the election results would significantly curtail the US President's powers, particularly in foreign policy. "But short of that, you can call President Trump a lame duck in those domestic areas, but short of that kind of thing, he can do what he likes...Not everything that the President is able to do is circumscribed by congressional approval. He still has a lot of freedom. The President of the US has a kind of power that in our country is not available constitutionally to any one person," he said. On the implications for India, Tharoor said New Delhi would continue to engage with the same Trump administration and should not assume that the election outcome would bring a major change in bilateral dealings. "In foreign policy, we will be negotiating with the same Trump administration we already know. These are the people that we have to deal with and I think we should have no illusions about how much has changed for India because of this," he said. Tharoor also said the election outcome could lead to an improvement in the atmosphere for Indians living in the United States, particularly after what he described as overtly racist rhetoric during the election campaign. "For Indians in America, there could be some sort of improved atmosphere. Because things had become very ugly, and especially during this election campaign, the so-called MAGA Republicans, the Make America Great Again movement, had been very overtly racist in a lot of their statements and portrayals...If you're brown, you don't belong; why are you here? Go back to India; this sort of atmosphere was there," he said. He added that the election result could represent a repudiation of such sentiment and help reduce overt racism against Indians. "Because of this election result, a repudiation of that kind of sentiment- this overt racism against Indians- may come down...Another positive for India could be that you'll have influential voices that are sympathetic to India in important parts of the American establishment," Tharoor said. The remarks come after Democrats registered gains in the midterm elections, with the party projected to take control of both chambers of Congress. (ANI)
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