How Trump’s Rise to US Presidency Means Bad News for Pakistan

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Donald Trump has all but secured the nomination as the Republican candidate for the upcoming US Presidential elections. His rivals in the Republican camp have bowed out, unable to dislodge the support that Trump enjoys among the American electorate.

So why is this development worrying? Especially for Pakistani businesses, particularly the tech sector, and in broader terms, the country’s relations with America?

In a written statement, the Trump campaign calls for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

We take a look at a general scenario that may become reality under President Trump, should he be able to defeat his Democratic rival towards the end of the year when USA goes to the polls.

Trump’s Call for Muslim Ban to Have Wide Repercussions

Be it election rhetoric or serious threat, many agree that Trump’s xenophobia towards Muslims and other minorities will change the social fabric of America, and that too for the worse.

Businessmen, whether they are from Pakistan or any other Muslim state, will not find it easy to get their deals approved in the face of a hostile official machinery in place that attempts to rule out any dealings with ‘enemy states.’

In fact, don’t be surprised if the employment visas for foreign workers have their conditions tightened up. Silicon Valley may well see a dip in skilled talent from other countries.

The H-1B Visa for foreign workers requires the applicants to possess at least a bachelors degree. Seeing as how only 32% of America’s civilian population has a equivalent academic qualification, this can end up hurting America more than it does potential immigrants. Back home, Pakistanis with skills and talent might feel that they have no opportunity to utilize their potential.

According to a study undertaken by Matthew Slaughter, dean of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush:

“The paradox I come back to is that there’s a preponderance of evidence that high-skill immigration is a dynamic force that can help the U.S. create not just jobs, but good jobs.”

Anti-China rhetoric will automatically translate into Anti-Pakistan rhetoric

Donald Trump never shies away from bashing China and its trade policies, given his focus on making ‘America great again.’ Finance and economy pundits may argue that the American economy is inexorcibly tied to China’s and that makes Trump’s musings just mere lip service.

However, having a hawkish foreign policy team under Trump’s White House may almost certainly mean taking the first steps to de-link American dependence on China.

Why is this damaging for Pakistan? This is because no country’s fortunes have been so deeply linked with that of China. Pakistan’s approach of putting all its eggs in the Chinese basket may very well make it the target of Trump’s ire.

For all its efforts in the War against terror, even Pakistan is facing trouble procuring F-16 jets from America. Congress has asked Pakistan to pay in full for them, with the White House taking a neutral line over the whole affair. Imagine if the White House also turned hostile regarding the deal. It seems Pakistan’s pals in Capitol Hill are virtually non-existent.

Make American Companies Great Again – At the Cost of Everything Else

Sure the American President is beholden to USA’s interests first and foremost. But how much of America’s progress has been the result of its talent acquisition amongst immigrants? A lot whole.

Trump’s website says he wants to introduce a requirement that would force domestic firms to “hire American workers first.”

This fact seems to have been lost on Trump and his like-minded supporters, and they think that having a white-washed workforce devoid of any merit or dedication can help America get back on its feet.

The Department of Homeland Security caps the number of skilled immigrants allowed into the U.S. each year through the H-1B visa program at 65,000 annually. And this number will go down if Trump has his way.

At the official level, this means that grants and aid that America sends to Pakistan and its other allies will be severely undercut. Pakistan receives $1 billion plus annually given its services in the war next door. And our policy makers haven’t made the partnership a strategic plank of US-Pakistan relations.

This means that Pakistan should expect cuts in development funds, even education. Many social initiatives are also expected to be hurt by this.

So what do you think? Will the ushering of President Trump bring dark clouds for Pakistani talent, companies and officialdom both? Or will the CPEC be enough to let Pakistan ride out the Trump wave for the time being? Let us know in the comments below.

Samir is the Head of Entertainment at Lens by ProPakistani. You can reach out to him at samir.ya...


  • You think its appropriate to start your article with “In case you’ve been living under a rock”? In my opinion its rude.

  • In other words forget Paypal,ebay or any other American companies in Pakistan.

  • Sorry bhai I was living under the rock but your article showed the bright day light. Bravo (y)!!

  • Well, to be more honest , if he get elects then winter is truly coming to Pakistan.

    ” the most dangerous country in the world other than Iran,” same things were said for all Arab countries which are now heap of ruins!
    None at that time believed any one can actually attack them. sadly, it happened and they caught in the wild fire.

  • Yesterday, I rescued Samir Yawar from under the rock. He was living under that rock for over a decade. He completely lost all his morality and communication skills were all gone. Yeah. You got it. It was a centipede that I rescued.

  • Hathi k daant khane k aur dikhane k aur.
    Agar iqtedar mein aana hai to ek shortcut hai, Muslims aur Pakistan ko gaaliyan de do campaign mein aur kursi tumhari same as Modi. Koi darrne ki baat nhn hai hamein IMF se qarza milta rahe ga hamari aane wali generation qarzdar paida hongi, kal hum Bhutto k ghulam the , aj Nawaz k ghulam hain aur kal Imran k ghulam honge, kyun k ye ayen ge khayen ge aur Dubai ya London chale jayen ge par hum khush rahen ge k hamare leaders sukoon se bahir hain bas hamari phatti hui hai. Hum zillat se bhari zindagi guzaren ge aur mar jayen ge.
    The End.

  • it wont make any difference just like Obama coming into power made no difference. Obama came to the world stage with Hope and Change as his slogans, still he couldn’t close Guantanamo or pull out of Afghanistan or Iraq. The reality is that US president is tied down in policy and reality.

    Trump is like IK and he done popular politics to gain votes and just like IK realised that the cesspool of Pakistani democracy will change him and not the other way around. So today IK is no different from other parties.

    so the moment Trump comes into power his rhetoric will change and he will be hardly any different from Bush, Obama or for that matter any other president of the United States. Same is true for Sadiq Khan – people celebrating that he is going to be the Change and Hope but he will be no different from his predecessors or those who will come after him.

    The consistent theme in all of the above is secularism, democracy and Capitalism. These are the guiding thinking in their policy making.

  • First I totally agree with Hamza point about inappropriate opening of article. Secondly, I like to bring the audience to a point that the way the supporters are going also show their sentiments (real and hidden) about Muslims. That shows that Trump has just provided an opportunity to the people to take out their inner views.

  • US presidential election are none of our business. The US policies will remain the same no matter who comes to power. The US has always preferred military rule and opposed democracy and the freedom of the press.
    Pakistani media cannot report drone strikes and give the exact death toll, the media has been given $50 million to sing praises of the USA, regardless of how much Pakistan is suffering. The Express Tribune is an example how a Pakistani newspaper runs stories condemning Pakistan or which sarcastically praise Pakistan.
    Pakistan can never ask the US to end its war in Afghanistan. The US president is not permitted to leave Pakistan alone. For all intents Pakistan is a colony of the USA

  • Good for USA, as it is not gona be super power after Trump will be in power. We should remain happy to see any other super power in this world possible #China

  • Donald Trump is the face, If he wins Republicans will be in control, and they have had better relations with Pakistan as compared to Democrats, someone forgot to take history classes, eh?

    • But still relevant according to the situation that he became the president…obviously some of the readers were looking forward to read something like, how its going to affect us in Pakistan and upon our nationality holders in US. but still its preferred that they wrote some thing new that worth reading it..!

  • Pakistan came into being due to awareness among muslims in Congress rule.
    Hillary is already pro Indian then why should we support her. None of the candidates is good for Pakistan.

  • Lets get out of the mentality of american slavery. We need to build our nation on our own. All we do is try and depend on america china etc. Pathetic state of affairs. Good if he gives Pakistan a hard time. Maybe then people will get up and make an effort on thier own rather than living on aid like beggars.

    • You don’t tell us and you cant do it; you tell the politician that lick Americans foot and ask for aids, Pakistan is relying on america (not 100% but), if american says buy planes(that pia recently bought) from us, Pakistan has no way to bypass the deal we have to buy it or american will seized the air route, and same in every aspect (that’s why its called super power)

  • like Brexit in the UK, great media bias against trump means we can’t get an honest read.

    people are very frustrated and hate the leadership. They have had 12 years of neoconservatives another 4 years would be awful.

    Although i would like to believe that their “Deep state” that i like to call establishment (like ours) which consists of the banks, Wall Street, big business, defense companies, government higherups, THEY run things. I think they WANT trump to win. i think they supported wikileaks. Either way this has been the most extraordinary election.

    i think hillary lost with one comment she made that revealed it all and she never said she was sorry, she said she regretted SAYING it, which is very different

    Her comments were:
    “To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables,'” Hillary Clinton said at a New York fundraiser on Sept. 9. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he has lifted them up.”

    so now they call themselves the “deplorables”. she was calling a quarter of the people in the country deplorables

    What is also worth noting here is that “trump is not a real republican. The party HATES him. they HATE HATE HATE trump. he is an outsider, a populist, and not at all a republican but in the US you have to run for one or the other party, to have a chance, it’s not possible otherwise.

    the media and both parties HATE him which is a reason to like him :)

    he’s an asshole, he’s a narcissist, he’s got a lot of baggage BUT…he is better than hillary by a mile, AND he doesn’t have any political baggage, he never ran in an election, was never part of the machines.

    i don’t think he is anti muslim. i think he is scapegoating immigration, making immigrants a symbol for the lower middle class’s falling behind kind of like hitler did to the jews. france has laws against wearing the burka etc. the US doesn’t have that, and trump never said it should. he’s a nutcase about ISIS etc but he truly was against the US going to war in Iraq, fairly early in the game, to his credit

    hillary reperesents more and more war

    i think for Pakistan, Trump’s election would be much better which is why they are projecting him as bad

  • I think its good for Pakistan. Pakistan should make policies that help her improve its economic conditions except having to ask every time a donation from other countries. It will put pressure on the Pakistani establishment to start working in their offices and face the real world.

  • Regarding China what the writer claimed surely depicts his attachment with rocKs.. why..? here is why…

    China has been the superpower since more than 15+ years its just that its not interested in claiming it. So anti China rhetoric would not do any good for the source itself coz of its dependency upon China itself.

    Its a good thing for Pakistan, our Government and for Muslims throughout the World. Donald’s hatred and policies against Islam will only help the Muslims and corresponding nations to re-unite and discover their inner potential.

    Regarding F-16 procurement, there isn’t any decision pending at white house. They blocked the procurement already during 1st quarter of the year 2016.
    http://dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/03-May-16/pakistan-and-f-16-jets

    I duly respect and regard ProPakistani writers including Mr. Samir Yawar and I duly request them to do a research before guiding the audience otherwise there would be no difference between media news and your articles and hence no interest at all…

  • BTW our media in this whole USA Elections episode is the perfect example of BEGANI SHAADI MAIN ABDULLAH DEEWANA

  • Iss ka matlab pakistan ke hukmaranoo se aap ne ummed chodd de hai… Ab pakistan ke mustaqbil ka faisla america ke election par hai … What kind of message is that?

  • I heard more I don’t know but US policies didn’t belong to person like in our country ? Second We r Muslim so trmp or tripe nothing can do with us

  • Donald trump’s presidency will actually be good for Pakistan and other developing countries as stopping immigration means stopping brain drain

  • It is too early to say but Trump and his supporters have in general
    shown bias against muslim countries and people in general. However that
    may be political stunt to get votes and real world is different and you
    may see a different Trump when reality hits him.


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