[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he results of the last presidential elections in the United States left many baffled. Unlike some well-connected friends, I fully expected Donald Trump to be sworn in as the 45th President, but I liked Hillary. Mrs. Clinton was a popular candidate with a recognizable international name and stature.
On the other hand, Trump has what most Americans would die for: money, which to Americans is what matters most. And it’s understandable! “In God we trust” is not an empty hankering after the divine. Its imprint on the almighty dollar bill is no accident. Americans understand the language of money better than most. We can doubt that at our peril. And it’s not just the currency of language, it’s in everything they think, say and do.
Then there were the vicious and cunning attacks by Trump on President Obama’s place of birth. He aroused every dormant racist and bigot in the USA. Trump must have known that neither Obama nor any foreigner could trick the American electoral process, and emerge as president of the United States. Yet he persisted in harassing Obama, knowing that his claim was false. Trump lied because some Americans are prepared to believe anything big money says, no matter how asinine.
To my mind, two other matters portended Trump’s victory. The first was when he boasted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and nothing would happen to him. The message to America and the world was that money could purchase freedom. The flaunting of wealth was the centrepiece of Trump’s election campaign. Yet he has refused to disclose his personal taxes.
The second was the way he was openly disrespectful to Hillary Clinton and the moderators during the presidential debates. His harsh, ungentlemanly conduct said more than words could explain. He doubled down with threatening body language, hovering closer and closer over Hillary, his far smaller female opponent. When I asked my US friends why Hillary wasn’t more aggressive, the feeble reply was that she was too well-bred, too classy for such vile responses a la mode Trump. I suggested that one ought not to dress in white to engage a boar in a muddy battle; their faces remained expressionless as of sheep sensing danger.
There were other points to ponder in the march of Donald Trump to the White House. Take the so-called Christian evangelicals, who crowded the Trump bandwagon, knowing they were following an unrepentant sinner who had no use for religion or for God. It could not have been Trump’s hypocritical stance on birth control and abortion that attracted these evangelicals. Trump believes money allowed him full access to any woman’s body. How does such an attitude translate to respect for an unborn child? How does it jive with a woman’s right to protect her body from lecherous men?
Those who understand politics must have known the dastardly political game that Republican Senators played with Hillary. They abused their positions to harangue her about missing e-mails (and Benghazi?) followed by sinister declarations by the head of the FBI. Did the FBI help swing certain States against Hillary? Observers are convinced that the FBI played a dirty hand in helping Trump win the presidency. Now we see that the FBI pales before the revelations that Russia helped elect Donald Trump as US president. The depth of the Russian involvement was a surprise which is still unravelling. What did not surprise me were Trump’s persistent lies. The man lies when he does not need to. It’s a pathological disease he can’t control or correct. He promised to reveal his taxes after they were audited. Its two years and counting, and still, no tax returns.
Trump may not be academically brilliant but he’s no fool. He is a street-smart fighter and a con artist who has learned from the best mafia-type lawyers and his business friends in New York City. Since assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has demonstrated at least two qualities which do no credit to the office of the president. Firstly, his limited grip on the use of English and on the thought processes that give rise to sensibly spoken words. He falls far short of the speech pattern expected of one who occupies the oval office. He seemed to also have missed out on American history. He is a disaster when he ad libs.
He is always in campaign mode, as if deliberately avoiding his presidential office. He behaves as if the election campaign is still ongoing and he has not yet been elected president. Trump seems determined to keep himself among the less educated grass roots. The more these types are agitated, the easier to explain their suffering as the work of someone else. Who will explain to his base that their economic hardships are the direct results of his huge tax cuts to the rich, his destruction of Obama’s healthcare plan, the looming trade war with China and Europe and his wrongheaded policies?
There is little doubt that Trump is all about Trump. Many Americans and non-Americans alike believe that Russia interfered in the last US elections to help Trump win. How far will the Mueller investigation be allowed to continue? What will Mueller do if President Trump refuses to obey a subpoena to appear before him? What will a judge in a high court do if President Trump refuses to appear before him to answer charges arising from Mueller’s investigation?
How will congress act if Trump is found guilty of wrongdoing and refuses to vacate office? These are questions that Saint Lucia and the global community ought to be interested in and learn from. Finally, what did you, dear reader, expect from a man who only knows how to distort the truth and spew outright lies?
