Why Trump is East Africa’s man in American diaspora

US president Donald Trump was just another a real estate mogul and media personality in 2011. But he distinguished himself by something else: he became the most visible champion of ‘birtherism’, the racially tinged conspiracy theory which asserted that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya and could, therefore, not legally serve as US president. 

This lie was frenetically amplified and soon attained the status of an ideology among far-right Republicans. Obama in his memoir A Promised Land credits birtherism with launching Trump’s political career which culminated in the upset 2016 presidency.

“Trump proved best at tapping the vengeful and paranoid sentiments that were ready to erupt beneath the surface of American political life, riding them all the way to the White House,” one writer notes, chronicling the outgoing president’s dramatic success in leveraging the ‘birther’ propaganda.

Unlike any previous occupants of the White House, Trump desecrated all the vaunted norms. His ongoing litigious circus against validated election results has exposed dirty linen and brought America’s longstanding democracy close to the guardrails. 

Since East Africa ‘owns’ Obama by virtue of his father’s ancestry, it is tempting to have a soft spot for him. But quite unbiasedly, he has been consistently highly scored as a rank outsider- a Black man with a Muslim name - who had to be extraordinarily gifted to outstrip default racial and religious prejudices and ascend to the exclusive sanctum of the most powerful presidency in the world. His calm and congenial demeanour is magnetic. 

His gift of the garb and literary flourish, rank right there alongside those of America’s fabled founding fathers who authored the first constitution.

Obama has, however, received some flak for taking the Democratic Party down the road of excessive liberalism. 

It was on his watch that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry, with him quipping for good measure that “today we have made our union a little more perfect.” 

Despite his typically East African first name and ancestry, Obama the president was arguably more American than most of his White compatriots. Close scrutiny of his character reveals less and less of our likeness!

The contrasts between Trump and Obama have been a subject of much discussion. 

To his credit, Trump has also authored some best-sellers with the copious help of ghost-writers. His most famous book is Trump: The Art of the Deal with Tony Schwartz (who later lamented that by casting the future president in a positive light, he had ‘put lipstick on a pig’).

 Trump’s true appeal and success seem to have had most effect among the die-hard hordes who subscribe to the Make America Great Again brand, and who revel in his many racist dog-whistles which they correctly interpret as couched calls to revert to the ‘bliss’ of the America White supremacism.

This creates fertile ground for a new conspiracy theory. Could any native-born American so efficiently invert democratic customs as Trump has done in four short years?
  
Could Trump himself be secretly East African-born? Why does he consistently play by the same rules of the game which we are used to in this region? It was typical Trump, during his political campaign rally for Georgia Repulican Senate candidates who recently made the common African allegation that ballots had been stuffed in suitcases by Democrats in order to steal the election! 

Between him and Obama, Trump seems to be our true man in the American diaspora.