Trump’s rise should be cause for concern

When the Republican Party primaries and caucuses kicked off early this year with one of the most extensive lists of candidates in recent history, most pundits gave Donald Trump an outside chance of clinching the GOP ticket.

So outrageous, wild and offensive was Mr Trump’s core campaign mantra that in the early days of the campaign, many believed it was a matter of time before he came unstuck. Most of his seasoned rivals pegged their hopes on this.

But even after making several seemingly career ending missteps on the campaign trail, Mr Trump beat the odds and secured his party’s nomination.

So, why has Mr Trump defied the odds and now stands a chance of becoming the 45th president of the United States of America?

There is no doubt that the issues that accelerated Mr Trump’s rise are complex, but there appears to be some substance in the argument that the rise of “Trumpism” in the US is a reflection of the rising anti-immigration and antiglobalisation sentiments in Europe now taking hold and occupying centre stage in the US presidential campaign.

We now understand post-Brexit how effective a combined anti-immigration and antiglobalisation fear mongering campaign strategy can be shutting down a well-reasoned, issue-based political discourse.

COLOURFUL CHARACTER

No one knows this better than Mr Trump, a flamboyant and colourful character obsessed with razzmatazz and self-importance. The real estate mogul is a master of fear mongering, well-known for his bigotry, often denigrating and stereotypically lampooning whole groups of people.

His open resentment of and repeated calls for a ban on immigration of Muslims to the US on the basis of being terrorists, the labelling of Mexicans as rapists and, of course, his misogyny are but a few examples of his many transgressions.

That has been the state Mr Trump’s campaign, which culminated in the just-concluded Republican National Convention.

The chance of Mr Trump occupying the White House and with it an opportunity to follow through promises he has and continues to make under the mantra of making America great again for me should be a cause for concern around the world given the power, reach and influence of the US globally. Of greater concern is Mr Trump’s dalliance with and willingness to use and project America’s hard power around the world, making a Trump presidency an unquestionably dangerous proposition.

If anything, what this guarantees is to make the world a more dangerous and an unsafe place because of the unnecessary military tension and conflicts such posturing would trigger.

His grasp of the fairly complex notions of global security, military alliances, global trade, diplomacy and globalisation is woefully inadequate at best and has been on display on several occasions.

Mr Trump also fails to acknowledge the place of immigration in the history of the US and that the two are inextricable. I submit that the ardent proponents of “Trumpism” are on the wrong side of the discourse. We live in a cosmopolitan world where individuals view themselves as global citizens, more conscious and aware of global issues as opposed to solely local issues, a connected world where the notions of justice and fairness carry great significance.

The calls for a just and fair world, in general, and tolerant communities, in particular, have never been louder. A world where the voice of the majority is heard but also that of the minority not drowned, where the weak, the marginalised and the minority are protected. In the fullness of time, history will serve Mr Trump and his ilk a brutal repudiation.

Gitaa Nyasani is a political and security analyst; [email protected].