By Markus Feldenkirchen, Veit Medick and Holger Stark
Donald Trump is the leader of a new, hate-filled authoritarian
movement. Nothing would be more harmful to the idea of the West and
world peace than if he were to be elected president. George W. Bush's
America would seem like a place of logic and reason in comparison.
Donald Trump recently spoke about American football. No other game more
fully embodies his country's character. The sport is about capturing
territory, and players need to be tough and fearless to win. A player
who is afraid of being tackled by someone from the opposing team while
running has already lost the game. "I don't even watch it as much
anymore," Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Reno, Nevada. "The
whole game is all screwed up."
A growing number of studies point to the devastating consequences of
the many tackles in the game, in which players try to stop their
opponents by throwing themselves at them head-first: brain trauma,
depression, suicide. New rules have been created, and there are now
stiffer penalties for the most glaring fouls.
On the stage in Reno, Trump said he missed "what used to be
considered a great tackle, a violent head-on tackle." He slammed his
fists together and repeated himself, vulgarly pursing his lips as he
said the word "violent." "You used to see these tackles and it was
incredible to watch, right?"
And today? "Bing! Flag!" Trump shouted. "The referees, they want to all throw flags so their wives see them at home."
"Football has become soft," he said, repeating the sentence as if
it were a key hypothesis on the state of the nation. "Football has
become soft like our country has become soft!" As he held up his index
finger, the crowd cheered and people held signs up in the air that read:
"The silent majority stands with Trump."
Trump Wants A Ruthless America
"Believe me, I'll change things. And again, we're going to be so
respected. I don't want to use the word 'feared,'" he told the audience.
But that is precisely what Trump wants: to be feared. His bid for the
White House, long ridiculed, is a fight for a ruthless, brutal America.
Behind his campaign slogan "Make America great again!" is the vision of a
country that no longer cares about international treaties, ethnic
minorities or established standards of decency.
Trump wants to attack head-first again. The 69-year-old embodies a
new harshness and brutality, and both a physical and emotional
crudeness. Trump has launched an uprising of the indecent, one that is
now much bigger than he himself, a popular movement of white,
conservative America that after eight years under Democratic President
Barack Obama, yearns for a leader who will usher in the
counter-revolution.
Former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod wrote
recently that Trump's success is based on the same principle as the
campaign victories of his former boss. In fact, he added, he had
explained this recipe for success to Obama himself when he first ran for
president: When a president leaves office after eight years, voters
tend to prefer a candidate who is as different as possible from the
incumbent, in terms of politics, character and habits.
By that logic, Obama the integrator, who fought against
discrimination against blacks and gays, would be followed by a President
Trump who stirs up hatred against minorities and claims that "political
correctness" is the greatest threat to the United States. While Obama
sought to explain complex problems, often sounding like an intellectual
in the process, studies have shown that Trump speaks at a fourth-grade
reading level. Problems, according to Trump, are "totally easy" to
solve. And while Obama appealed to the common "we" in his campaign
slogan "Yes, we can!" Trump's version reads "Yes, I can!" -- the
solution of a strong leader.
Currently, America is running the risk of falling for a
self-proclaimed leader with a low opinion of fundamental democratic
values. Shortly before the Iowa Caucuses on Monday, all national polls
showed Trump as the leading Republican candidate by a wide margin. He is
also polling at the top of the Republican field in almost every state
in the country. In Iowa itself, with its large religious population, the
race could end up being a close contest between Trump and Texas Senator
Ted Cruz, a Christian hardliner.
Desire for a Strong Man at the Top
Trump takes every opportunity in this campaign to portray his
country as a down-and-out weakling. According to his strategy, when a
nation's feeling of self-worth has hit rock bottom, it experiences a
growing desire to overcome the "status quo" -- and for a strong man at
the top.
Trump is a unique figure. He is so wealthy that his campaign is
almost entirely self-financed. Thanks to his colorful life as a New York
real estate mogul and star of the reality TV show "The Apprentice," he
enters the presidential race with a celebrity factor like no other
candidate before him.
But his most unique characteristic is his lack of scruples. When
speaking about his amiable rival Jeb Bush, he has often said that Bush
is such a "low-energy person" that no one can even look at him anymore
without seeking signs of his lack of energy. Trump has repeatedly said
that Marco Rubio, another Republican contender, "sweats a lot," which,
according to Trump, would be a little embarrassing for a president who
has to negotiate with "strong leaders like Vladimir Putin." He recently
began claiming that his strongest rival at the moment, Ted Cruz, lacks
the legal qualification to become president because he was born on
Canadian soil. And last year he tweeted: "If Hillary Clinton can't
satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?" All
of this profanity and unscrupulousness would have forced anyone else to
resign. But for his millions of supporters, they are further evidence of
Trump's boldness and strength.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and
I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?," Trump said at a rally in Iowa a
week ago Saturday. He mimicked shooting a pistol with his finger and
added: "It's like, incredible!"
No Longer the Laughing Stock
Salon.com wrote: "(Trump) embodies that well-worn if still stinging
observation about the country he hails from: that 'America is the only
country that went from barbarism to decadence without passing through
civilization.'"
Trump announced his candidacy just over seven months ago. Since
then, much has been written and said about his hairstyle. His plain and
sometimes embarrassing statements, his muddled speeches and his
incomprehensible narcissism have been a source of amusement. There are
lists of the most outrageous statements Trump has made in the past, such
as this one about women: "You know, it doesn't really matter what (the
media) write as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass."
But his candidacy ceased to be amusing long ago. Trump's demands
are too extreme for that, and his view of the world and humanity too
dangerous. And the chances are too great that he will be named as the
Republican presidential candidate. Some polls show that Trump even
stands a realistic chance of winning the White House in a possible
face-off with Hillary Clinton. The combination of his views and the
possibility that he could soon hold the planet's most powerful office
make him the most dangerous man in the world at the moment.
For a long time, neither Republican Party officials nor the media
recognized the true dimensions of the movement that Trump was forming.
They continued to poke fun at him, even as he was creating a
revolutionary mood on the right margin of society. Now it could be too
late, and Trump could be the one getting the last laugh.
Like it or not, it is time to take Donald John Trump seriously. So
what can be said about the character of this man who is determined to
capture the White House? And what could America and the rest of the
world expect if he truly became the 45th president of the United States?
Fascist Characteristics
New Yorker writer George Packer's book "The Unwinding" describes
the gradual economic and, more importantly, moral decline of the United
States. It is perhaps the most astute book about the country's condition
today. Sitting at Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery in Manhattan's
Greenwich Village, Packer says that Trump now exhibits several of the
characteristics of a fascist.
In the past, as a reality TV star, Trump had to come across as
somewhat likeable, says Packer. But now that he is playing the fascist,
he suddenly resembles one, with his grim face, his pursed lips and the
threatening and intimidating look in his eyes.
It's no accident that Trump expresses great admiration for Russian
strongman Vladimir Putin, who seems to impress him far more than
politicians seeking to champion the values of democracy with their
painstaking and often vain search for compromises.
"He is a nicer person than I am," Trump said of the Russian
president. "In terms of leadership, he's getting an A." The reason,
according to Trump, is that Putin is "making mincemeat out of our
president."
Putin returned the compliment in December, when he said: "He's a
really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt. He is the
absolute front-runner in the presidential race." Trump, who judges
people purely by whether or not they praise him, promptly shot back:
"When people call you brilliant, it's always good, especially when the
person heads up Russia."
Inflaming Tensions
Packer says many Europeans are currently looking at Trump's success
and thinking: "Those Americans are crazy!" But Trump isn't some strange
US mutation, says Packer, who instead sees him as being evocative of
European right-wing populists, à la Marine Le Pen in France and Viktor
Orbán in Hungary.
While politicians like Le Pen and Orbán inveigh against "Brussels,"
Trump rails against "Washington" as the symbol of a degenerate
political system "that doesn't get things done anymore." Just like his
European counterparts, Trump is calling for isolation in the form of
protective tariffs, entry bans and border walls. He inflames tensions
against ethnic minorities and offers anxious citizens the authoritarian
vision of a strongman who will solve all problems on his own -- while
ignoring democratic conventions. Trump is presumably only the shrillest
and most prominent embodiment of a trend that is becoming pervasive
throughout the Western world.
Packer sees the 2008 financial crisis, which caused parts of the US
economy to unravel and deprived millions of Americans of their economic
foundation, as the main reason many Americans are receptive to a man
like Trump. The economy has been growing again since then, but in
absurdly unfair ways, says Packer, as inequality becomes more and more
glaring. According to Packer, many Americans feel they have been left
alone with their concerns, and they feel disconnected and betrayed.
The current primary race underscores how much this frustration has
already changed the country. It has enabled Bernie Sanders, an extreme
leftist by American standards, to become a serious threat to Hillary
Clinton. And it is preparing the ground for Trump's campaign against all
the elites, even though Trump himself has spent his entire life as a
member of the country's economic elite.
Many Americans, especially whites and those with relatively little
education, are now more receptive than ever to audacious promises and
simplistic solutions. But they are also receptive to a form of politics
that blames immigrants and minorities for their own fate, and for the
race-baiting that has been part of every authoritarian movement to date.
Trump offers all of these things, and he offers them more skillfully,
professionally and self-confidently than all other candidates.
'It's a Miracle Trump Didn't Invent the Selfie'
Michael D'Antonio is sitting in an Applebee's fast-food restaurant
on Long Island, speaking quietly. He's a cheerful, thoughtful man with a
white beard, the polar opposite of Trump. D'Antonio has delved a lot
deeper than most others into Donald Trump's world.
D'Antonio recently wrote a biography of Trump, who was enthusiastic
about the project and gave his cooperation -- at least initially. Trump
granted the author several interviews, which were usually held in his
penthouse inside the Trump Tower, behind the kinds of double doors that
would normally be used in castles. D'Antonio was granted free access to
Trump's family and associates, and spoke with his grown children and all
three of his wives. But when Trump realized that D'Antonio was also one
of his critics, he immediately canceled the project.
"What I noticed immediately in my first visit was that there were
no books," says D'Antonio. "A huge palace and not a single book." He
asked Trump whether there was a book that had influenced him. "I would
love to read," Trump replied. "I've had many best sellers, as you know,
and 'The Art of the Deal' was one of the biggest-selling books of all
time." Soon Trump was talking about "The Apprentice." Trump called it
"the No. 1 show on television," a reality TV show in which, in 14
seasons, he played himself and humiliated candidates vying for the
privilege of a job within his company. In the interview, Trump spent
what seemed like an eternity talking about how fabulous and successful
he is, but he didn't name a single book that he hadn't written.
"Trump doesn't read," D'Antonio says in the restaurant. "He hasn't
absorbed anything serious and profound about American society since his
college days. And to be honest, I don't even think he read in college."
When Trump was asked who his foreign policy advisers were, he replied:
"Well, I watch the shows." He was referring to political talk shows on
TV.
In all of the conversations about his life, Trump seemed like a
little boy, says D'Antonio. "Like a six-year-old boy who comes home from
the playground and can hardly wait to announce that he shot the
decisive goal."
According to D'Antonio, American society revolves around two
things: ambition and self-promotion. This is why Trump is one of the
most appropriate heroes he can imagine for the country, he adds, noting
that no one is more ambitious and narcissistic. "It's a miracle Trump
didn't invent the selfie."
The Dark Side of Trump's Narcissism
During an appearance two weeks at a Toyota dealership in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a young woman in the crowd said she had two
questions for Trump. The first one was about the college financing
system. Trump's reply contained the word "college," at any rate. This
was her second question: "Can I take a selfie with you?" The owner of
the dealership felt that the question was inappropriate and quickly said
that perhaps she could do it later. But Trump was already saying "Of
course! Of course!" and waved the woman onto the stage.
His biographer talks about the dark sides of Trump's
self-absorption. "Trump lacks any self-irony, any form of critical
self-perception." The entire family is like that, he explains. When he
tried to joke with Trump's children about their father's penchant for
gold and glitter in his buildings, none of them understood what he was
getting at. "They don't notice when something is ridiculous," says
D'Antonio. "This is the most telling characteristic of the entire Trump
clan: the persistent denial of reflection."
But what worried him the most, says D'Antonio, is Trump's belief
that he is genetically superior to most people in the world. In all of
their conversations, he notes, Trump kept returning to the notion that
by virtue of his birth, he is simply better than other people in many
areas -- from playing golf to being a businessman. "I'm a big believer
in natural ability," Trump said.
His son, Donald Trump Jr., shares his father's conviction. He said
he was a firm believer in the concept of breeding, in "race-horse
theory." Then he pointed at the ceiling with his finger, in the
direction of his father's office. "He's an incredibly accomplished guy,
my mother's incredibly accomplished, she's an Olympian, so I'd like to
believe genetically I'm predisposed to (be) better than average."
Apparently this sort of belief also helps Trump portray himself to
voters as a strong man, as the person who will save the country.
A Core Element of Racism
In early January, the stadium at Winthrop University in Rock Hill,
South Carolina, was filled with 6,500 Trump supporters. Rose Hamid, a
Muslim woman, waited for the right moment to express her opposition to
Trump. Hamid and her friends chose a spot in the bleachers, directly
behind the lectern. They had planned to stand up when Trump said
something hateful. When he began railing against Syrian refugees, Hamid
pulled out a yellow Star of David with the word Muslim printed on it and
stuck it to her T-shirt. She stood up and folded her hands. Her Jewish
friend also rose to her feet, and they both stood there, in silent
protest against the stigmatization of religions.
The crowd erupted into indignation within seconds. Trump's fans
stuck their fists in the air and drowned out Hamid, as if she were a
criminal, shouting "Trump! Trump!" Then Trump signaled to the security
guards to remove Hamid from the room. She didn't resist. Since the
incident, however, she has known what it feels like to be chased away by
Trump and his supporters.
A few days later Hamid, 56, is sitting in a row house in a suburb
of Charlotte, North Carolina, talking about the January evening when
Trump had her escorted out. Hamid is a proud Muslim woman who wears a
headscarf, even while working as a flight attendant, and she has never
been criticized for it.
She was raised Catholic and converted to Islam
in her mid-20s. A copy of the Ten Commandments sits on her bookshelf and
a verse from the Koran hangs on the wall. She believes in the diversity
of religions. That was what she wanted to say to Trump when she heard
he was coming to her area.
At first Hamid, like many others, didn't take Trump seriously. But
this changed when Trump, after the attacks in Paris, proposed the
establishment of a database of all Muslims in the country. He later
called for a "complete shutdown of all Muslims entering the United
States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going
on." It seems to trouble neither Trump nor his supporters that the First
Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of
religion.
Racism has since become a core element of his campaign, but it has
only intensified in recent months. At first, Trump was only talking
about the need to stop illegal immigrants. Only when he realized that
this was what got him the most applause did he become more radical. In
June, he said that Mexico is "bringing drugs, crime and rapists" to the
United States, and that he would "build a great, great wall on our
southern border," and "I will have Mexico pay for that wall!" He also
announced that he would deport all 11 million illegal immigrants within
two years. For his fans, Trump's "great, great wall," which he compares
with the Great Wall of China, has become a symbol of a well-fortified
America.
Goading and Ridicule
Almost every evening, Trump goads his supporters to shout down
protestors or throw them out of his rallies. He often ridicules these
individuals from the lectern. If one of them happens to be on the heavy
side, he pokes fun at "that fat guy," which fans interpret as a signal
-- that Trump won't mind if they get a little physical with the
protester.
When a TV host recently asked Trump, who was sitting with his back
to his fans, whether he was serious when he said that he would also
"take out" the wives and children of terrorists, Trump replied: "We have
to be more vigilant, and we have to be much tougher." The crowd behind
him cheered. At a rally in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, his supporters
attacked a black protester, while others shouted "shoot him," "Sieg
Heil" and "light the motherfucker on fire!"
These are the moments when it becomes clear how brutal Trump can
be. Trump biographer D'Antonio learned that Trump had always sought out
bodyguards who looked like hoodlums and thugs -- to put the fear of God
in people.
"I tried to look Trump's supporters in the eye, but it was
impossible," says Rose Hamid. "There was a strange emptiness there."
Trump is changing the country and its people, she adds, and the other
candidates, faced with his poll numbers, are revising their own
rhetoric. Indeed, this is what worries Hamid. "Trump emboldens people to
do things they normally wouldn't dare to do."
A study by pollster Matthew MacWilliams shows that what Trump's
supporters have in common, more than anything else, is the desire for
authority. MacWilliams asked people whether they preferred a respectful,
obedient and well-behaved child or an independent and curious one.
Those who tend to favor the former are seen as being authoritarian.
Trump was the only candidate strongly favored by the respondents with
authoritarian ideas.
This group offers tremendous potential for Trump, says MacWilliams,
noting that not only 49 percent of Republicans but also 39 percent of
independent voters showed a penchant for the authoritarian. "Trump's
support is firmly rooted in American authoritarianism and, once
awakened, it is a force to be reckoned with," MacWilliams recently wrote
on the website Politico.
It makes sense that Trump doesn't seem to care much about freedom
of religion or other cornerstones of democracy. In his rhetoric, he
could hardly be more contemptuous of the Congress in Washington. Freedom
of the press also seems to annoy him. And before every event, he has
his announcer point out that he respects free speech "almost as much" as
the right to bear arms.
On some evenings, Trump even has potential audience members
questioned about their views. Before his appearance in Burlington,
Vermont, a security official dressed in black stood in the lobby and
asked every visitor: "Are you a supporter of Mr. Trump?" Those who said
no or were undecided were turned away, even if they had tickets to the
event. In a democracy, an election campaign is supposed to be an
opinion-forming process. But in Trump's case, people are either for him
or they are thrown out.
Trump uses the term "the lying press," now famous in Germany, in
many of his appearances. "The journalists are miserable people," he says
to his supporters, pointing to the corner where the cameras are. At his
events, journalists are herded together into a fenced area, under the
watchful eyes of zealous guards. The biggest paradox of this campaign is
that Trump, while sharply berating the media, is the one who benefits
the most from the coverage it provides him. The major TV networks devote
more airtime to him to Trump than to all his rivals combined. He is the
only Republican candidate who provides the networks with the ratings
they crave, and yet he is also the one who mocks them for that very
mechanism.
His last-minute refusal to participate in a televised debate hosted
by the right-wing Fox News network last week, because he felt unfairly
treated by Megyn Kelly, one of the moderators, is not only a first in
the history of American election campaigns. It is also the latest climax
in the game Trump is playing with the media.
What To Expect from a President Trump
What would America look like with a man like this at the helm? And
what could the world expect from a President Trump? He has yet to
present a comprehensive platform for his presidency. The constant
questions about content annoy Trump, and he would prefer it if people
would simply trust him. Trump often complains that it's always the
journalists who ask questions about his policies. He claims voters don't
care very much about that sort of thing. Where others have strategy
papers, Trump has his gut feeling. Nevertheless, something resembling an
agenda can be deduced from his interviews and speeches.
If we take him at his word, the United States will soon be
surrounded by a high wall. The country will only be able to engage in
limited trade, because the tariffs will be so high. Eleven million
immigrants will have left the United States in cloak-and-dagger
operations. The days of the United States as a country of immigrants
would be over, once and for all.
Those who have experienced this man's temperament know just how
thin-skinned and aggressive Trump can be when criticized or provoked,
and how mercilessly and excessively he pursues revenge. One shudders to
think what could happen if a man like that had his finger on the button
of the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. "An ally, let's say from
Europe, who didn't follow him into war would be considered a traitor by
Trump and would have to expect massive retribution," D'Antonio believes.
If there's a basic idea behind Trump's campaign, it's his own
leadership strength. "We will have so much winning if I get elected that
you may get bored with winning," Trump has pledged. "I have so much
energy, it's almost ridiculous." He seems to want to govern in the same
way that he became a billionaire -- despite a few bankruptcies along the
way.
Although he previously held liberal positions on some divisive
issues, like weapons possession and abortion, he is now presenting
himself as a firm opponent of abortion and a huge fan of guns. He's
raised other reasonable ideas in the past as well: He once called for a
government-financed healthcare system that would be accessible for
everyone. He also advocated for a tax on the super rich to reduce US
government debt. Indeed, his Republican opponents have been reminding
the public of these statements in the form of video clips aimed at
damaging the candidate. They include sentences like, "I probably
identify more as Democrat." For his part, though, Trump acts as if this
past never even existed. He presents his new, ultraconservative
positions in the most populist of ways and with even greater
determination.
An Odd Worldview
Trump the entrepreneur does business all around the world.
Ironically, however, as president he would limit any free trade not
conducted according to his own rules. In order to shrink the trade
deficit with China, he proposes imposing high punitive tariffs on
Chinese exports to the US. He promises to bring back all the American
jobs that have been lost to Asia or Mexico as a result of globalization.
Voters are expected to trust that Trump will be as effective a
diplomatic negotiator as he was a business negotiator. "I will be the
greatest jobs president that God has ever created," Trump boasted last
summer.
His foreign policy essentially boils down to a bizarre mix of
isolationism and a simultaneous show of superiority through a military
build-up. "I'm the most militaristic person there is," Trump says.
When it comes to international politics, Trump prefers to rely on
his own personal experiences and impulses than on textbooks. For
example, he doesn't consider North Korea to be an American problem, but
rather one which China must solve. He offers a similar approach for
addressing the war in Syria, where he feels the problems should be dealt
with locally and that there is no need for intervention.
Trump nevertheless says he wants to "bomb the hell out of" the
Islamic State (IS), or as his newly won endorsee Sarah Palin expressed
on stage just over a week ago, he would send American "warriors" to
"kick ISIS's ass." To accomplish that, Trump claims he wants to give US
generals free hand, saying they already know what needs to be done. What
Trump hasn't revealed, unfortunately, is how alliances are even
supposed to be forged with Muslim countries against the Islamic State by
a United States that places Muslims under a state of general suspicions
and refuses to allow them to travel into the country as he has proposed
doing.
Trump has announced he will take a hardline approach on terrorists,
but he also says he doesn't want to be interventionist. His gut feeling
is that Americans will reject interventions with uncertain outcomes.
During his campaign, he has often repeated the fact that he heavily
criticized the Iraq war in 2003. The way things look right now, the
world is going to have to brace for a US foreign policy based on gut
feelings.
Is There any Stopping Trump?
The question now is whether such a political course, and indeed a
President Donald J. Trump, can even still be prevented. And who could
stop him? The possibilities include the Republicans themselves, a party
Trump seems to work with based on his mood or whim. And then, of course,
there are the Democrats, whose probable candidate, Hillary Clinton,
Trump will likely have to square off against in the main election. But
neither side can be fully trusted to defeat Trump.
Never before has the grand, time-honored Republican Party been as
helpless and hapless as it is right now. The party's leadership had
sought an establishment candidate like Jeb Bush or the younger Marco
Rubio. But Trump?
"We are in total chaos," says Peter Wehner, a former speechwriter
for George W. Bush. He says the Republicans are already divided and that
a Trump candidacy could spell the end of the Grand Old Party. When
Wehner talks about Trump, it sounds as if he's referring to the head of
some dictatorship. "Trump is erratic. He is emotionally unstable, has
authoritarian tendencies and a certain cruelty. He is a toxic figure, a
demagogue. Trump would cause a lot of damage to the Republican Party. If
he won the nomination it would be a hostile takeover. We must prevent
it."
Some already view Trump as the founder of a new political movement
-- "Trumpism" -- that has little in common with the traditional
conservatism on the right.
The level of frustration among many Republican officials was on
display in mid-January during a speech given at an internal meeting of
party leaders in South Carolina by Holland Redfield, a member of the
Republican National Committee, who said the GOP was being "almost
terrorized" by Trump and that "there is a limit to loyalty."
The question being discussed the most right now within the party is
what the GOP's response should be if Trump wins the first primaries.
Should he be embraced in order to share in the success? Or should the
party take a more hostile approach in the hope that a more reliable
candidate may ultimately prevail?
Currently, the faction that views Trump as representing the
downfall of conservatism is dominating. Strategy papers are being
circulated within the party addressing how officials should counter
Trump's arguments. The National Review, a respected conservative
political magazine, even published a plea to prominent Republicans under
the headline, "Against Trump."
Is the Tide Turning in Trump's Favor?
Within the party base, however, there are a growing number of
voices reminding that America is the country of freedom and that
politics is an open competition. "If Trump is able to gather the most
votes for himself, then he should also be our candidate," says
Congressman Mick Mulvaney.
Mulvaney is a Rand Paul backer, but he
considers the will of the party base to be crucial.
Inside the party, there's growing sentiment that Trump might stand a
good chance even against Hillary Clinton. "In the same way that Reagan
brought renewal to the Republican Party and made it electable for
Democrats, I think there are many conservative Democrats who would
support Trump," says Jeffrey Lord, a former White House aide to Reagan.
The more influential Republicans are still keeping a low-profile
right now, but if you speak to men like Newt Gingrich, it sounds like
the Republicans will ultimately fall into line with Trump. During the
1990s, Gingrich led the Republicans in the House of Representatives and
launched the "Republican Revolution." In 2012, he also ran as a
Republican candidate in the primaries, though his campaign was
ultimately a flop. On his way to Iowa, Gingrich took some time to talk
to SPIEGEL while he was waiting for his flight.
Gingrich still has a clear recollection of Trump asking to meet
with him in January 2015. The two had breakfast together in Des Moines
on the sidelines of an event they were attending in the city. Trump
spoke for the first time about his idea to run. Gingrich believes people
underestimate Trump. He tells a story of the ice skating rink in New
York's Central Park in order to illustrate Trump's skills.
In 1980, the city had closed the skating rink for renovations. The
work was only supposed to take two years, but by 1986, it still wasn't
finished. That's when Trump showed up. He convinced Mayor Ed Koch to let
him take over the project, promising that the rink would be up and
running within three months. In return, he asked for the concession
rights. Exactly three months later, Trump unveiled the new ice skating
rink in a nationally televised ceremony. "Donald Trump is a very
talented man," says Gingrich.
But does he stand a chance against Hillary Clinton? "Of course,"
says Gingrich. "America is a huge country. Anything can happen."
Tackling Clinton
This is evident on a bitter cold January evening in Burlington,
Vermont. A line has formed in front of a local theater. Mary Loyer, 44,
and her son Tim, 28, are hoping to catch a glimpse of Trump. Tim works
as a waiter, Mary is unemployed. They're supporters of the left-wing
democrat Bernie Sanders, a long-time mayor of Burlington. But Mary says
something that one hears over and over again on the campaign trail: "If
it came down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I don't know who I'd
vote for. But it wouldn't be Clinton."
"Hillary is corrupt," Tim says. "She does what Big Money wants her
to do, and she's a flip-flopper." Sanders and Trump have more in common
than it seems, he adds: "Both of them are the only politicians who say
what they think and do what they say." His mom nods.
For a long time, the Clinton camp fantasized about taking on Trump.
The way they saw it, it would be Clinton, an experienced,
middle-of-the-road candidate, versus Trump, the radical leader of the
old, white guard. Many democratic strategists viewed such a matchup as a
unique opportunity. Vice President Joe Biden said if Trump won the
Republican nomination, Hillary Clinton would "win in a walk."
In the meantime, it has become apparent that Clinton can't even
rely on the unconditional support of her own people. For many, she
represents a political system that is symbiotically entwined with Big
Business. Trump, the big capitalist, however, bills himself as someone
who is not for sale. He doesn't accept big donations and doesn't owe
anyone anything. The fact that he, unlike Clinton, has never held a
political office is an advantage in this election campaign.
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg is one of the few in his
party who openly addresses how difficult it could be for Clinton to
handle a Trump candidacy. The founder of the progressive think tank "New
Democratic Network" believes that the widespread frustration about the
status quo within the American electorate and his ability to handle the
modern media better than anyone else in the race would make Trump a
strong opponent in the general election. "Trump would be a lot harder to
defeat than most of us think", he says. "There were more than a dozend
Republican candidates and he basically destroyed all of them. It is
unbelievable what he did."
But many democrats aren't panicking yet. They're betting on
Clinton's campaign coming around and gaining momentum once she secures
the nomination. At the same time, they are anxious that this could
become the dirtiest duel in the history of American presidential
campaigns.
If it does, Roger Stone will be the man to blame. The
unscrupulousness that has come to define Trump's campaign is largely
Stone's doing. He learned the tricks of the trade from Richard Nixon in
the 1970s, and later helped Ronald Reagan get into the White House. By
the end of the 1980s, Stone was already trying to convince his friend
Trump to run for president. Almost everything Trump knows about politics
and power, he learned from Stone -- including the art of manipulation.
Stone is considered a master of defamatory rumors.
Stone also helped Trump lay the foundations for his campaign last
spring. Then in summer, he was abruptly fired. Trump's people cited a
disagreement between the two, but observers now believe the split could
have been staged, a trick.
"I remain an unabashed Trump supporter and Trump enthusiast," Stone
said when reached on the phone last autumn. "I just finally made a
decision that I could have a greater impact on the outside. Trump is
still a very close friend." As before, the two talk regularly and Stone
obviously gives Trump important advice. And just like old times, Stone
spends nearly every evening on TV touting Trump and his "movement."
Since he is no longer an official member of Trump's campaign team,
Stone has the freedom to be even more ruthless in his derision of
Trump's opponents, without the risk of the mud-slinging coming back to
haunt the candidate. Trump biographer D'Antonio describes Stone as "pure
evil." He is a "deeply disgusting person," someone who doesn't
understand anything but "brute force."
Stone's favorite victim is Hillary Clinton. His recently published
book, "The Clintons' War on Women," is a nasty piece of work. But it
could also be seen as a blueprint for Trump's campaign against Hillary.
Without credible proof, Stone claims that Chelsea Clinton is not Bill's
biological daughter and that Bill has fathered at least one son with a
black prostitute. Stone calls the former president a serial rapist and
Hillary his henchwoman. He also suggests that Hillary has the death of a
man who knew about Bill's escapades on her conscience.
In television interviews, Stone claims Hillary is the "point person
in the terror campaign to intimidate and bully women into silence."
That she once waged a "nuts and sluts campaign to discredit Monica
Lewinsky to make it her fault that she was seduced by a man three times
her age." He has also stated that "Bill rapes women physically and
Hillary rapes them psychologically." He claims Hillary Clinton "has no
right to call herself an advocate for women and girls." Trump recently
released a campaign video with a similar message.
"The Clintons are money-making opportunists and criminals," Stone
says. Their foundation is nothing more than a "luxury travel service to
augment the lifestyles of Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton." People
with those kinds of friends and advisers don't leave much to the
imagination as to their character, he says.
A Threat to World Peace
If the most powerful office in the world wasn't at stake, all this
wouldn't be nearly as dangerous. Germany has been too busy dealing with
the supposed threat posed by refugees in recent months to appreciate
what's really been going on across the Atlantic. Despite their
differences, the US and Germany share an unshakeable faith in democracy
and freedom. But nothing would be more harmful to the idea of the West
and world peace than if Donald Trump were to be elected president.
Compared to that, the America of George W. Bush would seem like a land
of logic and reason in retrospect.
Bush, to his credit, never compared migrants to poisonous snakes --
something Trump did recently at a rally in Pensacola, Florida. Later
that night, Trump addressed what has been one of his favorite topics
lately: Europe's refugee crisis. "Just talk to the folks over in
Germany," he said. "Europe is being destroyed."
When he puts on his reading glasses, the audience goes quiet. "Just
listen to this," he says, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket. He
printed out the lyrics to "The Snake," an old soul hit from Al Wilson.
The song is about a snake, half frozen from the cold, that asks a woman
to be let inside. The woman takes pity on the animal and holds it to her
bosom, upon which the snake bites and poisons her.
Trump reads the lyrics aloud passionately, as if he were
auditioning for a role. "Oh, shut up silly woman," he says, imitating
the snake: "You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in." The
crowd cheers. They're over the moon. Trump just stares back at them.
"We're gonna get bit."
Showing posts with label trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trump. Show all posts
Friday
Study: Election Coverage Skewed By “Journalistic Bias”
The report, from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, underscores the role that the press can play in anointing — or sinking — a candidate, as well as keeping voters under-informed by focusing only on the horse race instead of the candidates or relevant issues.
It also highlights how the press helped to elevate Trump while contributing to the downfall of rival candidates, and paid relatively little attention to the Democratic nominating contest.
For the report, a content analysis firm, Media Tenor, examined statements from CBS, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NBC,The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
“Game-centered reporting has consequences,” the report said. “The media’s tendency to allocate coverage based on winning and losing affects voters’ decisions. The press’s attention to early winners, and its tendency to afford them more positive coverage than their competitors, is not designed to boost their chances, but that’s a predictable effect.”
Why the Bias?
The press doesn’t favor certain candidates because it’s engaged in a vast conspiracy, according to the report. It’s a lot simpler: reporters like a good story. It’s what their business is based on. And this year, Trump’s narrative seemed more novel than that of Clinton or Sanders.This isn’t the first time the press has fallen for a candidate. Barack Obama received “outsized coverage” when he first ran in 2008, as did Sen. John McCain in 2000, when he invited reporters aboard his campaign bus, the “Straight Talk Express.” Trump, the report said, is now on that list.
The press’s extensive focus on the horse race also leaves less time for substantive coverage, the report said. It found that mainstream media primary coverage was almost entirely about the competition or the campaign process.
By comparison, only 11 percent of the primary coverage focused on the candidates’ policy positions, leadership abilities or personal and professional histories. “Substantive concerns got the least amount of attention,” the report found — on both sides of the aisle.
Trump’s “Press Advantage”
Even before the primaries began, Trump dominated media coverage. For the bulk of the campaign, Trump has received more press attention than any other candidate from either major party, the report found.As he continued to win primaries, his story became about gaining momentum, a narrative that held fast. “Victory for Trump was also his path to positive coverage,” the report said. Sen. Marco Rubio, by contrast, was portrayed as consistently losing ground after he failed to win an early contest. Rubio never had, the report said, “a single week where his positive press outpaced his negative press.”
11%
Only 11 percent of coverage focused on candidates’ policy positions, leadership abilities or personal and professional histories.
-- Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
Ultimately, the report attributed Trump’s candidacy in part to the coverage. “He might have won the Republican nomination in any case, given the confluence of factors working in his favor,” it said. “But one of his assets, certainly, was his press advantage.”
Clinton and Sanders, Overshadowed by Republican Race
On the Democratic side, the candidates generally received coverage on par with their primary results: Clinton received 54 percent of the press attention, versus Sanders’ 46 percent, until the middle stage of the campaign — mid-March to early May — when Clinton pulled ahead.Sanders also received more positive media attention — the largest favorable margin of any candidate, 59 percent good press to 41 percent bad press — until the middle stage of the campaign, the report found.
At the same time, reports on Clinton were more critical because as the presumptive nominee, she was expected by the press to dominate the early contests. By the middle stage of the campaign, however, Clinton was eking out more favorable press, 51 percent positive to 49 percent negative.
But once she clinched the nomination, she received more criticism, with 49 percent positive statements to 51 percent negative, in part because Trump began to target her in speeches.
But no matter what the Democratic candidates did, the Republican contest continued to dominate the press coverage, even when Trump became the presumptive nominee. “Although Trump no longer had active opposition, he received more news coverage in the last month than did either Clinton or Sanders,” the report said, “a development that has no possible explanation other than journalistic bias.”
Thursday
Justice Ginsburg doesn’t let up on Trump, who fires back
Source: Washington Post
The unusual and apparently unprecedented battle of words between a justice of the Supreme Court and a presumptive presidential nominee continued Tuesday.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made clear that her criticism of Republican Donald Trump was not the result of an unguarded moment. She told a CNN analyst in an interview late Monday that Trump was a “faker” and said she was surprised the media has not pressed him more to release his tax returns.
Trump responded by telling a New York Times reporter that Ginsburg’s comments were “highly inappropriate” and she should leave her lifetime appointment sooner rather than later. Early Wednesday, a more pointed message was posted to his Twitter account: “Her mind is shot — resign!”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. earlier this year said the politics of Senate confirmation hearings give the public the mistaken view that justices are partisan. “We don’t work as Democrats or Republicans,” he said.
“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” Ginsburg told the New York Times. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
She also told the Associated Press she assumed Democrat Hillary Clinton will win the November election. The 83-year-old Ginsburg was nominated to the court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
Asked what would happen if Trump won instead, she said, “I don’t want to think about that possibility, but if it should be, then everything is up for grabs.”
Her comments were met with a wave of alarm by many judicial ethics experts, who called them surprising if not potentially recusal-worthy should a legal issue involving Trump come before the court.
But Ginsburg doubled down when she met late Monday for a previously scheduled interview with CNN’s Joan Biskupic.
“He is a faker,” Ginsburg said of Trump. “He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment.”
She added: “He really has an ego. . . . How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that.”
Trump got on the line with the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman to respond.
“I think it’s highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign, frankly,” Trump said. “I think it’s a disgrace to the court, and I think she should apologize to the court. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”
Trump added: “It’s so beneath the court for her to be making statements like that. It only energizes my base even more. And I would hope that she would get off the court as soon as possible.”
Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said Ginsburg had no comment on Trump’s reaction to her comments.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said he found Ginsburg’s remarks “very peculiar.” Speaking on CNN Tuesday night, he said, “That strikes me as inherently biased and out of her realm.”
Nominations to the court, Ginsburg has indicated, are at the heart of her concern. There already is one vacancy, and Senate Republicans have refused to hold a hearing on Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to take the place of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February.
Ginsburg has noted that she and two others on the court will be 78 or older on Inauguration Day 2017.
Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?
Donald Trump keeps calling everyone, especially Hillery Clinton "a crook" ! However, he seems to be much more a crook than anyone he is calling these names. Just read this article published on Politico.com
In his signature book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump boasted that when he wanted to build a casino in Atlantic City, he persuaded the state attorney general to limit the investigation of his background to six months. Most potential owners were scrutinized for more than a year. Trump argued that he was “clean as a whistle”—young enough that he hadn’t had time to get into any sort of trouble. He got the sped-up background check, and eventually got the casino license.
But Trump was not clean as a whistle. Beginning three years earlier, he’d hired mobbed-up firms to erect Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan, including buying ostensibly overpriced concrete from a company controlled by mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. That story eventually came out in a federal investigation, which also concluded that in a construction industry saturated with mob influence, the Trump Plaza apartment building most likely benefited from connections to racketeering. Trump also failed to disclose that he was under investigation by a grand jury directed by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, who wanted to learn how Trump obtained an option to buy the Penn Central railroad yards on the West Side of Manhattan.
Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?
In his signature book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump boasted that when he wanted to build a casino in Atlantic City, he persuaded the state attorney general to limit the investigation of his background to six months. Most potential owners were scrutinized for more than a year. Trump argued that he was “clean as a whistle”—young enough that he hadn’t had time to get into any sort of trouble. He got the sped-up background check, and eventually got the casino license.
But Trump was not clean as a whistle. Beginning three years earlier, he’d hired mobbed-up firms to erect Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan, including buying ostensibly overpriced concrete from a company controlled by mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. That story eventually came out in a federal investigation, which also concluded that in a construction industry saturated with mob influence, the Trump Plaza apartment building most likely benefited from connections to racketeering. Trump also failed to disclose that he was under investigation by a grand jury directed by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, who wanted to learn how Trump obtained an option to buy the Penn Central railroad yards on the West Side of Manhattan.
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