Tag: donald trump

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Trump’s ‘border czar’ targets security risk illegal migrants

Homan is the second appointment Trump has announced, after appointing Susan Wiles as his Chief of Staff, and there are thousands to be filled…reports Asian Lite News

US President-elect Donald Trump, announcing his first executive appointment, named Tom Homan as his ‘Border Czar’ to oversee his campaign promise of deporting illegal migrants and securing the borders.

“Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote late Sunday night on Truth Social.

Homan, 62, an advocate of “zero tolerance” for illegal migration served as the Acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for a year-and-a-half during Trump’s earlier stint and left before being confirmed to the post by the Senate.

He started as a border agent and rose through the ranks.

Trump wrote in his post, “Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders (‘The Border Czar’), including, but not limited to, the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”.

“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our borders,” he wrote.

Homan is the second appointment Trump has announced, after appointing Susan Wiles as his Chief of Staff, and there are thousands to be filled.

Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would conduct mass deportations of illegal migrants starting with “Day 1” of his administration.

He said that many illegal migrants who were admitted without vetting were criminals and gang members and at his campaign rallies highlighted crimes like murder and rape they have been accused of.

Mass deportation of illegal migrants would be a daunting task with an estimated 11 million – or more – of them, and Holman laid out his priorities.

In an interview with the Fox News on Monday, Homan said that he was going to prioritise deporting the illegal migrants who are “public security and national security threats”, and those already ordered by judges to be deported.

Another priority, he said would be finding the 300,000 children who came in unaccompanied by adults and President Joe Biden’s administration lost track of.

Many of them ended up as victims of forced labour and child sex trafficking, he said.

The influx of illegal migrants during the administration of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris became a major election issue and was a factor in her defeat.

During most of the first three years of their administration, the border was virtually open, and they only tightened border restrictions starting in May last year as opposition to illegal migration increased.

Biden initially said that Harris would work on stemming the waves of illegal migration to the US by working with the countries in Latin America that send the most migrants.

That got her labelled the ‘Border Czar’ and she was personally blamed for the migrant crisis.

Of the about 11 million illegal migrants in the US in 2022, about 725,000 were Indians, making them the third largest group of illegal migrants, according to Pew Research Centre.

In the fiscal year, September 2022 to October 2023, alone about 97,000 Indians were caught by ICE crossing into the US illegally and almost all of them were released, according to official data.

Many of them came on “Donkey Flights” that take them to countries in Latin America with lax visa regulations and then make the arduous journey to the US with the help of “coyotes” – people smugglers – via the border with Mexico.

But nearly a third of them entered the US from Canada, according to government date.

US sent back only 1,100 Indians who were in the country illegally in 2023-24.

ALSO READ: ‘Pure fiction’: Kremlin denies reports of Trump-Putin talks 

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Why Donald Trump won and Kamala Harris lost 

DONALD TRUMP

The campaign strategy of the Democrats was based largely on creating fear amongst the electorate about the consequences of a Trump comeback, writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat 

Donald Trump was brought back into the political centre stage not by his supporters but by his foes. The relentless manner in which he was charge-sheeted and prosecuted by agencies directly linked to the Biden administration or leaning towards the Democrats ensured that he would remain the most talked about, the most reported about, political leader in the US. Some in the Democratic Party say that it was Hillary Clinton, still smarting over her 2016 defeat by Trump, who convinced Biden that making him a felon would render him unelectable. 

If so, she shares with Biden the credit for creating circumstances which boosted rather than ended the electability of Donald Trump. With each prosecution, he came closer and closer to locking up the Republican nomination and subsequently the Presidency. The key drivers of his rising popularity, besides the countless cases slapped against him, were illegal immigration and inflation caused by the way in which President Biden assisted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his futile efforts at forcing the Russian Federation to cede control over territories. 

Land that had been under the control of Russian-speaking Ukrainians since 2014. When President Vladimir Putin was given what he believed to be credible intel that the NATO-assisted military under Zelenskyy was in February 2022 on the cusp of entering Donetsk, Lugansk and the Crimea, he decided to attack first. The White House considered Ukraine another Afghanistan, where in the 1980s US assistance to those fighting Soviet occupation ensured the defeat of the Soviet military and hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Instead, it is Ukraine which has become a quagmire for the US and its Atlanticist allies, trapping them into massively assisting Zelenskyy in his futile war since 2022. The Ukraine war has become unpopular with much of the population of the countries on either side of the northern part of the Atlantic. Every booster of Zelenskyy’s effort against the Russian side, whether it be Biden, Sunak, Macron, Scholz or others, lost their jobs or are on the path towards doing so. Unlike Trump and Vance, Kamala Harris made the mistake of backing Biden in his war on Russia even after she was made the Democratic Party nominee for the Presidential elections in July. 

Much of the inflation being endured by citizens of the US is linked to the supply disruptions and the financial sanctions which came about after Russian armies entered Ukraine on 26 February 2022. And it is that inflation, coupled with unprecedented numbers of illegal migrants (including from hostile countries) entering the US through the southern border, which caused the defeat of Harris on 5 November. In contrast, Trump promised to end the Ukraine war within a day of entering the White House on 20 January, 2025, a pledge that resonated with voters. 

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump makes a campaign stop at McDonald’s on Monday, October 21, 2024. (Photo: IANS)

Why Biden and his European allies embarked on their Ukrainian adventure so soon after the world had endured the havoc wrought in their economies during 2020 and 2021 is a textbook example of folly. An investigation is likely into the way in which the Covid-19 pandemic caused Covid-19 vaccines to be turned out at warp speed. How effective these vaccines were or what their long-term impact on health would be needs to be given more attention. Trump and the 2025-27 US Congress are expected to undertake a serious investigation of the entire episode once the new administration and Congress is sworn in. R.F. Kennedy Jr may be a key driver of such a process, given his controversial views on the pandemic. 

At the same time, J.D. Vance is expected to be very different from Vice-President Harris, who was content to remain in the shadows into which the White House had pushed her from the start. Trump is no Biden. He understands that an active VP of the calibre of Vance would be an asset to him during his term, just as he was during the campaign. He would also likely to have an interest in seeing that a friendly Vance succeeds him in the White House when his term ends. Hence, as President, he is likely to give Vance much more policy space than almost all past US Vice-Presidents had. 

Just as it was some of the policies of President Biden that ensured Trump would be elected as the 47th US President, it was the unwillingness or inability of Kamala Harris to create a perception wall between herself and the unpopular policies of President Biden which led to her defeat. Added to that was complacency about the campaign strategy being followed by the Democrats, which was based in large part by seeking to create fear amongst the electorate about the possible consequences of a Trump comeback. 

Given the awesome power of government, added to the high costs of litigation both in human as well as in financial terms, several of those responding to exit polls adopt what in their view is the safe option of claiming that they voted for the ruling party. At the same time, given the increasing polarisation within so many democracies, in an age of smartphones and the ease of concealing its camera and audio devices, respondents to exit polls may believe that they are at risk of identification and retribution, should they reveal their preference for anti-government political formations to the pollster. 

Such a fear has a valid basis, if anecdotal evidence is to be accepted, in parts of India such as Bengal. Only when there is a palpable wave against a ruling party and hence towards its rivals do many responders feel confident enough to reveal their actual preferences. All of which is probably why exit polls in many democracies have proven to be inaccurate predictors of the actual results, and why basing analyses on voting behaviour on such polls may not infrequently prove an exercise treacherous to the credibility of the analyst. 

Humourists in the US have been busy trashing those exit polls shown on domestic television channels which predicted a close contest in what were regarded as “battleground states”, or states that were neither safely Blue (Democratic) nor safely Red (Republican). Actual voting showed that in several of these states, the only battle was not on whether Trump would win, but about how high his margin of victory would be. 

So polarised has political discourse been in the US, so widespread its effect on societal relationships, that for many, it was impossible within some groups to openly admit support for Harris or Trump, for immediate ostracisation from the group would follow such an admission. Instead, they expressed their preferences through voting. Or in the case of many who were unhappy with Harris but did not support Trump, by not voting. Kamala Harris called for change to a new generation of leaders, standing by helplessly as US voters plumped for far more changes than the age of a candidate. Instead, the majority of voters in the US chose a change far more radical than the age of a candidate, by choosing Trump over Harris. 

ALSO READ: ‘India’s approach aimed at building long-term partnerships’ 

ALSO READ: Ishaq Dar calls on Trump admin to work for peace in West Asia 

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Farage’s offer to help PM Starmer with Trump rejected

The government brushed aside Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s offer to help build diplomatic relations with Donald Trump. Farage is a longstanding ally of the US president-elect and spent election night at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Despite being a political opponent to Britain’s center-left Labour government as leader of the Reform UK party, Farage has said he would be willing to help build bridges with the US for the UK’s “future survival.”

But that offer was given short shrift by Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden Thursday. “I think we’ll have our own relationships,” McFadden told Times Radio. “The good thing about our friendship with the United States is it’s not based on any single individual, it’s much deeper than that.”

He added: “‘Hasn’t he got a job working for the people of Clacton that he was recently elected to a few months ago?” McFadden told ITV, in reference to Farage’s day job as a member of parliament. Labour’s beef with Donald Trump goes way back. Long before taking office, Foreign Secretary David Lammy — Britain’s top diplomat — labeled Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer.”

Even before taking power in a landslide in July, Labour worked to build bridges with Team Trump. Prime Minister Keir Starmer congratulated Trump Wednesday and said “the U.K.-U.S. special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”

Farage has previously talked himself up as Britain’s next ambassador in Washington, an offer the UK government is all-but-certain to refuse as it mulls over who will occupy the crucial diplomatic post.

Meanwhile, Farage will on Friday address his party’s first big rally since Donald Trump’s election win as Britain’s emboldened populist right seek to drive momentum and build on links with the US president-elect.

Farage will make the speech in Newport in south Wales after attending a victory party in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, attended by Trump and other figures likely to be prominent in the incoming White House administration.

Trump’s plans to radically slash the US public sector and appoint Elon Musk to “sack vast numbers of people” were a blueprint for what needed to happen in the UK, Farage has said.

But while Reform is the closest British equivalent to the movement behind Trump, his win was also met with elation by the far right.

A video message recorded by Tommy Robinson in anticipation of a Trump win, before his jailing last month on contempt of court charges, was posted on the activist’s X account, in which he said: “I’m in my prison cell doing cartwheels.”

Close associates of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, are using the social media platform to call on Trump to put pressure on Keir Starmer to release a man they described as a “political prisoner”.

They also tagged X’s owner, Elon Musk, who permitted Robinson to return to the platform and has engaged with him on it.

ALSO READ: Starmer covers defence, security in first call with Trump

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Starmer covers defence, security in first call with Trump

During the call on Wednesday evening, both leaders agreed to work towards strengthening the “incredibly strong” US-UK special relationship and committed to ensure the bilateral ties continue to thrive.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer touched upon a range of topics, including defence and regional security, during his congratulatory phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump after a “historic” election victory.

During the call on Wednesday evening, both leaders agreed to work towards strengthening the “incredibly strong” US-UK special relationship and committed to ensure the bilateral ties continue to thrive.

“The Prime Minister offered his hearty congratulations and said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Trump across all areas of the special relationship. From defence and security to growth and prosperity, the relationship between the UK and US was incredibly strong and would continue to thrive for many years to come, the leaders agreed,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Starmer is said to have also reflected on the situation in the Middle East and “underscored the importance of regional stability”. They went on to discuss their recent meeting at Trump Tower when Starmer was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

“The leaders fondly recalled their meeting in September, and President-elect Trump’s close connections and affinity to the United Kingdom and looked forward to working with one another,” Downing Street added.

The phone call came after a heated first exchange between Starmer and the newly elected UK Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch in the House of Commons.

The Conservative Party chief challenged the Labour leader over his party volunteers having flown in to support the campaign of Trump’s Democrat rival Kamala Harris.

“I am very sure that President Trump will soon be calling to thank him for sending all of those north London Labour activists to campaign for his opponent,” Badenoch taunted.

“It is absolutely crucial that we have a strong relationship – that strong, special relationship, forged in difficult circumstances — between the US and the UK. We will continue to work, as we have done in our four months in government, on issues of security, our economy and global conflict,” Starmer responded.

Earlier, Starmer had been forced to stress that any party activists in the US during the election campaign were there as volunteers on their own time. Badenoch also raised the risk of increased tariffs on UK exports by the new Trump administration, which would threaten the country’s manufacturing sector and urged him to revive UK-US free trade agreement (FTA) talks, which the previous Biden regime had cancelled.

Meanwhile, Starmer is in Budapest on Thursday for a summit hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban where Trump’s victory and its implications on Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are expected to dominate the agenda.

The European Political Community (EPC), which holds these summits every six months, was set up in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a chance for the European Union (EU) to meet wider partners including non-members such as the UK and Turkiye to discuss key security challenges affecting Europe.

ALSO READ: Bank of England cuts interest rates by 0.25 points to 4.75%

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Kamal Harris vows to ‘never give up the fight’

Democratic nominee calls on US citizens shattered by election result to ‘organize, mobilize and stay engaged’

Kamala Harris formally conceded the election to Donald Trump on Wednesday, urging Americans devastated by the result to “not despair” but to stay engaged and remain vigilant in the fight to protect American democracy.

Under a dramatic yellow sky, the vice-president arrived on stage to chants of “Kamala!” from the grounds of her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington. The speech came the afternoon after Trump surged past the 270 votes needed to win the electoral college, the realization of a stunning political comeback four years after his refusal to concede power culminated in a violent attack on the seat of American government.

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” said Harris, her voice hoarse after a whirlwind 13-week campaign. “Hear me when I say: the light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up.”

Earlier in the day, Harris had called Trump to congratulate him on his victory and pledged that the Biden administration would “engage in a peaceful transfer of power”. As the vice-president, she will play the ceremonial role of president of the Senate during the certification of Trump’s victory in January.

“In our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the constitution of the United States,” Harris said, drawing loud applause when she committed to help Trump’s team transition to the White House.

Harris seemed to acknowledge the fear among her supporters, who agreed with her warnings that Trump posed an existential threat to the future of American democracy and the planet. But she said now was not a time to “throw up our hands”.

“This is a time to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together,” she said.

The vice-president’s public concession marked the end of a tumultuous election that lasted just more than 100 days, the shortest in modern memory after the president stepped aside and effectively anointed her his successor weeks before the party’s summer convention.

By Wednesday afternoon, Trump, the twice impeached former president who has been convicted of dozens of crimes and is accused of many more, had won at least five of the seven battleground states and was on track to claim the popular vote. Unlike in 2016, when Trump won a shock electoral victory against Hillary Clinton but lost the popular vote, he will return to power with what he called an “unprecedented and powerful mandate”.

Republicans easily flipped the US Senate, and they appeared within range of keeping control of the US House, a scenario that would give Trump’s party control of all levels of elected government in Washington.

The Howard address was Harris’s first public appearance since Tuesday afternoon, when she stopped by the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington to thank phone-bankers working to get out the vote before polls closed. Later that night, supporters had awaited her at the campaign’s campus watch party. But as hope turned to despair, a campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, appeared instead to inform attendees that she would not be speaking.

On Wednesday, several of Harris’s supporters, many tearful, said they had came to bid a painful farewell to Harris’s historic candidacy – and to a presidential nominee they had hoped might finally shatter the nation’s “highest, hardest” glass ceiling.

“I’ve been at this a long time and this time I really thought we were going to do it,” said Joanne Howes, a founding member of Emily’s List, an influential fundraising group that supports Democratic female candidates who back abortion rights. “We’re going to feel sad and sorrowful, but then we have to get up again. We can’t just accept that our democracy is over.”

Harris, the first Black woman and first south Asian to become the presidential nominee of a major political party, ran a tightly choreographed campaign, blanketing the battleground states with visits and television ads, while embracing the traditional Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts, including phone-banking and door-knocking. On the Saturday before the election, her campaign said people had knocked more than 800,000 doors in all-important Pennsylvania – a figure that was more than 10 times Biden’s 2020 margin of victory in the state. On Monday, the vice-president even knocked a few doors herself.

Harris framed her campaign around the theme of freedom and vowed to be a president for “all Americans”. She tried to craft an optimistic, forward-looking vision that spoke to Americans’ pervasive economic anxieties while also warning of the threat Trump posed to democratic institutions.

For nearly the entire campaign, opinion polls showed an exceedingly close race, in stark contrast with Trump’s decisive victory. Her campaign had projected optimism in the final days, pointing to data they said showed undecided voters breaking their way after a racist joke at Trump’s grievance-fueled Madison Square Garden rally sparked a backlash among Puerto Rican celebrities and artists. At her campaign’s final rally in Philadelphia, Ricky Martin performed and Fat Joe implored fellow Latinos to back Harris: “When is enough enough?”

But the country was angry and disillusioned, furious with the incumbent party and hungry for change it saw in the norm-shattering former president. In the end, Trump made gains in nearly every corner of the country and across nearly every demographic group.

On Wednesday, standing in front of the campus’s Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall, Harris spoke directly to the young people watching. “On the campaign, I would often say, ‘When we fight, we win.’ But here’s the thing, here’s the thing: sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win,” she said.

Concluding her brief remarks, Harris, a self-described “joyful warrior”, invoked what she called “a law of history”, citing the adage: “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars”.

ALSO READ: ‘God spared my life for a reason’

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‘God spared my life for a reason’

The 78-year-old is currently projected to win 267 electoral college votes, three short of the magic figure of 270…reports Asian Lite News

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump thanked his supporters today and described it as a “magnificent victory for the American people”. He also referred to the July 13 assassination attempt and said “God spared my life for a reason”.

The 78-year-old is currently projected to win 267 electoral college votes, three short of the magic figure of 270. The opponent, incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris is trailing at 224.

Describing the Republican campaign as the “greatest political movement of all time”, Trump said, “We are going to help our country heal, fix our borders, we made history for a reason tonight. We have achieved the most incredible political win. I want to thank the American people. I will fight for you and your family with every breath in my body.”

Trump said the Democrats are now looking at a massive electoral votes score of 315.

A massive factor in Trump’s victory was the Republican sweep in seven swing or battleground states. From a 6-1 score in favour of Democrats in the 2020 polls, these seven states swung to a 7-0 advantage for Trump. The Republican leader has already won three swing states — Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina — and is leading in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.

What makes the Republican victory bigger is the fact that they have also taken control of the Senate and are leading in the election for the House of Representatives.

In his victory speech, Trump thanked his supporters, running mate JD Vance, wife Melanie Trump and his children for their support in what has been a challenging campaign. He also gave a shoutout to Tesla CEO and X boss Elon Musk, who has been voicing support for Trump.

Addressing the crowd accompanied by his running mate, JD Vance, and family members Trump called his projected win the “greatest political movement of all time” which will help in making “America great again.”
“This is a movement like nobody has seen before. This was the greatest political movement of all time. There’s nothing like this ever in this country…we are gonna help our country heal. We have a country that needs help, and needs help very badly. We are gonna fix our borders, we are gonna fix everything about our country,” Trump said.

According to the latest projections called by Fox News, Trump has won 277 electoral votes, well above the 270 threshold needed to win the presidency. Trump flipped the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia and he continues to lead Michigan.

Notably, this is going to be only the second instance of a president serving two non-consecutive terms in the White House. This is only the second instance and the first in over 100 years of a leader winning the presidency after losing once. Grover Cleveland served as non-consecutive president in 1884 and 1892.

In his address Trump expressed gratitude to the people and said he won’t rest until he delivers a “strong, safe and prosperous America.”
“We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason gonna be just that. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. We have achieved the most incredible thing. It’s a political victory that the country has never seen before. I thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th President and 45th President,” Trump said.

“I will fight for you, your family and your future. I will not rest until we have delivered a strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve This will truly be the golden age of America. This is a magnificent victory for the American people, and it will help us to make America Great Again,” he added.

Meanwhile, Trump supporters in Florida state expressed their support for President-designate Donald Trump on Wednesday as the polls projected him to win a second term in the Oval Office.
Bob Kunst, said that he supports Trump because he believes he is the only one who can save the country, Israel and the world. Calling himself a lifelong Democrat, he also said that the Democratic Party has “completely gone off the wall on everything.”

“I have been a lifelong Democrat but I support Trump because I think he is the only one who can save America, Israel and the world. The Democratic party has completely gone of the wall on everything. There is nothing that Biden and Kamala Harris have done, that hasn’t been a complete disaster. Whether it is open borders or the economy or the Fentanyl, or Covid or Afghanistan. What is our message to our world?,” he said.

Vasu, an Indian-American said that he has been supporting Trump and voted for Trump in the morning too.

“I have been supporting Trump, this morning I was at the polling station, I voted for Trump, I am so excited for the result so far… We are so excited, we are here along with our family members and we are here to support and cheer for Trump,” he said.

ALSO READ: UK to Reboot Ties with Trump

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Modi Congratulates ‘Friend’ Donald Trump On Victory

Donald Trump declared victory with some US media outlets projecting that he would win 277 Electoral College votes, reports Asian Lite news

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday afternoon congratulated Donald Trump on his victory in the US presidential elections, asserting that he is looking forward to renewing collaboration with the 78-year-old leader to further strengthen the India-US Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership.

“Heartiest congratulations my friend, Donald Trump on your historic election victory. As you build on the successes of your previous term, I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the India-US Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership. Together, let’s work for the betterment of our people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity,” PM Modi posted on X after Trump’s triumph in the US election.

Earlier, the Republican candidate declared victory with some US media outlets projecting that he would win 277 Electoral College votes.

At least 270 Electoral College votes are needed to clinch the presidency.

In September, the former US President had called PM Modi a “fantastic man”, hoping that they would meet during the Prime Minister’s US visit for the Quad Summit and UN General Assembly session in New York.

Later, during his election campaign, he referred to PM Modi as a “total killer” with the nation’s adversaries.

“He’s great, he’s a friend of mine, but on the outside, he looks like he’s your father”, yet “he’s the nicest, total killer”, Trump stated during a podcast interview.

Explaining the assessment, he said, “We had a couple of occasions where somebody was threatening India. I said, let me help. I’m very good with those people. Let me help”.

But PM Modi turned down the offer saying, “I will do it. I will do it, and I will do anything necessary. We’ve defeated them for hundreds of years,” Trump said.

Last month, in an exclusive interview with IANS, John Bolton, the US National Security Advisor (NSA) to Donald Trump from 2018-2019, said that the India-US relationship could be the “defining event” of the 21st century as India continues its rise as a major global power.

He insisted that strong personal ties between PM Modi and the former US President augurs well for the both countries.

“I think the US-India relationship could well be the defining event of the 21st century. How we work together, how we deal with the threat posed by China and other complicated problems in the world, could well be the most important foreign policy priority for both countries.

“I do think Trump and Modi have a good personal relationship and, in Trump’s view, he thinks if he has a good personal relationship with the leader of another country, then the two countries have good relations. That’s an oversimplification. But it’s certainly, particularly with friendly countries, if the two leaders have a good relationship that can help overcome, you know, problems that develop,” Bolton told IANS.

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Donald Trump Declares Victory


Speaking at an address to supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump affirmed that his win will help the country “heal.”…reports Asian Lite News

Republican nominee Donald Trump early on Wednesday morning hailed his countrymen as results of the high stakes presidential elections projected his victory which set poised to return him to the White House after securing a electoral college victory.

Speaking at an address to supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump affirmed that his win will help the country “heal.”

Addressing the crowd accompanied by his running mate, JD Vance, and family members Trump called his projected win the “greatest political movement of all time” which will help in making “America great again.”
“This is a movement like nobody has seen before. This was the greatest political movement of all time. There’s nothing like this ever in this country…we are gonna help our country heal. We have a country that needs help, and needs help very badly. We are gonna fix our borders, we are gonna fix everything about our country,” Trump said.

According to the latest projections called by Fox News, Trump has won 277 electoral votes, well above the 270 threshold needed to win the presidency. Trump flipped the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia and he continues to lead Michigan.

Notably, this is going to be only the second instance of a president serving two non-consecutive terms in the White House. This is only the second instance and the first in over 100 years of a leader winning the presidency after losing once. Grover Cleveland served as non-consecutive president in 1884 and 1892.



In his address Trump expressed gratitude to the people and said he won’t rest until he delivers a “strong, safe and prosperous America.”

“We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason gonna be just that. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. We have achieved the most incredible thing. It’s a political victory that the country has never seen before. I thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th President and 45th President,” Trump said.

“I will fight for you, your family and your future. I will not rest until we have delivered a strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve This will truly be the golden age of America. This is a magnificent victory for the American people, and it will help us to make America Great Again,” he added.

In his address, he invoked God and how he survived assasinaton attempt against him in Pennsylvania this July when a bullet grazed his ear. “God spared my life for a reason” said Trump.

He pointed out that was because God wanted to “save our country and restore America to greatness. And now we’re going to fulfill that mission together,” he told supporters.

“The task before us will not be easy, but I will bring every ounce of energy, spirit, and fight that I have in my soul to the job that you’ve entrusted to me,” Trump said.

Republicans will win at least 50 seats in the Senate of the US Congress by the end of the elections, as estimated by Fox News. As per CNN projections, candidates from the Democratic Party are winning the elections for the governors in only three of the ten states where the counting is already underway. (ANI)

ALSO READ:  Trump Edges Over Harris

ALSO READ: Biden, Trump make last-minute appeals

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Johnson: Putin May Have Held Back If Trump Were In Office

Boris Johnson has backed Trump’s claim that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he had been in the White House, reports Asian Lite News

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “unpredictability” is an asset because it is a form of “deterrence” that keeps foreign leaders off balance.

“All deterrence is based on unpredictability, but it’s also based on strength”, he said in an interview to USA Today.

Taking a very different perspective from many leaders and media, he said, “People say that one of the things that worries people is his unpredictability, right? ‘Oh, he’s unpredictable’. That’s a good thing.”

“It’s good dealing internationally, because foreign leaders are a little nervous about (Trump)”, the Conservative British leader said.

He gave the example of Trump’s claim that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he had been in the White House.

“I think it is probably true that Putin would not have done it if he’d been in the White House — the ’22 invasion. I think that feels right to me”, he said.

Johnson was Britain’s foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018 when he became Prime Minister, an office he held till 2022, enabling him to watch both Trump and President Joe Biden at close quarters.

He did not endorse Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, saying, “This is the decision for the American people.”

He said that unpredictability effectively gets the message across even to allies and recalled Trump at a 2017 NATO summit when Trump was accused of insulting the other leaders and acting churlish.

Trump tore up the prepared speech and “just extemporised this great tirade against everyone.”

His message was that NATO countries should increase their Defence budgets.

“The point was it was pure U.S. policy… but it was done in a totally unconventional way. And people later reported that summit saying, ‘oh, Trump was threatening to leave NATO.’ He wasn’t doing anything of the kind. He was simply enunciating standard American policy and standard British policy about getting the allies to spend more and pay more (for Defence)”, he said.

“He did it in a way that was unconventional”, he added, but “it was good because they did start to pay more.”

Johnson said that Trump’s unconventional style “may offend refined political tastes”, but it has an appeal.

Many European leaders “think it’s kind of uncouth, but I don’t, and it is a terrible thing to admit, but I like it, so shoot me”, he said.

“If he turns up in a garbage truck to satirise his opponent, I like that. That’s my kind of level, OK? And maybe it doesn’t suit more refined political tastes, but I happen to go with it”, he said.

Johnson was referring to Trump turning up in a garbage truck with a trash collector’s vest on Tuesday in Milwaukee after President Joe Biden called his supporters “garbage”.

“People attack populism, but I kind of feel that our system is a great, great system, and it won’t work if you can’t actually address what people want you to fix”, he said.

Regarding the fears that Trump may give up on Ukraine, Johnson said that Trump’s actual record shows otherwise.

He said that Trump, for example, had given Ukraine Javelin missiles, and “if you look at the actual evidence of what he did, it was actually in sharp contrast to the relative inertia under the previous Democrat administration.”

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Biden’s gaffe gives Trump a boost

His remarks, made in response to a comedian’s derogatory comment about Puerto Rico at a Donald Trump rally, have opened a door for Trump to shift focus away from his own controversial campaign tactics…reports Asian Lite News

President Joe Biden has inadvertently thrust him back into the political spotlight just a week before the US Presidential Elections following his comment during a virtual event defending Puerto Ricans, CNN reported on Wednesday.

His remarks, made in response to a comedian’s derogatory comment about Puerto Rico at a Donald Trump rally, have opened a door for Trump to shift focus away from his own controversial campaign tactics.

Biden criticised the comedian’s description of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” asserting that the people of Puerto Rico are “good, decent, and honourable.” However, his defence sparked a political uproar, detracting from Vice President Kamala Harris’s key closing speech on Tuesday evening, CNN reported.

“And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico ‘a floating island of garbage.’ Well, let me tell you something… I don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know… or Puerto Rico where I’m–in my home state of Delaware–they’re good, decent, honourable people,” Biden said during his virtual remarks in a get-out-the-vote call meant to help Harris.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said, adding, “His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”

The White House quickly attempted to clarify Biden’s remarks, stating he was referring to the “hateful rhetoric” at the Trump rally rather than the former president’s supporters. Biden himself took to social media to explain that his use of “garbage” referred to the comments made about Puerto Rico, not to Trump’s supporters, as reported by CNN.

“Earlier today, I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage–which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden wrote on X.

Biden’s remarks drew immediate parallels to Hillary Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” comment in 2016, which became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters. In the aftermath, Harris felt compelled to address the controversy on Wednesday, emphasising her belief in representing all voters, regardless of their political affiliations, CNN reported.

“Listen, I think, first of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” the Democratic nominee said. “You heard my speech last night and continuously throughout my career. I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not,” Harris said.

“I am sincere in what I mean: when elected president of the United States, I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me, and address their needs and their desires,” she added.

However, Trump wasted no time seizing upon Biden’s comments. At a rally, he referenced Biden’s words, suggesting they were worse than Clinton’s, and positioned his campaign as one that welcomes diverse support from various demographic groups. The Trump campaign quickly framed Biden’s remarks as indicative of a broader disdain for his supporters, as reported by CNN.

“Wow. That’s terrible. That’s what it says. That’s what it says. So, you have, remember Hillary, she said ‘deplorable’ and then she said ‘irredeemable,’ right? But she said deplorable; that didn’t work out. ‘Garbage’ I think is worse, right?” Trump said.

Trump takes jibe

Meanwhile, Donald Trump climbed up a campaign-themed garbage truck in Wisconsin on Wednesday, seizing on President Joe Biden’s remarks in which he appeared to label Trump supporters as “garbage,” as reported by The Hill.

“How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honour of Kamala and Joe Biden,” Trump said from the passenger seat, which featured a Trump campaign sticker and flag. His campaign staff widely circulated photos of the event as photographers captured the moment, The Hill reported.

The Trump campaign is working to leverage the outrage among his supporters over Biden’s comment, with Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris seeking to distance herself from it.

Biden faced backlash after he seemingly compared Trump supporters to ‘garbage’ while discussing a racially charged joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Trump rally, which referred to Puerto Rico as an “island of garbage,” The Hill reported.

Following his remark, Biden inadvertently thrust him back into the political spotlight just a week before the US presidential elections.

Biden criticised the comedian’s description of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” asserting that the people of Puerto Rico are “good, decent, and honourable.” However, his defence sparked a political uproar, detracting from Vice President Kamala Harris’s key closing speech on Tuesday evening, CNN reported.

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