There was a bit of method, and a lot of madness in Trump and Trumpism

Many Trump administration policies were racist. For instance, the ban on issuing visas to people from Muslim-majority countries, the stereotyping of Mexicans as rapists, or calls for migrants, including at least one congresswoman, to return to their “shithole” countries.

The initial reaction from many was to hold their noses and wait for the stench to pass. Others responded by counter-mobilising against Trump, resulting in his electoral defeat last week. Yet, despite what many reasonable people saw as Mr Trump’s unreasonable views and behaviour towards aliens, women, and pretty much anyone who disagreed with him, almost one in two American voters voted for him.

 It was enough to eject Trump but not enough to reject Trumpism. With the stench refusing to clear, we must now stoically look through the stool sample to understand how this shit happened.

 Most of the racism in America is congenital. The country was built by and on the violence of slavery and expropriation. Many of its founding fathers saw no contradiction in proclaiming the self-evident truths of all men being equal and having inalienable rights to freedom, liberty and happiness while, at the same time, owning slaves.

 America is a country built for rich white men. It took more than a century from the declaration of independence for non-white men to earn the right to vote, and another half-century more for women. Unsurprisingly, American political history is dominated by fights for equality and equity.

 Social-economic changes, including immigration and the collapse of manufacturing in what has come to be known as the Rusty Belt in middle-America have created a demographic of white, low-to-moderately educated men, whom Trump recruited through fear-mongering, ethnic baiting and xenophobia. America’s electoral college system amplifies their voice and power.

 Things would be better for them if foreigners weren’t coming in to steal their jobs, or if China wasn’t stealing intellectual property and gaming the rules of fair competition, Trump said. Some of it was true, a lot of it was bunkum. Migrants usually take jobs that locals don’t want to do, and their lower wages allow businesses to cut costs and keep prices low.

 To remain competitive, a country has to invest in technology, infrastructure, innovation and training to reskill its workers, go higher up the production value chain, and find cheaper and better ways to make stuff that people are willing to pay a lot of money for.

But this takes time and money. While some of its firms nick intellectual property, China is also investing heavily and now outspends America on research and development as a percentage of GDP.

 Trump recognised that the rise of China threatens American hegemony, that the U.S. is stuck in many unwinnable wars, and that previous White House occupants could have been more aggressive in articulating and promoting America’s interest globally.

 But his method was full of madness. Protectionism and trade wars are expensive, lose-lose ventures that do not make domestic producers more competitive. By one account each steel industry job created by Trump in America cost about $900,000.

 The attack on multilateralism was misguided. Tactically it makes sense to ask allies to do more, whether it is defence spending among NATO allies, or humanitarian contributions to UN agencies. Turning America’s back on these institutions costs it the strategic opportunity to shape the global narrative.

 While it is possible that some of the manoeuvres, such as pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, were negotiating gambits, they left America looking unreliable and its allies in search of new friends and guarantors. Hello China. 

Yet none of these and other approaches were as confounding or self-destructive as Trump’s divisiveness. If the strategic objective was to rouse the country’s spirit of innovation, invention, enterprise and competitiveness – to, in his words, make America great again – doing so by turning one against the other, by sowing the seeds of terror and harvesting the bitter grapes of wrath, was exactly how not to do it.

A nation divided against itself, as Trump increasingly made America, cannot generate the internal consensus necessary for order, stability or prosperity at home, or provide leadership abroad. Sadly, while Trump will soon be gone, the stench of Trumpism will linger in the air for a long time to come.

Societies thrive under the rule of law, openness that allows divergent opinions, and meritocracy that lets the best and the brightest people and ideas thrive. Trump correctly diagnosed the shifting geopolitical sands of time but the bitter medicine he prescribed was worse than the disease.

Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and poor man’s freedom fighter.

[email protected] @Kalinaki