DONALD TRUMP plays the press “like a fiddle” by saying “outrageous things and garnering attention,” grumbled Jeb Bush recently. “That’s his strategy, to dominate the news.” Mr Bush, a former governor of Florida who is stuck near the back of the field of Republicans seeking the 2016 presidential nomination, has half a point.
Mr Trump, a property tycoon and born salesman, does have a genius for dominating the headlines. This Monday has been a sorry case in point. The day began with journalists atwitter about a Monmouth University poll which showed Mr Trump losing his first place in Iowa—the farm state which will on February 1st host the first party selection contest of the presidential season—to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
As a bully, braggart and narcissist, Mr Trump does not enjoy being overshadowed. Right on cue, in the late afternoon he lobbed a large rock into the race: a breathless and confusingly-worded statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”. The statement cited two opinion polls, one of them commissioned by a vocal anti-Islamic group, to advance the charge that “there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population”.
In interviews and at a raucous, angry and at times ugly rally in South Carolina on Monday night, Mr Trump offered a few more details about his proposal, telling Fox News that it “does not apply” to Muslims living in America, “except we have to be vigilant.” As some supporters chanted “send ‘em home” and security guards hauled away protestors, Mr Trump offered his signature blend of exaggerated gloom and unrealistic promises. He suggested that his entry ban, combined with monitoring of Muslims and mosques, were needed to stop further attacks along the lines of the attacks of September 11th, 2001. “We’re gonna have to figure it out, we can’t live like this. It’s going to get worse and worse,” Mr Trump declared.
Mr Trump’s latest provocation duly prompted wall-to-wall analysis on cable television, online and in print media. That frustrates establishment candidates such as Mr Bush almost to the point of hair-tearing despair. Yet Mr Bush is only half-right to allege that the press covers Mr Trump because he is outrageous. If the property tycoon were at the very back of the Republican field, he could snarl and growl and vent as much as he liked, and would barely generate a headline.
Many in the press—including Lexington—would much rather not give Mr Trump’s bigotry the oxygen of publicity (to quote Margaret Thatcher in another context). He is news because so many rank-and-file Republican voters love his message, putting him at the top of most opinion polls for many months, with a special lock on white voters without a college education.
Mr Trump’s long success says something troubling and revealing about the conservative movement, parts of which have become a fever swamp of xenophobia and a plague-on-them-all rage. More conventional Republicans gripe that Mr Trump is not a proper conservative at all, citing his past support for state-run healthcare, higher taxes on private-equity-fund bosses and other apostasies. But they cannot wish away the quarter to a third of self-declared Republican voters who cheer when they hear Mr Trump vow to deport 11m people who lack legal papers to stay in America, promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico (while accusing Mexico of sending rapists and criminals over as migrants) and suggest that Muslims should be registered on a government database.
Worse, Mr Trump’s success has unnerved many of his rivals in the presidential race. Against their better judgements, such mainstream conservatives as Mr Bush, or the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, have found themselves wading gingerly into the fever swamp where Mr Trump is so loved. Thus Mr Bush found himself, after the Paris terror attacks, half-endorsing calls to ban Muslim refugees from Syria (or at least give Christians priority), while Mr Christie claimed to believe that America could not safely accept five-year-old Syrian orphans.
The most cynical Republicans with White House ambitions, starting with Mr Cruz, splashed eagerly into the poisoned waters of the Trump-swamp. Indeed the Texan senator not only called for a ban on Muslim refugees from Syria and Iraq; he has flirted with Trump-esque hints that President Barack Obama is in some way a fifth-columnist who sympathises with radical Islamic terrorists.
Mr Trump openly fans conspiracy theories, chiding Mr Obama for declining to say that America is at war with radical Islam, and growling: “He refuses to say it. There’s something going on with him that we don’t know about.”
Mr Cruz tells supporters that Mr Obama is an “apologist” for radical Islam. After the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by a Muslim couple, Mr Cruz headed to Iowa and told conservative activists that the Attorney-General, Loretta Lynch, had threatened to prosecute “anyone that has the temerity to stand up and speak against radical Islamic terrorism”. That is not true. Ms Lynch in fact said that she would prosecute those who incited violence against Muslims. But in Iowa Mr Cruz earned cheers for daring Ms Lynch to arrest him for calling radical Islamic terrorism “evil” and for pledging that “in the United States we will not enforce Sharia law”.
There is reason to this nastiness. As noted by Vox, a news website, an annual global poll, the World Values Survey, recently asked Americans whether the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life. Three-quarters of Republicans agreed that Muslim values clash with the American way of life (56% of all Americans agreed, and 43% of Democrats).
So Mr Trump’s new outrage is a fresh test for his rivals, and not a small one. His proposal to close America’s borders to people from a single religion, if taken literally, would leave the country a global pariah and play into the propaganda of extremists from such groups as Islamic State. If his proposal were to include American citizens (the details are vague, the proposal being nonsense) it would trample the constitution.
Several of Mr Trump’s rivals took a couple of hours to condemn him. Some of those swiftest to attack are struggling at the back of the 2016 pack. Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, a hawk on foreign policy with a strong pragmatic streak who barely registers in presidential polling, denounced Mr Trump (correctly) for harming national security by fuelling the idea around the Muslim world that America is implacably hostile to the Islamic religion. Mr Graham accused his rival of “putting at risk the lives of interpreters, American supporters, diplomats, and the troops in the region by making these bigoted comments”. Mr Bush called Mr Trump “unhinged”.
A more successful contender, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, did take a stand after some hours. Mr Rubio, a stern conservative who nonetheless belongs to the wing of the party that wants to grow the Republican’s appeal to Hispanics and other fast-growing blocks, issued a statement saying: “I disagree with Donald Trump’s latest proposal. His habit of making offensive and outlandish statements will not bring Americans together.”
The wider Republican establishment weighed in, with the former vice-president, Dick Cheney, saying that Mr Trump’s Muslim ban was un-American and went “against everything we believe in”.
Mr Cruz played an altogether more slippery game, neither agreeing with Mr Trump nor condemning him. Instead he effectively suggested that he had a smarter, more targeted plan for keeping dangerous Muslims at bay.
The senator from Texas was asked by reporters whether he agreed with Mr Trump’s plan to close the borders to Muslims, and murmured: “That is not my policy.” Instead he pointed to his proposals to block refugee arrivals from countries, including Iraq and Syria, that are “substantially controlled by a foreign terrorist organisation”. Mr Cruz is to tout that proposed bill at a press conference on Tuesday with the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who is trying to prevent the federal government from sending Syrian refugees to his state.
Perhaps Mr Trump has finally gone too far, not just by proposing to close America to a whole religion, but with his snarling assertions on Monday night that many Muslims are lying about their loyalties, and preying on the naivety of a “stupid” America. Perhaps; though the press and establishment Republicans have predicted doom for Mr Trump before and been wrong each time.
After months of shadow-boxing between the candidates, actual Republican voters will have a say on February 1st at the Iowa caucus, followed by the New Hampshire primary on February 9th. For the sake of Republicans, and indeed America’s ability to forge alliances with the Muslim world, hope that early-state voters reject Mr Trump’s nativism. Sadly, even if they do rebuff the businessman, lasting damage has already been done.
END
Dear Tolulope,
Does 2 wrongs make a right? You dislike Trump, but have you condemned his hate speech? What is the difference between you and the muslim leader who has not come out like you are saying to condemn ISIS/terrorism ?
Where did you separate moderate from radicals? What is your understanding of moderates and radicals? Look, none of us is born muslim, christian, budhist, or whatever. We were all born human first and foremost, before we sort ourselves into races, tribes and religions.
The era of Hitler is gone but the same trend of hatred persisted. The world did not leave Hitler alone to deal with the Jews and her neighbours. The world came together and formed an Allied Force against Hitler. That is how they conquered him, and today Germany is now a dependable ally, even if she is not in the UN.
Besides, modern terrorism is an offspring of that 2nd world war. Research more about the 1948 creation Isreal state, and the Arab- Isreal war, and later the Gulf war, before this last invasion of Iraq. Terrorism is a brainchild of politicians. The agenda of terrorists and terrorism remain political, but because Islam is generally accepted by these people that feels transgressed, it is a wrong perceived the war is against and for Islam.
Do you know the KKK in US? Nobody called out christian leaders to condemn KKK. The US community as a whole rejected the ideas of KKK. What about the Lord Resistance Army, in Uganda led by Joseph Kony? So we must pound all Christians in Uganda with, the idea of he is one of you?
You are doing exactly what the terrorist want by dividing the community. You need to establish the fact that it is we against terrorism. Not we against Islam and some muslims, and the other muslims are not helping us. My dear we are in the same boat. The world must rid itself of hate.
Dear Tolulope,
I always thank God I am a Lagosian. My family is a typical indigenous Lagosian family, we have 2 Pastors, 1 Imam, a Baale who is the custodian of tradition and several freethinkers. For us it is always family first, then your religion can follow.
The crux is a question I have for you and a number of readers, most especially non-muslims. What is the difference between the following: A muslim, an Arab, and a terrorist?
Trump is just ‘trumping’some of the biggest allies and investors in the US today are muslims, arabs but not terrorist. Will Trump’s America sell and buy from a country like Saudi Arabia? Capital letter yes underscored.
The right reaction is what is being done in the UK with the #youaintnomuslimbruv. Ask yourself if you believe in Christ what Jesus would have done if he leads US. Do you think Jesus will agree with Trump?
Forget religion, do you sincerely think a sane man will support terrorism by blowing him or herself up? Do you in your hearts of hearts believe those guys are muslims because they are tagged Islamist or the say they are muslims? Is Islam a new religion?
If Islam is synonymous to terror then Hitler must be a muslim, all slave owners and traders in the US before the abolishment of slave trade must all be muslims.
It is not about religion, or race it is about the thief in all of us as human, period. We have totally lost the human in us, and we can never, I repeat never salvage humanity with any religion but the religion of love! CHIKENNA!
Oga, the Era of Hitler is gone,the world prevailed over it just as the world will get over Islamic fundamentalism. I guess you must have missed the point where I separated radical Muslim from the moderate ones hence the need for the moderate Muslims to strongly speak up against this scourge.
You claim they are not Muslims, may I ask what are they? Hindu,Buddhist or Sango worshipers? Please let’s call a spade a spade. Islam as a religion needs to open up, their leaders have to come out and speak against radicalism or else the world will begin to see it as a violent religion. It will not be easy, because some of them will be killed.
Donald Trump’s ideas may seem weird for now, but if the senseless killings continues I’m afraid his thought will be given impetus whether you like it or not. Imagine the effect if all the Muslims who rushed to condemn Trump all come together to condemn a terrorist attack.
In as much as I dislike Trump, I agree with him. Muslim leaders need to speak against radical islamist if they want to be taken seriously. The are quick to condemn Trump for wanting to protect his people but taciturn in condemning terrorist acts.
I may be wrong, but I feel most Muslims are either in support of these groups our have no
religious ground on which they can condemn them,just as I know must Americans who are critical of Trump are quietly pleased with him for echoing their deepest desire.