America’s Leadership: King, Biden, and Trump

January 20, 2025, the leadership of the United States was passed to President Donald Trump from President Joe Biden, on the official day celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This confluence brought to my mind, a multi-dimensional time image encompassing six decades of history in the United States.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, and his life was ended at the age of thirty nine, by an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968. He was not a President, in fact he never held public office, but he possessed the qualities of leadership, and he should have become President of United States. Until his death, Dr King embodied the highest qualities of morality and justice, superior to all other U.S. leading political figures of that period.

Below, you will see an article by a colleague of mine, Nancy Spannaus, Dr. King Demanded Economic Justice for All, discussing the qualities and attributes of Dr King. He was not only the most forthright American leader advocating for the fulfillment of the intent of the Declaration of Independence for equality, as the great statesperson, Frederick Douglas had demanded a century earlier. Dr King was also the champion in the United States for economic development of those who were still struggling to achieve economic advancement. Dr King also distinguished himself by stepping outside of civil rights issues and challenging the political class of the United States to end of Vietnam War, which may have been a contributing motivation for his assassination. Years earlier, in 1957, Dr King, and his wife traveled to West Africa to attend Ghana’s independence ceremony at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah. He was also fierce critic of apartheid rule in South Africa. .

It was in 1967, with Dr King leading the most powerful political movement that the United States had experienced, that I, then a 16 year old youth, intersected the political arena, in part due to Dr King’s crusade. Almost sixty years later, I am still committed to economic justice in the United States and throughout the world, although now my interventions and my focus has developed beyond what it was when I was a young teenager. I can still remember the faces of the people on the New York City subway the night Dr King was assassinated, as I was returning home from my part time job. They were filled with sadness, anger, and anguish in response to their messiah being seized from them. A true leader, who could have changed the future, was stolen from the American people and the world. It was not until twenty years later that I joined forces in Alabama with the followers of Dr. King, who were still alive and active.

(Courtesy of www.azquotes.com)
After the assassination of President John F Kennedy, our last great president, who was an American statesman, Dr King’s leadership was made even more vital for the future of the United States. Even though he was in office for only a few short years, President Kennedy exemplified a superior quality of presidential leadership, after the failed and limited presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, respectively. Following the death of President Kennedy, our nation’s commitment to science and development dissipated, eventually vanished, under the onslaught of the 1970’s “rock-drug-zero-growth” counterculture.

From Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, to his own in April 1968, Dr King built a grass-roots political movement that should have propelled him to the presidency of the United States. Tragically, it was not to be. Instead, for the last 56 years, we have suffered the mediocrity or worse of eleven presidents, bringing us to the current election of the second term of President Trump. While individual presidents may have made useful contributions, both the Republican and Democratic parties have so far failed to produce a true leader that represents the most profound fundamental principles of the United States, much less a statesman. Unfortunately, our recent U.S. presidents have not been able to “see the promised land” nor demonstrate the qualities of thought, morality, and leadership exhibited by Dr King.

It is not my intention now, to review the failures of President Biden’s administration nor prognosticate about the possible consequences of future policies by President Trump. America and the world could not have survived another four years of $100 billion wars supported by Secretary of State Blinken and President Biden. However, that was probably not the main reason that Biden was voted out of office. Whatever exactly President Trump stands for, he was the chosen vehicle used by the voters to express their outrage against the policies of Washington DC, dominated by the Democrats. More specifically, voters perceived that the ruling liberal political class in Washington arrogantly chose identity classifications over their interest. Whether the new administration knows the authentic founding principles of the U.S. and has the moral and mental fortitude to navigate a renaissance, is unclear to me at this moment. I have my doubts because I have seen more populism and slogans than substantive fruitful strategies.

To restore the U.S. to its core principles that made our nation a shining city upon a hill, will require a complete break from the rules-based-order’s zero sum mentality. First, we must end “the axis of evil” mindset and return to diplomacy grounded in policies that promote the common interest of development for all nations. Second, it is essential that we reinvigorate Alexander Hamilton’s successful Principles of Political Economy embedded in the creation of the First National Bank. President Franklin Roosevelt, a student of Hamilton, understood that nations require legitimate banking institutions to generate credit to promote economic development. True economic growth involves issuing long term loans at 2-3 percent interest rates to drive economic growth, especially in categories of soft and hard infrastructure. We do not need oligarchs to make obscene profits, but we require all nations to be profitable to ensure peace.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghana’s Independence, and Cold War Civil Rights (courtesy of Society for US Intellectual History)

If president trump genuinely wants to overturn the policies of Washington that have been detrimental to the U.S. and the world, he should adopt the following proposal of mine.

Let Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping of China, who preside over the two largest economies in the world, unite in a joint mission to end poverty and hunger across the African continent. This common mission to benefit humankind would usurp the power of the financial predators, the commodity cartels, the usurious financial institutions, and the rules based order ideologues. It would actually drain the swamp! It would yield a magnificent and enduring legacy, if President Trump has the courage and foresight to initiate such a bold strategy.

It would be a commitment to economic justice that would make Dr King proud.

Read below my earlier posts on this subject:
In Celebration of Black History Month, Let Us All Emulate the Great Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglass: “Knowledge Unfits a Man to be a Slave”

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World