Trump exit from White House: Loathed and loved

As Donald Trump finally bowed out of the Office of the President of the United States of America (POTUS) on January 20, he left behind a legacy of being perhaps the most loathed, but almost in equal measure, the most loved United States President. 

The massive record voter turn out in the 2020 elections reached fever pitch when 155 million citizens turned up for the decisive historical elections. A whooping 81 million is recorded as having cast their ballot against Donald Trump in favour of Joe Biden. While the US election is influenced by several factors like the economy, climate change policies, gun ownership rights, it is essentially an ideological battle. 

The proponents of a secular liberal post-Christian agenda touted by the mainly far left Democratic forces were pitting themselves against the conservative ideologues, who are mainly the far-right Republican Party members.

The secular liberal post-Christian ideological wing, which has cousins in Western European nations, was opposed to Trump mainly because he exuded all the characteristics of the conservative far right of promoting traditional family, parochial as opposed to global interests, the significance of the male White patriarchal system and the importance of traditional religion in the modern world.

According to David Segwick’s book, BBC Brainwashing of Britain: How And Why the BBC Controls Your Mind (2018)’, he exposes the negative role of the BBC like its counterpart CNN of America, in deliberately tarnishing the image of Trump. Sedwick, a former BBC employee, argues thus, “Since announcing his intentions to run for US president in 2015, the BBC’s anti-Trump narrative has become ever more bellicose, threatening at times to spin out of control.’”

This matter became clear when I intently watched CNN programmes prior to the US election. Despite the flaws in character of Donald Trump, I was astonished by the glossing over of any faults that Biden had and outright turning of a blind eye to his gaffes and flaws. The social media giants like Facebook’s censoring of Trump’s messages and those of his supporters was unprecedented. For the first time, I was able to fully appreciate how balanced and fair Ugandan newspaper and other media houses are in reporting political stories. There is no doubt that millions viewed Trump as a divisive, bigoted and mean President, but interestingly, a total of 74 million American citizens cast their vote for Donald Trump and in the process, he polled more votes than Obama and more than any US president other than Biden! While voter fraud and election malpractice complaints in the US have at different times been a post-election issue, in Trump’s case, it reached dizzying heights.

Despite courts of law dismissing all cases, many on technical grounds, the cries of foul play have not ceased, even culminating in the death of five people who had joined massive protests to block the US Congress’s ratification of electoral results.

Such support of a failed US president has never been witnessed. Many independent cyber security experts, top academics, statisticians, computer experts, judges and volunteer organisations like Project Veritas and Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) came up to back Trump with different submissions, accusing the Democrats of fraud. One US Senator Mo Brooks wrote a report, ‘2020 Election: Massive Fraud, Election theft to a degree never seen before in US history.’ What could have endeared all these different people to Trump, perhaps the most hated US president ever as the secular liberal dominated mainstream and social media world would opine.

Among other issues, Trump’s zelous pro-life stance and alliance with conservative Christians, including appointment of conservative Judges might have endeared him to a sizeable majority of Americans who dub him ‘the most religious president in US history ever’ a title that the New York Times has controversially placed on Joe Biden who openly supports abortion and LGBTIQ rights despite being a ‘devout’ Roman Catholic who never misses Sunday service. 

Rt Rev F Sheldon Mwesigwa is the Bishop Ankole Diocese and Chancellor Bishop Stuart University. [email protected]
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