Against all fear of Donald Trump, I attended a World Bank conference in Washington DC. The subject of the conference was very interesting; Overcoming challenges and state legitimacy in fragile and conflict-prone regions.

No place was better for such a conference than the US. To the rest of the world; that the US is a conflicted place was confirmed with the election of property tycoon Donald Trump as the 45th President.

In my mind, the trip was also an opportunity to feel the anger we were told that had propelled the foul-mouthed 70-year-old man to the highest office on earth.

World newspaper headlines lampooning America for doing what I also thought was the most incredible thing rung in my head as we touched down at Dulles International Airport outside Washington DC.

“How long are you staying in the US,” an Immigration officer asked me at Passport Control. She barely looked at my face.

Her eyes were trained on my passport. After a few brief questions, she stamped my passport and off I went. The whole encounter lasted like two minutes.

What an anti-climax, I thought. Didn’t she read my first name? I actually expected some trouble on account of my first name.
“Taxi?” shouted a man of African origin as I stepped out of the airport.
“Yes, please,” I said.

On our way to the hotel, the man said little, merely commenting on the “grey and depressing weather”.
“Tell me about Donald Trump, I hear he will kick out all African immigrants from the US,” I said.

He just laughed away and did not refer to it again in our conversation. I was a little disappointed since he never showed so much interest in the Trump discussion. Instead, he was more interested about Kenya and the business opportunities available. “I am from Nigeria but I love Kenya, I lived there once for a year,” he said.
This brother was not a good start, I told myself as I paid him and bade him bye.

The following day, I was picked up by a taxi driver who I suspect is from Ethiopia. I asked my question again: “Do you like Donald Trump?

He frowned and gave me a rather surprised gaze. “I don’t care about him,” he said. “I just do my work.” Two of two didn’t care about Trump. Indeed, no man in the streets in America talks about Donald Trump.

You only get to hear about him on TV. In my hotel room, CNN was saturated with news about Donald Trump.

In Wolf Blitzer’s show, the Situation Room, all the discussions were about Trump; how the eccentric President-elect had cancelled new orders for a new fleet of Air Force One was the topic of discussion.

Later, an elderly Caucasian man I met at the hotel was more outgoing on Trump.

“Trump is dividing this country,” he said forlornly. “But why?” I asked. Because he is giving jobs to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) he added, probably referring to President-elect Trump's nominee for Attorney General who was rumoured to have been a member of the dreaded KKK .

I am not sure I want to trust this old man. Weren’t we told Trump’s voters were mostly old, white and male?

After four days in DC, I am not sure I can say I know what it feels to live in Trump’s America. Americans might be embarrassed to have elected a crazy guy as president.

But then Donald Trump might appear like a crazy person, but he seems to know what he wants. During the campaign he persistently claimed that he raised a huge chunk of his campaign funds on his own.

The practice in the past was that US presidential hopefuls raised their campaign funds through lobbyists who eventually wielded enormous powers by establishing networks in the administration. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Even in the US, money, power and politics exist side by side.
Here’s something fresh and nice about the election in the US; If it is true that Trump will not be taken hostage by lobbyists, then the United States can once again become an honest broker in the international politics and resolve some of the longest standing conflicts.

The real question is: Can Trump survive the murky waters of the politics of the Senate and the House of Representatives? Even President Obama had some of the best ideas but implementing them has been a challenge.

The day after the inauguration will signal the end of the honeymoon. To gauge how stressful the office of the President of the US is, just watch the president’s hairline four years from now.

The reality of the politics that turned Barack Obama’s once dark jet black hair into a stunning grey awaits President-elect Donald Trump (and the Donald loves his hair, I am told).

May be we should prepare for a balding head; it is a sure measure of Trump’s America.

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