Donald Trump, the American Silvio Berlusconi

The Republican candidate is a typical oligarch. This fact will influence his every decision, if he lives in the White House.

There is much concern in the political mainstream in Europe over the coming election in the United States. Donald Trump is comparable to the European anti-establishment right wing, which has been scaring political elites in Europe for a long time. Rightly so?

How To Create a Global Superpower?

Indeed, the jazzy billionaire behaves like a classic populist, who resembles such politicians as Marine Le Pen. Trump demonstrates the anger shared by many Americans who do not like immigration from Mexico and Islamic countries. On the one hand they consider it a homegrown danger (the root of criminality and terrorism); on the other as cheap labor, which is serious competition for them in the labor market.

As part of such populist gestures, consider Trump’s isolationist declarations about the future of American foreign policy. We can see, for instance, one of his speeches in which he said that should there be an attack by Russia on the Baltic countries (which are, by the way, members of NATO), U.S. soldiers should not die for these countries because many Americans do not even know the Baltic countries exist. Meanwhile, in the U.S., discontent is growing among ordinary people over the country’s military involvement in the Middle East (paid for with American citizens’ blood).

Trump’s ideas do not seem to be consistent with one another. An example of this is a recent statement in which Trump, a Republican, supported Barack Obama’s decision to bomb the Islamic State in Libya, and yet making this statement at the same time he is promoting isolationism. Speaking in general, Trump cannot keep himself from the swagger of remarks about making America great again. And there are those who might interpreted this as the pursuit of returning global superpower status to the United States. However, this cannot be achieved or sustained with isolationist policy.

There Won’t Be any Revolution

Many commentators beat the drum on this—that Trump is unpredictable; that his true political plans will be known when he occupies the White House. So we can guess that if the Republican candidate became the U.S. president, he would not bring about any revolution.

The base of Trump’s supporters contests American turbo-capitalism, which leads to impoverishment of the middle class and concentrating millions of dollars in the hands of the elite. It is worth mentioning here that Trump is associated with the American economic-political system. He is a billionaire, a typical oligarch, and these facts will influence his decisions as president.

And so it is with Trump’s ideas in foreign policy. His courtship of Vladimir Putin is nothing incredible. So far there has been more provocative rhetoric than real policy. It is worth noting that the U.S. has been avoiding any confrontation with Russia while Obama is in the White House. Washington needs Moscow to solve numerous global issues (for instance, the war with the Islamic State group). Even though the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia in response to the annexation of Crimea, this step did not make Russians return the peninsula to Ukraine. When I was looking for similarities between Trump and a European politician, Silvio Berlusconi came to my mind. This TV stations oligarch strode to great political power at the moment that great political parties were falling in Italy. Although he also uttered populist slogans, he did not trigger any revolution.

Radicalism for the Rabble

Such politicians as Berlusconi reflect the words of Frank Zappa, a famous American guitarist and singer. “Politics is the entertainment branch of industry,” Zappa said. Angry radicalism may transform Trump’s election campaign into an emotional spectacle for the rabble. Is that the only thing the billionaire wants and intends to do?