We must understand Donald Trump

OTTAWA—Donald Trump is politically brilliant. He has a rare combination of strategic and tactical skills. He knows where he wants to go and how to get there. I do not write this because I like or agree with him—quite the contrary. He is the most evil and dangerous threat the world has seen for decades. He will soon control the might of the most powerful country on earth. Only by understanding Trump can we hope to eventually contain and surmount him. Trump was among the first to recognize the white American sense of grievance and figure out how to exploit it. More than 90 per cent of Americans who voted for Trump were white. They are unhappy. Their median average income is 2.4 per cent less than in 1999. Still and all, their deep sense of loss was more psychic than economic. To exploit the deep psychological anxieties of the whites, Trump realized, in true nationalist fashion, that their relative loss of influence had to be blamed on "others," that is, on black and brown Americans. To stoke the fear of "others" he added in anxiety of job losses from globalization and free trade deals (despite most job losses coming from automation and the transfer of factories by American owners). Racial fear and hate aroused white America to vote for Trump. Next, Trump needed a political target for the aroused white voters. It became the "Washington elites," particularly Barack Obama's Democrats and the Clintons who were responsible for free trade and globalization. His stroke of genius was to tie this in with the democratic malaise, that is, the growing world-wide anger against the on-going rip-off of the middle and working classes by politicians and owners. For the gullible, Trump pictured himself as an outside businessman who could understand and correct the rip-off by the "establishment." All Trump needed now was an army of foot soldiers to support his rallies and get out the vote. The crumbling Republican Party was the ideal target. It had already imploded and was ripe for take-over. Trump wanted to add its ideologically blinded individual members to his white-American recruits, all of whom are dedicated to him and not to the defunct Republican Party. The icing on Trump's political cake was that he has built a political movement entirely devoted to him. He is beholden to no-one. The only person he needs to listen to is himself as he always has in running his businesses where there is no need to compromise. But, what sort of a person is he and what does he want to do? Luckily, like all megalomaniacs, (think Hitler) he has told us all we need to know. As the campaign showed, he is not addicted to the truth. Some even say he is a liar. Trump believes he can aggress and abuse women. He thinks it is smart not to pay taxes. So what if there are few public services. He is cruel and vindictive. He takes revenge against anyone who crosses him. He threatens his opponents with jail and uses his millions to sue them into silence. His chief strategist supported a website for "the alt-right a group which believes in white supremacy, opposes immigration, feminism and multiculturalism, and delights in harassing Jews, Muslims and other vulnerable groups." Trump intends to have a registration system for all Muslims coming to the United States. He will deport what he calls illegal Mexican "criminals and rapists" and build a wall to keep them out. He will use "law and order" to protect against black violence. In foreign affairs, Trump will work with the Russian authoritarian Vladimir Putin. He is not very much impressed by NATO or the United Nations where he will oppose climate change controls. He is against trade treaties and wants to renegotiate NAFTA with Canada and Mexico. In other words, aside from single-handedly controlling most power in the United States, Trump wants to pull down all the cooperative international institutions that have been painstakingly built. The most dangerous thing is to underestimate him or to think kindly of him when he smiles upon us. He may be the quintessence of evil and without morals but, with his political smarts, he is shrewd like a fox and vicious like a wolf. We must have no illusions. The facts alone should be enough make us wary. It would be best if, learning from the experience with Hitler, our democratic leaders found reasons not to turn power over to him. But it is more likely that, as in the last World War, we will have to find a whole gamut of tough and thoughtful leaders to put him in his place by making the people once again believe in social unity, goodness and rejuvenated democratic institutions. For myself, I am writing this while I am still allowed to do so. John Trent is a senior fellow in the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa and a former secretary general of the International Political Science Association. jtrent@uottawa.ca The Hill Times