The Political Apprentice | Trump’s America
One of the first things I published on his blog was a piece about the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, as a person involved in politics and someone who has watched on from the UK, I have found the events of the last four years. The Trump Presidency has been something which has fastened me, a reality TV show playing out on the news every day.
From the early days of the ‘First 100 Days’ Trump put into place the ban on people from mainly Muslim countries from travelling to America. This promise was made after the shooting by Islamic State (ISIS) in San Bernardino in December 2015.
I don’t agree with it, but thinking back to the early days of the administration in those ‘100 days’, I think the beginning of the president as he said at his inauguration, “From this day forward, a new vision will govern… it’s going to be only America first, America first.”
I thought when watching that, is he serious? I thought a stronger United States is when they show leadership on the big issues facing the country and the foreign policy. America first, I think has been damaging to the brand of the United States.
Its been a pattern throughout the Trump presidency of wanting to undo a lot of progress we saw under Obama both domestically and internationally. We see with the Iran Nuclear Deal, described by Trump as a “stupid deal”, torn up and new sanctions placed on Iran.
According to the Japan Times earlier in the year, North Korea was to unveil a “new strategic weapon” to counter the U.S. and then scaled back a record run of ballistic missile tests. This has been divisive as Biden, has signalled a more confrontational policy, vowing to emphasize human rights, to support U.S. alliances and to not “coddle dictators.”
In this election, we have not heard much about foreign policy, like everything we have seen over the last few years he has prioritised America’s interests I feel over that of world peace. I think this was because in all elections I don’t think the general think about foreign policy when it comes to voting.
America is I believe one of the world’s most important election, some often say its an election the election which defines global affairs for decades to come.
a morning tweet, as we saw during the election campaign, has become effective but I believe it’s not a good idea to set out policy in soundbites. The tweets are good for him in a way of setting the agenda on that day, but I feel this has exposed his weakness when it comes to policy and finding a way of getting things done.
Often when we think about politics we think about snappy slogans or sayings, Trump has mastered it with ‘crooked Hillary’, ‘wacko Pelosi’ or his rival ‘sleepy Joe,’ ‘Joe Hiden’.
This I think is clever and snappy which people will get stuck in their head, but I feel it’s also degrading to those rivals and of the office of president. In the first debate, you could see him try and provoke Biden, he was successful.
Trump’s base was the forgotten and these people who had felt they had left behind by globalisation. These rustbelt states like Michigan and cities like Detroit where industry is dying isn’t the result of China its businesses wanting to find ways of maximising profit. American I don’t think will take the lowering of wages to bring back jobs.
At the time of the 2016 election, it was unbelievable that someone like Trump could be elected but reflecting like most of the media and people who follow politics that the signs were there. But over the past few years, I have begun to understand why Americans voted for Trump.
America was already divided before that election, and reading and hearing what has happened on the ground with police brutally, his attempt to destroy Obama Care, protecting America, over the last four years I think America has become almost divided into pro or anti-Trump, like we saw with leave or remain during Brexit.
A lot of what the Trump administration appears have done is to undo the Obama legacy, saying, “President Obama, they say he was a great president — but you can’t be a president when much of what he’s done we’ve undone.”
I think the danger is getting into a pattern whenever we have a change of party in the White House, they reset back to the time their party last held the presidency.
We need to remember the election is a college system. The number of electors from each state is roughly in line with the size of its population. For example, if a candidate wins in a state, they get all the states college votes. California you win 55 college votes, to three in Alaska, DC, Delaware Montana, North and South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.
There are 538 electors in total, meaning you need 270 to be elected. It is possible to win the popular vote but lose the electoral college. This happened in 2016 when Hillary Clinton 48.2% (65,853,515) of the vote but Trump won 304 college votes.
Looking at the simple reason of why Trump launched the trade war with China is because of the loss of jobs, and the threat in economic and cyber espionage. I believe that the trade war has been oversimplified, effectively by Trump to appeal to his base.
The Rust Belt States, as we saw in 2016 and the equal in Northern England, Silesian Voivodeship in Poland all went to right-leaning parties at the last national elections. The challenge we haven’t seen is how these leaders fair when they seek re-election.
This election I think is about whether those swing voters stay with Trump, as I believe they hold the key, and those jobs in the rustbelt states have been likely lost because of Coronavirus.
One thing which has been a pattern is Trump doesn’t take responsibility, he blamed the WHO ‘for failing to protect the world from Coronavirus.’ The job of any government is to protect its citizens, and on that front, throughout the pandemic, he has looked to look after the economy.
From my research, the job of the WHO doesn’t mention pandemic prevention, it does, however, the role of the WHO is to ‘identifying, mitigating and managing risks,’ and ‘elimination and eradication of high-impact communicable diseases.’ in my view its job is support governments in planning for health emergencies and developing health systems.
At the time of writing about Covid-19, it was twenty-four hours after we got the news that Trump was taken to Walter Reed Hospital after testing positive. But as we have seen throughout not only the pandemic, his aim to shift the blame onto someone else.
A month before the election 52% of Americans said they disapproved of Trump and that according to FiveThirtyEights tracker has been the trend throughout his presidency. I think we need to be warry, but this election is about Trump and whether America still believes the Trump style of government.
If Trump loses, he hasn’t confirmed whether he will accept the result, he could lose the electoral college but win the popular vote, but I think that it’s now unlikely he will go quietly or take up a slide line Twitter critic. Trump has used Twitter, as an effective way of setting the news agenda on that day and get his message out.
Some will be questioning why a British writer in his twenties has written about Trump’s America, but the Trump presidency has been some time like a cross between Big Brother and The Apprentice, while it has been fascinating to watch I think it’s bad for democracy. But a somewhat fascinating reality TV programme on our screens, social media feeds and press daily.
Looking to when Trump was discharged from Walter Reed Hospital, it was timed to be at prime time as main news bulletins went on air. As any politician or businessperson, they like to control the narrative, and it’s been so easy for The White House to dismiss stories it doesn’t like as ‘fake news.’
You have to wonder if Trump what he and his party has done is to re-write the rulebook by making controversial statements to get in the headlines every day? Trump was one of the first celebrities to join Twitter in 2009, and since his presidency over 1,000 tweets per half a year have been sent.
Tuesday’s election could not be resolved for weeks, and if 2016 was an election like no other, how can you define 2020? An election in the middle of a pandemic, large postal votes already votes are expected to exceed sixty million.
Not since 1908 have more than 65% of eligible US voters actually exercised that right, this election could be at least that according to U.S. Elections Project.
At this election, it is whether the American people say, “your hired” or “your fired”, to Donald J Trump…