Trump: The Farce Turns into a Nightmare
Published in Liberation
(France) on 10 December 2015
by Frédéric Autran (link to original)
(France) on 10 December 2015
by Frédéric Autran (link to original)
Translated from
by Sophie Thresher.
Edited by Danielle Tezcan.
At the beginning of the summer, Donald Trump was often described as "extravagant" and a "troublemaker," as if the billionaire added a little refreshing madness to the primary elections. This madness has revealed itself to be far deeper than anticipated.
In English, "Trump" means asset, which goes to show that not everyone is suited to their name. Slip after slip, insult after insult, "The Donald" confirms to those who doubted this fact that he does not freely embody the Republican Party’s "trump card" but rather its poison pill on extended release. Six months. It will soon be six long months of Donald Trump’s candidature for the conservative party presidential race in 2016, and five months that he has been number one in the opinion polls.
On June 16, when he announced that he was entering the race to "make America great again," he reserved his first gaffe for Mexican illegal immigrants, the "rapists" and "criminals." Since then, the list of the property magnate’s punching bags has become far longer: gays, women, Jews, black people and Muslims. At the beginning of the week, his proposition to close the American borders to Muslims, in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks flabbergasted the entire world, as well as the majority of Americans.
At the beginning of the summer, Donald Trump was often described as "extravagant" and a "troublemaker," as if the billionaire, with his ex-reality-TV star spunk, added a little refreshing madness to the primary elections. This madness has revealed itself to be far deeper than anticipated, and the vocabulary has changed: the adjectives "fascist," "dangerous" and "terrifying" fill newspaper columns from now on, in which they also fall into comparisons – Berlusconi, Hitler, Mussolini, Marine Le Pen. Thus, Donald Trump is no longer a figure of fun, but of fear. According to a New York Times-CBS News survey, 40 percent of American voters say they are "afraid" of a Trump presidency and 24 percent say that they are worried. In the Republican camp, however, his head start keeps growing. The same survey says that 35 percent of conservative supporters intend to vote for him, more than double the support for his closest rivals Ted Cruz (16 percent) and Ben Carson (13 percent).
More worryingly, the popularity of the exuberant billionaire has shaped and cast a shadow over the Republican race. Trump insults Latinos and promises to build a wall at the Mexican border? Straight away his opponents harden their attitude toward immigration. He picks on Muslims? Some, such as Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, suggest that only Syrian refugees that are Christians can be welcomed to the United States. "Do not make the mistake of treating him as a solitary phenomenon, a singular celebrity narcissist who has somehow, all alone, brought his party and its politics to the brink of fascism," wrote the New York Times in a scathing editorial. In calling for Muslims to be refused entry into the United States, which would violate the American Constitution, Donald Trump has certainly shocked his own side. Jeb Bush called him "unbalanced," and John Kasich "unfit." For all that, out of his 12 Republican opponents remaining in the arena, not one has called for Trump to be removed, or announced that they would reject his candidacy if the billionaire ended up winning the primaries. Obsessed by the desire to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Republican camp refuses to divide itself in discarding their Trump card, however toxic it may be.
In English, "Trump" means asset, which goes to show that not everyone is suited to their name. Slip after slip, insult after insult, "The Donald" confirms to those who doubted this fact that he does not freely embody the Republican Party’s "trump card" but rather its poison pill on extended release. Six months. It will soon be six long months of Donald Trump’s candidature for the conservative party presidential race in 2016, and five months that he has been number one in the opinion polls.
On June 16, when he announced that he was entering the race to "make America great again," he reserved his first gaffe for Mexican illegal immigrants, the "rapists" and "criminals." Since then, the list of the property magnate’s punching bags has become far longer: gays, women, Jews, black people and Muslims. At the beginning of the week, his proposition to close the American borders to Muslims, in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks flabbergasted the entire world, as well as the majority of Americans.
At the beginning of the summer, Donald Trump was often described as "extravagant" and a "troublemaker," as if the billionaire, with his ex-reality-TV star spunk, added a little refreshing madness to the primary elections. This madness has revealed itself to be far deeper than anticipated, and the vocabulary has changed: the adjectives "fascist," "dangerous" and "terrifying" fill newspaper columns from now on, in which they also fall into comparisons – Berlusconi, Hitler, Mussolini, Marine Le Pen. Thus, Donald Trump is no longer a figure of fun, but of fear. According to a New York Times-CBS News survey, 40 percent of American voters say they are "afraid" of a Trump presidency and 24 percent say that they are worried. In the Republican camp, however, his head start keeps growing. The same survey says that 35 percent of conservative supporters intend to vote for him, more than double the support for his closest rivals Ted Cruz (16 percent) and Ben Carson (13 percent).
More worryingly, the popularity of the exuberant billionaire has shaped and cast a shadow over the Republican race. Trump insults Latinos and promises to build a wall at the Mexican border? Straight away his opponents harden their attitude toward immigration. He picks on Muslims? Some, such as Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, suggest that only Syrian refugees that are Christians can be welcomed to the United States. "Do not make the mistake of treating him as a solitary phenomenon, a singular celebrity narcissist who has somehow, all alone, brought his party and its politics to the brink of fascism," wrote the New York Times in a scathing editorial. In calling for Muslims to be refused entry into the United States, which would violate the American Constitution, Donald Trump has certainly shocked his own side. Jeb Bush called him "unbalanced," and John Kasich "unfit." For all that, out of his 12 Republican opponents remaining in the arena, not one has called for Trump to be removed, or announced that they would reject his candidacy if the billionaire ended up winning the primaries. Obsessed by the desire to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Republican camp refuses to divide itself in discarding their Trump card, however toxic it may be.
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