Trump tweets New Year’s greeting to his many enemies
Donald Trump sent New Year's greetings to his "many enemies" in a backhanded tweet on Saturday in which he gloated…
The past few days I watched over 60 episodes of Donald Trump’s hit reality TV show ‘Apprentice’, to get insights into the man who achieved the unthinkable: elected leader of the world’s most powerful democracy without ever having held public office.
‘Apprentice’ set in New York revealed why Trump arouses extremes of opinion: he came across as a brash, sometimes rude, egoistic, bragging billionaire in Mark Burnett’s NBC TV series launched in 2004, but he also showed he is caring, generous, a stickler for rules and fair play; he showed strong commitment to family values, loyalty, giving back to society, creative thinking and very hard work for quality. “You have to love doing your work,” he says often. “Never, ever give up.”
‘Apprentice’ candidates tried playing to his media-image, like the beautiful Miss Universe-turned-attorney who flirted with him in the Boardroom. She was stunned to immediately hear the dreaded words: “You are fired!” Fired too were those bending the rules or cheating in given tasks, as part of the “14-week job interview” to run one of Trump’s companies at annual salary of $250,000.
Others got a surprise of their lives, like the candidate whose grandmother died and he was torn between returning to his family or to continue participation. He chose to continue. Trump then arranged for his personal helicopter to fly him to attend the funeral and return.
Trump in ‘Apprentice’ is a fascinating character study: the street-smart Wharton School graduate, billionaire deal maker, teacher of secrets to achieving rare success, leader who seeks counsel but firmly makes his own decisions. It also showed why he makes enemies as easily as making friends: Trump does what he thinks is correct without worrying about being “politically correct”. A cynical mind can never understand him.
There come rare times in history of nations when destiny picks an unlikely agent of change, to render apparently radical but much needed remedies. Such might be Trump as the 45th president of USA.
A late night in October, I saw this comment after a Trump campaign rally: “Now I’ll crawl through broken glass to vote for Trump”. Right then I knew the US elections result – if not rigged. A unique movement of realistic optimism was spreading, inspired by sincerity of Trump’s promise to re-build his country in economic ruins.
Whatever Trump does or does not achieve as US President, he has achieved what no else has before: a first-time politician elected into the White House, winning with a largely self-financed campaign, winning against corporate interests, the Washington establishment, his own Republican Party, against a biased media, their misled victims.
A ‘country divided’ after elections is result of the media’s portrayal of Trump as ‘racist’ and ‘anti-immigrant’. His campaign speeches (see on YouTube) say he is against illegal immigrants-turned-violent criminals, not immigrants. His wife Melanie is an immigrant! From Slovenia, she became US citizen in 2006. Trump has said illegal immigration is unfair to legal immigrants who wait years for US citizenship.
This media disease of inaccurate reporting continues – like headlines about President-elect Trump’s decision to deport ‘two million immigrants’ or ‘two million undocumented immigrants’. His exact words in the CBS interview on Nov 13: “What we are going to do is to get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers – we have a lot of these people, probably two million…” I saw no headlines with the crucial word ‘criminal’ – indicating his intention to send back illegal immigrants with crime records, and expedite re-entry of deserving immigrants.
Trump won despite persistent media distortions. Truth won over dirty tricks. Record crowds at Trump’s election rallies cheered his down-to-earth messages. He vowed to tackle the $20 trillion US debt, record unemployment, stop terrorists infiltrating into his country, build new infrastructure instead of squandering trillions in illegal wars. He does not threaten global trade, as mainstream media misinforms, but lopsided trade agreements; is not against NATO, but his country paying 70 per cent of the costs.
I see Trump and his country starting to win the Second American war of Independence – freedom from a long-term deadly enemy within: vested interests controlling vast illegitimate power. The big first phase of winning the elections is done.
But as with India’s Freedom at Midnight, declaration of independence does not automatically mean ‘and they lived happily ever after’. The next four years will be critical for US and world history, on how much President Trump will be allowed to change the course of his country, particularly its propensity to wage illegal wars.
“This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We The People reclaim control over our government,” Trump said at Palm Beach, Florida, on October 13, in his promise to ‘Drain the Swamp’ of corrupt power brokers in Washington.
Those corrupt Washington ‘Swamp’ monsters want a leader they can control and manipulate – not Trump who has vowed to get rid of them. I think the real Donald Trump will sooner lose his life than betray the people’s trust he has earned.
If Trump serves the next four or eight years, his historic victory proved he has determined courage and ability to re-build his country, eliminate ISIS-like terrorist groups. A good volition, hard work for quality could mean a uniquely successful US president pleasantly surprising millions worldwide.
The writer is a senior, Mumbai-based journalist.
Advertisement
