Dealing with the charismatic triumphalist approach of Trump to the South African government

Abstract

Triumphalism is an attitude that one’s ideas or even politics will ultimately triumph and dominate over others. The reviewed literature in qualitative research demonstrates that a triumphalist approach was used by the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, in his political campaigns and approach to geopolitics. Literature also demonstrates that this kind of an approach has some links with the charismatic movement, including New Apostolic Reformation, hence the construction of a framework, a charismatic triumphalist approach. Trump’s triumphalist approach has been used, for example, to freeze the United States of America's government aid to South Africa and impose a 30 percent unilateral tariff on South Africa. The rationale for these harsh decisions against South Africa has been the wrong perception of anti-white transformation policies, while in reality, South Africa is trying its best to address the injustices of the past in the signing of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, the Expropriation Act, and the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.  The key research question is how to address the charismatic, triumphalist approach of Trump towards the South African government. This article proposes a theory of sovereignty on its transformation agenda and the foreign policies. The article found that sovereignty can help South Africa not to be distracted by Trump’s triumphalism, not only in the present but also in the future, in dealing with adverse situations against the country and the continent at large.