It’s hard at this point to work out what is going on with Trump. Is he opening mouth prior to engaging brain? Is he actually saying what his PR people say will play best to the Republican electorate? A political scientist was interviewed recently and said Trump wasn’t a fascist because he lacked an ideology; Mussolini wanted to, in effect, restore a modern form of the Roman Empire and Hitler had an ideology explicitly based on the idea that “Aryans” were superior human beings who were destined to rule the world, with Germany at the head of the Aryan nations. Trump just seems to say things which are isolationist, without any clear ideas of where it’s heading.
I hope they do let him into the UK because he’s like our own beloved Nigel Farage on a bigger scale, and this could lead to further discrediting of Farage by association.
“the international leaders Trump imagines himself doing business with”
Ha. If it were to get that far Trump would find that diplomacy isn’t the same as business.
I’m also imagining Trump press conferences where he calls world leaders “total losers.”
I like the mayor of St Petersburg, FL’s response on Facebook:
It was the top story across the BBC this morning, which I’m hoping just means it’s a slow news day.
I was going to post on Facebook something along the lines of “Why do people keep giving Donald Trump the oxygen of publicity” but then I realised I’d be doing the same thing. To the nine people who read my posts.
That pic just freaked me out! Take it down!
Have US Muslims considered a ban on allowing Trump to enter the country? They certainly outnumber him.
Ah, Frank Gaffney–a man too Islamophobic for fucking CPAC.
(Also, inasmuch as Trump has an ideology, it seems to me that it might be something to the effect of him just being America’s id–dividing the world into “winners” (white abled male American capitalists) and “losers” (everyone else.) It’s really just like all of our country’s most shameful retrograde ideas burst into the limelight and were made flesh in a terrifying orange husk.)
The world responds? Three of the top five comments on the CBC coverage of this:
While I don’t endorse this suggestion, I hope it causes Muslims to reflect on what it is about their community that is producing this reaction in so many countries, when no other immigrant community has these issues.
Wow a leader that puts his country first
Wish we had that in Canada
The only guy in the room with a brain.
Unfortunately, the world is, in substantial numbers, responding with, “Finally, someone is saying what we are all thinking.”
Who was saying what I was thinking? Well, it was McCain:
But will it hurt Trump in the campaign? “I have no idea,” McCain said. “I thought long ago that things he said would hurt his prospects, and he continues to go up.”
That’s it, really- I keep thinking that he’ll explode in a puff of gone-to-faredness, but that keeps not happening.
Is living off the grid still a thing? Can I make that a thing again? Am I allowed to have internet if I live off the grid?
I kind of want out of here.
He’s got an awfully Muslim-looking beard - could he be a sleeper?
[edit - yes, I do know that more than 50% of Muslims don’t have beards.]
If you’re right, that would align him with the Nazis rather than the Fascists. Oh dear.
He has a lock on the angry baby vote.
He actually needs all the publicity he can get. Oswald Mosley, the British fascist, got support from the right wing newspapers, like the Daily Express and the Daily Mail. It was when he got noticed beyond that that the opposition grew. The more the public in general actually become aware of Trump, other than as a TV character, the better the chance of serious, organised opposition.
Fortunately, there might be a solution:
The Trump Code: There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
I don’t think he actually cares about the Presidency, I think he just figures win or lose he’ll “enhance” his personal brand.
I swear to God this WP story reads like an Onion article:
Including the line
His plan to bar U.S. citizens drew particular ire from legal experts, some of whom fumbled for words as they tried to explain its illegality, since none had considered the matter before.
But the direct quote from the legal expert is the best:
"Oh, for the love of God,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University.
I kind of always wished that life would imitate art, but I’m not too sure about that at this point…
Forget the world leaders he aspires to conduct business with once he’s elected. What about the people he does business with now? I can’t imagine all that anti-muslim vitriol is going over well with his business partners in Dubai.
Now THAT’S Facebook material.
