Latin American leaders had been swift to publicly congratulate former U.S. President and now President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory final week. Argentine President Javier Milei was ecstatic in his reward. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva—who simply days earlier than had declared his help for Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris—underscored the significance of respecting the democratic election outcomes. And Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in congratulating Trump, concurrently referred to as for the World South to unite on points comparable to local weather change in preparation for a second Trump presidency.
However Petro’s coded warning was about so far as anybody was prepared to go in criticizing Trump within the first hours after his victory. Throughout the area, each chief appeared wanting to keep away from a public dispute with the subsequent administration whereas they awaited the brand new president’s early coverage selections.
Privately, the advisers of those self same leaders seemingly pulled out their copies of “The Artwork of the Deal,” the 1987 e book based mostly on Trump’s enterprise concepts that many had already dog-eared throughout his first time period from 2017 to 2021. Again then, the leaders and international locations that managed Trump one of the best had been those who acknowledged that he’s a transactional president. Reducing a take care of Trump will likely be a wholly completely different train than the previous 4 years of working to advance nationwide pursuits with outgoing President Joe Biden, the place ideology and dedication to democracy have performed a higher position.
