Sydney Kauffman, Rising East‘s resident American, warns against underestimating the prospective presidential candidate who would ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
At first I thought it was a bad joke – how could this man, who has never in his life been involved in politics, run for president and actually have a shot at winning?
After nearly 20 years of threatening to stand as a presidential candidate, Donald Trump lived up to the rumours and announced in June that he would indeed be making a bid for the Republican nomination in 2016.
Known for the Stateside version of popular TV series The Apprentice, along with owning a string of hotels and the Miss Universe Competition, Donald Trump has definitely provided the entertainment for the 2016 campaign trail.
Since his campaign announcement, he has gone on to offend nearly every minority in the United States. His news headlines read like a badly written sitcom, where no one likes main character Trump The Chump and the series isn’t actually funny – it’s terrifying.
From kicking a prominent Latino journalist out of a press conference to making sexist comments during the Republican debate, which was live and nationally televised, there seemed to be no way to predict who Donald Trump would offend next – and this was before he went out of his way to take a shot at Muslims last week.
Trump has time and time again proven his absolute ignorance on social issues and their effect upon the citizens of the United States. For instance, when questioned about his attitude towards the Black Lives Matter movement by Bill O’Reilly, Trump declared, “I think they’re trouble. I think they’re looking for trouble. All lives matter.” Sir, you are completely missing the point of the protests! He also claimed to have watched an interview of the ‘leader’ of Black Lives Matter which, once again, makes no sense. There is no leader of the protests, only communities of citizens drawing attention to the rapidly growing number of men, women, and children who are killed each year by a police force which is meant to ‘protect and serve’ them.
But not to worry, according to the man himself, he’s “always had a good relationship with the blacks.”
Trump’s ignorance comes into focus again with regard to immigration. He managed to offend the entire Latino population of America in one fell swoop. When making his campaign announcement (start as you mean to go on, right, Donald?), he insisted that Mexican immigrants were bringing drugs, crime, and rape into America. And what is his plan to stop illegal immigration? Building a “great, great wall” along the Mexican-American border – a great wall which he intends to make Mexico pay for.
Good luck with offending an entire country and then trying to convince its people to pay hand over first just so America stays whitewashed.
Trump’s relationship with women is no improvement. A simple Google search will lead to a shocking number of articles and excerpts, from the late 1980s onwards, detailing instances of him degrading women in an almost clueless manner. It’s like he doesn’t even realize what he says is offensive and that women don’t just happily agree with whatever he says.
When they don’t, as was the case in Massachusetts at a “No Labels” convention, Trump exclaimed, “I knew I shouldn’t have picked her!” He had called upon a young woman from the 2000-strong audience and it turned out she thought Trump “wasn’t a friend to women.” Quelle surprise! In response, he spoke of how he “absolutely cherished” women, most of whom definitely don’t want to be cherished by a 69 year old man they don’t know (shiver, shiver).
However, Trump quickly switched gears by directing his speech back to “fighting the enemies.” Because, of course, he thinks they’re traveling as Syrian refugees. He blatantly ignores the women and children in these groups, though. “I’ve been watching this migration and I’ve seen the people. They’re mostly men and strong men. These are physically young, strong men. They look like prime time soldiers…”
Trump has expressed surprise that some countries in Europe continue to accept refugees whilst others like Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia do not. Well, he did at least concede that the migrant crisis is a serious issue, but still went on to say that he hates the idea of Syrians coming to the United States.
Donald Trump may have become the butt of many jokes; but please don’t be lulled into thinking he doesn’t matter.
I can hear you Londoners dismissing him, but really you cannot afford to make light of this situation, as I explain below.
“So what if Trump becomes President, it doesn’t affect me! I’m on the other side of the world, in Britain!”
Yeah, you say that now but wait until he starts another war with his awful, uncompromising foreign policy – then it will almost definitely affect you.
“But isn’t Trump right? Don’t all lives matter?”
Yes, all lives do matter. But in this instance it is people of colour who are being attacked and it is the same people who are leading the march for change.
“But who would actually vote for him?”
Isn’t that the question of the hour? Trump has begun to corner the white, conservative, male vote in the States because “he isn’t afraid of the truth” according to many voters from this demographic.
The future is unclear, especially for my fellow Americans, but one thing is almost certain: should Donald Trump become President of the United States, we are all in for a very rough time.
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