It was expected that large numbers of President Donald Trump’s supporters would descend upon the conservative city of Tulsa, the second largest metropolis in the Republican stronghold of Oklahoma, for his comeback campaign rally on Saturday, 20 June 2020. However, only 6,200 supporters actually attended his rally on the day, leaving the upper decks of the 19,000-seat indoor venue at the BOK Center largely unfilled. The low numbers of attendees meant that an outdoor event, scheduled to be staged before the main MAGA (Make America Great Again) rally, had to be cancelled. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the threat of confrontations between Trump’s followers and anti-racist protesters, and a reported sabotage of the ticket allocation process led to large gaps in the audience. Trump’s first rally since 2 March 2020 thus failed to be the triumphant comeback that the president, desperately seeking re-election on 2 November, had eagerly anticipated.
Trump’s speech was enthusiastically welcomed by his loyal supporters, for whom his rallies often seem more like religious experiences rather than mere political events. His crowd of assembled “warriors”, whom he described as “the elite”, were reassured about his intentions. The “law and order” president framed American politics in terms of a bitter and ongoing conflict between a strong and silent majority and an assortment of “bad people”, including “radical left Democrats” and “the unhinged left-wing mob”.
The president recounted the ways in which he is making America “great again”. These include large tax and welfare cuts, energy independence, new “fair” trade deals, investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, building up the military, controlling immigration, killing terrorists, and, above all, restoring America’s economy through job creation and a booming stock market. He spoke out for traditional conservative values: less government and bureaucracy, cuts in regulations, freedom of speech and thought, religious liberty, private health insurance, strong law enforcement, the right to keep and bear arms, and an opposition to late-term abortion.
Trump claimed he had saved thousands of lives during the coronavirus pandemic, having boldly restricted travel from China in late January. He was even a bit embarrassed by the success of his “phenomenal job”, and requested that coronavirus testing, a “double-edged sword”, be slowed down. More testing only meant more cases were being detected, and not that America was failing in its attempts at pandemic control. Trump even referred to the “many names” for Covid-19, including “Kung Flu” and the “Chinese virus”, and called it “the plague from China”. On the other matter of anti-racism protests, he repeatedly criticised Black Lives Matter protesters as anarchists, thugs, rioters and looters, and deeply regretted the damage to America’s heritage caused by the forced removal of Confederate memorials. At the same time, he also said that he had considerably improved job prospects and working conditions for many black families.
As is customary with Trump, he attacked the opposition with great vigour. “Sleepy Joe” Biden was portrayed as a man with declining intellectual faculties and as a “Trojan horse for socialism”. Democratic-run cities were described as out-of-control enclaves requiring a major clean up, if need be with National Guard assistance. He restated his dislike of two woman Democratic US Representatives in particular. The purveyors of “fake news”, such as CNN, were soundly criticised. Trump also had some gripes with China, which he has mentioned on many occasions recently.
In order to maintain his all-important public image, Trump devoted around fifteen minutes of his talk to shedding light on his recent performance during the commencement address at the US Military Academy in West Point. He blamed having to stand in direct line of a “pouring down” sun for several hours, saluting cadets almost six hundred times, and wearing leather-soled shoes for any apparent difficulties with drinking from a glass of water and then awkwardly walking down a ramp, which he likened to an “ice-skating rink”.
None of what Trump said was unexpected. You just cannot accuse him of inconsistency. Apart from a certain volatility of emotion and sentiment, his actions and utterances are almost entirely predictable. To recognise this, you have only to look deeper into his background and to try to understand his line of thinking when it comes to politics.
Donald John Trump’s American heritage has relatively recent roots. The son of a first-generation Scottish immigrant mother (from the Isle of Lewis), and a second-generation German immigrant father (with family origins in Kallstadt in the Rhineland-Palatinate of western Germany), Trump was well-known long before his relatively late entry into politics. This meant that he could rely less on corporate funding and make better use of social media and his celebrity status to propel his presidential campaign in the face of much hostility.
As a real estate speculator and developer, Trump’s name came to be associated with many prestigious buildings (skyscrapers, hotels, convention centres, condominiums), initially on Manhattan Island. His apparently limitless ambition led him to expand into gambling (casinos), golfing, sporting events, modelling (Trump Model Management), beauty pageants, clothing, health supplements, Trump Airlines (1989-1992), a “Trump University”, magazines, vodka, steaks, and eventually a popular reality TV series, The Apprentice (2004-2015). Most recently, Trump has spread his roots internationally, generating a steady income by licensing his brand name to many developments all over the world. Over the years, Trump’s appetite for risk taking when it comes to business ventures has also seen his career progress through a series of bankruptcies, which presumably count as invaluable experience gained on the job.
Trump’s entry into politics was planned carefully. He cleverly found a gap in the market, identifying himself with a section of the electorate that was bearing the brunt of the economic downturn. America’s “forgotten” blue-collar white working classes thereby found a new spokesman, an “anti-establishment” politician seeking to create jobs and to improve living standards for a group of people largely ignored by traditional Democratic and Republican politicians.
Donald Trump then crafted a winning formula. Through his overarching support for American exceptionalism, he was able to present “America First” and “Make America Great Again” policies aimed at maintaining America’s previously unassailable position as a global economic, political and military superpower. Trumpism itself combines elements of nationalism (favouring the narrower interests of the American nation-state over global priorities), protectionism (protective tariffs and quotas that favour American agriculture and industry, reduce trade deficits, and correct trade imbalances), and isolationism (non-intervention in foreign conflicts and withdrawal from multi-lateral agreements and institutions).
Trump’s modus operandi also differs from that of traditional politicians. His combative style of operation was cultivated during years of aggressive deal-making in the world of business, which frequently led to litigation. According to former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, there are three big Trump rules: when you are right, you fight; never apologise; and controversy elevates the message. Trump is contemptuous of experts, academics, political lobbies, think tanks, the so-called “Deep State”, the Capitol Hill political machinery, intelligence agencies, and the military-industrial complex. He takes issue with the political and media “elites”, as well as Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Big Pharma, much of Wall Street, and “liberal” colleges and universities. All of this explains his mandate to “drain the “swamp” in Washington DC. Trump also favours filling the courts with conservative appointees to help take things forward. He hires and fires staff members much as he would do in the Trump Organisation. A distrust of much of the political world has led him to hire family members and close associates, guided by personal loyalties rather than by any expertise specific to the job being filled.
Finally, you have Trump’s persona. Like most of us, he craves praise and is very sensitive to criticism. When criticised, he lashes back in strongly-worded and frequently derogatory and libellous tweets. Trump has turned his back on the nation’s major media outlets, such as CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post, in favour of those who openly support his views, such as Breitbart News, the Fox News Channel, and the Online America News Network. Once you understand Trump, he ceases to be erratic and unpredictable. Irrespective of what you actually perceive, there is much consistency in what he says and does. The American electorate cannot claim to be unclear about what Donald Trump stands for. What happens on 2 November depends very much on how he can sell his message between now and the day of reckoning. Interesting times lie ahead.
Ashis Banerjee