Trump: Not All That Bad

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are not that of AISG or The Beacon, nor are they necessarily those of the writer, who is merely presenting the other side of the coin with regards to Donald Trump so as to present a contrast with a similar article criticizing Trump.

Now notorious in American news, Donald Trump, a 69-year-old multibillionaire and a household name in America who announced his campaign to run for president earlier this year, has been harshly criticized by members of the left and the youth for evoking controversy with his comments pertaining to the immigration crisis in the United States. There however remains some merit with regards to Trump’s comments regarding the need for illegal immigration to be controlled, for birth-right citizenship to be abolished, and for America to take a harsher stance with regards to the Islamic State or IS, amongst other aspects of his platform. Trump speaks for a disenfranchised minority of conservatives and reactionaries who have become increasingly dissatisfied with the political correctness that plagues contemporary American politics.

Trump: The Anti-Establishment Spearhead  In a poll published by Gallup in late September 2014 with over 1,000 adults surveyed, 58% of Americans believe that the Republican and Democratic parties did not adequately represent the people of the United States and that a third party was needed. Although not running independently (yet), Donald Trump, amongst other candidates such as former IBM business executive Carly Fiorina and world-renowned surgeon Ben Carson, appeals to Americans who have lost trust in career politicians such as Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. Trump’s run can be compared to that of eccentric businessman Ross Perot, who ran as an independent in 1992 and attracted a lot of attention along with a significant portion of the vote.

With the Republican Party being described as a “bloodbath” by Brian Beutler (who writes for the online magazine New Republic), Trump claims that his views contrast starkly with what would be accepted as those of the Republican party elite such as Jeb Bush. This has resulted in infighting within the Republican Party, with candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio decrying Trump’s provocative statement about illegal immigrants and others, like political commentator Ann Coulter and candidates Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, coming out in praise of Trump’s willingness to break the barrier of political correctness. A former Democrat, Trump switched his allegiance to the Republican party when the 2012 presidential elections arrived, with his justification being that his beliefs pertaining to oft-debated issues such as welfare and abortion had changed. The primary difference between Trump and the average Republican politician would be that Trump is far more direct and politically incorrect in his speech. Most Republicans would acknowledge that illegal immigration is an issue that needs to be dealt with some time in the future, but what appeals to Americans is that Trump has outlined a clear plan to build a wall—and a literal wall at that—on the U.S.-Mexico border. He summarizes his approach with the catchphrase, “a nation without borders is not a nation,” among other potentially inflammatory statements. In fact, Trump conjured so much controversy that even the chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, had to request that Trump “tone down” his comments. Trump also advocated for “boots on the ground” in dealing with the Islamic State and is opposed to Common Core or standardized education across the United States, unlike candidates like Bush. As a result of Trump’s more conservative stance on social issues as contrasted to the Republican Party, whose supporters believe it has shifted too far to the left, Trump, as of 22 August, polls in at 43% of Republican voters as being their primary choice for the Republican candidacy.

He has a point: Immigration IS a problem  Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman from San Francisco, was shot on 1 July 2015 by an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been previously deported five times. San Francisco, as a “sanctuary city”, is unable to deport illegal immigrants unless they have been proven to have committed crimes— and even then the police usually overlooks minor crimes like theft, thus not deporting these immigrants. Trump has made dealing with the immigration crisis a key aspect of his campaign, and included the following statement in his speech where he announced his candidacy for the position of the President of the United States:

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems…. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Donald Trump (16 June 2015)

This statement is among the “highlights” of Trump’s campaign and polarized the public: some, especially Latinos who live away from the border, along with liberals and minorities, reacted with outrage, whereas Latino citizens who lived on the border and more conservative right-wingers responded with applause. Latino citizens hailing from the fringes of the Southern U.S.A. have actually responded positively to Trump’s statements because they have witnessed first-hand crimes committed by the cartels amongst other illegal immigrants—hence when Trump visited the Texan border he was met with a standing ovation from them. Trump’s statements on immigrant crime are not without merit: statistics which claim that American citizens commit more crime than immigrants take legal immigrant crime into account, thus presenting an unfair comparison with regards to the statement that illegals commit less crime than Americans, percentage-wise. Relatives of victims of illegal immigrant crime have flocked to Trump as their bastion of hope to seek justice for their kin, appearing with Trump on 10 July in Los Angeles as part of his campaign to demand a solution to the illegal immigration problem. According to American Immigration and Customs Enforcement over 79,000 illegals were deported because of criminal activity in 2014, compared to 7,000 in 2009— and The Atlantic states that in 2014, approximately 104,000 illegals who should have been deported have not been deported, among other statistics further showing that illegal crime is a major problem that America has to fix. As a result of political correctness several politicians have taken to calling these illegals “undocumented Americans”— something which Trump simply refuses to do. The large amount of crime committed by illegal immigrants is a fact that Americans have to face and although Trump may not have the best way of addressing it, his ways and statements have granted him a plethora of supporters uncommon for a non-career politician.

Is everyone entitled to American citizenship?  Birth-right citizenship is another concern that Trump takes issue with. American citizenship to him is a privilege, and thus he believes the concept of anyone who is born in the U.S. being entitled to receiving American citizenship to be ludicrous. His statement however is not xenophobic in any sense, but rather one made out of common sense: people from other countries often travel to America just to give birth and grant their child American citizenship—“undeserved” to Trump because the child was not born to Americans—and Trump, like any sensible politician, rightfully believes that giving away American passports freely along with the privileges that these entail is inherently wrong. Trump’s more bellicose stance with regards to the Islamic State is one that has also earned him much support from dissatisfied Americans who are frustrated at the way Barack Obama, the incumbent president, has handled the situation. Several Americans have been beheaded and the Islamic State continues to commit demonic and inhuman atrocities in the Middle East, pushing some Americans to believe that anyone with a conscience would have already intervened, and that some sort of direct military action is required immediately.

Not a clown  Regardless of how you may view him, it is best to take Donald Trump more as a serious candidate and less as a clown. The Republican nomination is more or less in his hands as polls surge in his favour, and Trump does hold a trump card over the party, whose chances at a victory could be crushed if he runs as an independent. A clown could not possibly have convinced 43% of registered Republicans to support him—and his support still surges. Seeking to break the barrier of censors imposed by political correctness, it does not come as a surprise to many that Trump has such a large base of support coming from those who are frustrated with the incumbent government.