TREVOR SUDAMA

ASSESSING a sense of economic dissatisfaction and social disillusionment among the majority of Americans, Donald Trump amplified and exploited this sentiment with liberal recourse to misinformation, disinformation and flagrant untruths.

He attributed the causes of their grievance and distress to the following:

1. The invasion of the country by tens of millions of illegal immigrants due to the open border policy of the Joe Biden administration. They were not only taking away jobs from American citizens, but were violent murderers and rapists who were responsible for the crime surge. They were polluting the blood of Americans and introducing despicable and sub-human practices in the country.

2. Due to their incompetence, lust for power and lack of patriotism, the ruling classes of America have presided over a failing economy, allowed it to be plundered and pillaged by foreigners, and have ignored the concerns and welfare of the common man.

3. They have colluded with the “deep state” and sections of the media to introduce unacceptable cultural norms and values (the woke culture) which were destroying the social fabric, cohesion and integrity of the society. They have also conspired to prosecute and persecute him in an attempt to prevent his accession to the presidency.

The solutions Trump proffered are simple and direct, with populist appeal and bearing immediate results. They were enthusiastically embraced by a receptive majority. They were:

1. Mass deportation of all immigrants deemed to be illegal, with the exercise commencing on the day of inauguration. A state of emergency was to be declared and the military deployed to assist in this programme. Military leaders who have reservations or suspected of disloyalty will be removed or court-martialled. The signal has already gone out to those generals who supervised the evacuation of American personnel and others from Afghanistan in 2021.

2. The wall along the Mexican border will be completed at whatever cost.

3. The “deep state” and its apparatus of control will be demolished by rationalising, restructuring and downsizing the federal bureaucracy, by dismantling the education, health and social welfare regimes and by appointing proven and committed loyalists (even if novices) to head all departments and agencies of the government with the possibility of recourse of circumventing the provisions of the constitution and the mandate of Congress.

4. The apparatus of the state will be used to pursue opponents, suppress dissidents and marginalise unacceptable minorities in pursuit of Trump’s vision of a powerful and reinvigorated America based on radical conservative and traditional values, on fervent patriotism, on imposed social stability and order, and swift justice for dissent and deviance.

5. A 20 per cent tariff will be imposed on all imports except for imports from China, which will be 60 per cent. This will be to protect the American economy, to encourage investment by American businessmen to produce goods and services in America,