The Trump Corporation

 

Subject: The Trump Corporation

What would Donald Trump have to do to upset his 'rust belt' supporters. Frankly there is nothing he could do to lose that support because politics in the USA has become so divisive and intolerant of "the other side", there is no middle ground, no sense that the other might have a point.

In mature democracies the transfer of power is often seen as 'changing the deck chairs' rather than an  important political change based on the needs of the people with a good dose of ideological soul searching. Centrist politics has prevailed in most Western democracies and we have been shocked by the violent  stance and the resultant street violence in other parts of the world. But the trend is changing as populists begin to win a term or two in office and once in power, start to dismantle that surety we have for the rule of law and jurisprudence.

In this country Boris Johnson almost immediately on assuming power tried to usurp parliament by proroguing it whilst he pushed his executive agenda forward. It was only a private individuals approach to the Law Lords asking them for a ruling on his attempt to bypass parliament that they ruled his proroguing exercise was unlawful and parliament called back.

Trump on innumerable occasions has not hesitated to tweak the system to resolve matters in his own favour with the help of the Republican Party who now, unerringly see politics as a them and us battle, irrespective of the merits of the case.

It highlights the shibboleth that the American Union has become, a Federation of 50 States each different from the other in economic sufficiency as well as ideological surety. Prejudice and racial disharmony are the hallmarks of the divide between North and South, a Civil War which in some minds still smolders, a fundamental schism which runs across the country.

Trump has mercilessly exploited this divide in his fellow countrymen and women to the point that people seem to be 100% for him or 100% against, there's no middle ground. He has broken with political convention. He has threatened to ignore the result if it goes against him. He traces the electoral system as something to be gamed as if it were a business project where the absurdities of the legal profession can be brought to argue over the fine print. He is a demagogue, a populist in wolfs clothing who purports to have the interests of the "rust belt" workers at heart whilst manipulating his own financial empire to the upmost with White House branding, whilst refusing to reveal the taxes he has (or hasn't) paid for many apparently profitable years in business. He pulls stunt after stunt evolving his own brand of what it means to be a president having cast aside all the political niceties and revealed what a tough, litigious business operator he is reviling anyone who stands in his way. To be a fly on the wall at a family gathering would be galling for ordinary citizens to know with how little they actually feature in the plans of the Trump Corporation.