Donald Trump secures a second term against numerous challenges, including accusations of Russian interference, sexual misconduct, and impeachment attempts. His first 12 days in office are marked by rapid decisions and significant geopolitical shifts, including expressing interest in acquiring Greenland and Canada, brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, initiating the return of illegal immigrants, and addressing the rise of China's DeepSeek AI.
DONALD Trump is a titan, winning a second presidency in the US against trumped-up charges of Russian interference, charges of sexual misconduct, attempts at impeachment, constant attacks by mainstream media, conviction of felony on violations against so-called victims, and raids of his home by FBI.
Winning against such massive odds is one thing; making sea changes — turnabout not just in the US but in the world and taking action on decades-long and globe-spanning issues in just the first 12 days of office — is mind-boggling, making him almost a mythic figure. Whether right or wrong, a success or a failure, an inspiration or an oppression, remains to be seen. 'Revolutionary ' and game-changing are proper descriptions of his first week, given the speed of decisions, the great scale of the effects and the whirlwind execution.Trump has dived into the thick of four struggles, causing unprecedented storms in geopolitics, world demographics and technology. In 11 days since he became president, he 1) openly stated his desire to acquire Greenland and Canada, 2) forced a ceasefire to the genocide in Gaza, 3) started the return of illegal immigrants, including Filipinos, and 4) met the stunning challenge to AI dominance of the US due to the release of China's DeepSeek.President Trump declared his interest in acquiring the massive Greenland for the US, citing its strategic importance for national security, with access to the Arctic Circle, minerals and other resources. He has suggested that the island's 57,000 residents want to be part of the US despite its being an autonomous territory of Denmark. While 85 percent in a Verian poll indicated they don't want to join the US, a significant percent would not mind becoming US citizens. This has upset several EU countries, prompting some to propose deploying troops to Greenland.President Trump has also floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st US state. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected this notion. Surveys show 80 to 90 percent of Canadians are against this, although about a third of the younger population below 34 years are open to the idea.What about making the Philippines the 51st state? Why is the US interested in acquiring Greenland and Canada but not inviting the Philippines? Filipinos have indicated in Pew surveys that they trust the US even more than Americans. Filipinos, however, are a major part of the program of Trump to return illegal immigrants to their home countries.The US has started returning thousands of illegal immigrants to their home countries, some of whom initially refused to accept the return of their citizens. The target is initially to return over a million illegals, including potentially thousands of Filipinos. This marks a pivot away from the liberal entry and support entry policies of Biden's Democrats, where there were allegedly more allowances for the living expenses and quarters of these migrants than for the US homeless population.The issue of immigrants is still disputed as supporters, including businesses, believe these workers are needed to support the US economy. The MAGA group indicates that there are avenues for legal entry.Trump forced Netanyahu and Israel to embark on the first prisoner exchange and ceasefire with the Palestinians the day before Trump officially became president, despite Netanyahu throwing all kinds of objections and obstacles for years against any actual move toward a peaceful two-state solution under the Biden administration.The US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Gaza before meeting with Netanyahu to assess the situation firsthand, facilitate negotiations, and convey the clear Trump position that there must be immediate moves toward peace. In the latest prisoner exchange, Netanyahu declared he would not release the Palestinian prisoners after the Israeli hostage was released already by Hamas but was later convinced to fulfill the agreement.Hundreds of Palestinian families have started moving back toward their homes despite many of these towns and homes being destroyed after years of the residents continuously being driven out and Israeli settlers forcibly taking over their homes. Qatar and Egypt were also instrumental in brokering the ceasefire agreement.In the same first month of the year 2025, DeepSeek, a China AI, shot to the top of popularity and performance in the US, shocking the AI community with the speed of its rise to the number 1 downloaded AI app, the popularity, testing on par metrics overall with the best in the US, and being offered for free and 'open source.''Open source' means anyone can download, analyze the code, and use, modify, and build on top of it for free, even on private machines. This will allow individuals or small groups to develop their own applications or models without spending millions of dollars.Further disrupting the community and economics of the artificial intelligence community were DeepSeek's claims to having been developed within two years, under $6 million vs billions of dollars for the Western counterparts. Input learning was achieved within three months instead of years. Furthermore, while this was achieved possibly with some Nvidia chips obtained despite sanctions, the DeepSeek group clearly used earlier, less powerful chip generations. Given innovations in methods developed by young founder Liang Wenfeng and his small, young team, these were admitted by the large players OpenAi, Meta, Groq and others to be creative performance enhancements achieved at low cost.The stock markets dived sharply to DeepSeek's rise in popularity, with major US tech stocks Nvidia, Microsoft and Tesla experiencing a collective loss of nearly $1 trillion in market value. Nvidia dropped 17 percent, $580 billion from its market capitalization — the largest single-day loss in history. Investors were concerned over DeepSeek's cost-effective AI development, which put in question the substantial investments made by US tech giants.There has been a wide spectrum of reactions from others, from elation from users and small developers to acknowledgments of DeepSeek's advancements and as a catalyst for competition and innovation. Indian developers found this a possible leg up to develop their AI through partnership programs and with the government.However, concerns have also been raised regarding data, national security and ethics, and the rise of China, which some consider must be prevented from being an AI leader at all costs, while others feel a worldwide open community would be preferable. President Trump has indicated that this should be seen as a wake-up call, called by some a 'Sputnik moment,' that should challenge Americans to up their game.For the Philippines, this should be a clear indicator that we have to make our societal and educational adjustments much faster as development accelerates. Some will be able to use this tech and rise; many others will lose their ability to contribute to the economy and fall behind. It is both the government's responsibility and that of each family and individual to build the vehicles to ride the tides of change instead of being swept away.
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