To understand Donald Trump, look to Europe | Op-Ed LA Times |
Donald Trump is a puzzle to political analysts. He’s commonly described as a creature of the far right, given his ultra-hard-line stances on Mexican and Muslim immigration. But polls commonly show that his strongest base of support is among moderate-to-liberal Republicans.
Conservative pundits, moreover, complain that Trump has long been generous with donations and kind words for Hillary Clinton. His record of Republican heresies includes touting Canadian-style, single-payer healthcare, a 1999 proposal for a massive one-time “wealth tax,” support for the Clinton-era assault weapon ban, opposition to the Iraq War and blasting conservative proposals to reform Social Security. Add that together, and the term “RINO” seems mild.
Republican coalitions, however, have long placed a priority on pro-business, pro-free-market economic conservatism, social-issue causes like abortion and guns, and devotion to Constitutional principles such as limited government and federalism. Trump has little interest in any of these things. He’s cozy with big government, often using eminent domain to seize private homes for casino parking lots; he has totally ignored the Planned Parenthood undercover video controversy; and he has been griping about foreign trade since the 1980s (then it was Japan, now China).
What gives? If you want to understand Trump, look across the ocean. In an American context, Trump’s politics are incoherent. In a European context, Trump would fit more comfortably.
Geert Wilders to attend GOP Convention crowning Donald Trump – Anti-immigration
PVV leader Geert Wilders plans to attend the Republican convention in the United States this summer to show his support for presidential candidate Donald Trump, he said to Dutch newspaper AD.
According to Wilders, it is inevitable that Trump will be named the Republican presidential candidate. And he has a good chance if he has to take on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in November. “He has guts, a lot of good ideas and speaks to broad groups in society”, Wilders said. “Clinton may well win in the primaries, but she is incredibly unpopular with the ordinary man and woman in the U.S. I give Trump a good chance. The patriotic spring in the U.S., Europe and Netherlands is unstoppable, trust me.”
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Geert Wilders: "I hope @realDonaldTrump will be the next US President. Good for America, good for Europe".Boehner asked to denounce invites to far-right Dutch legislator
PM David Cameron: Donald Trump deserves respect – Conservative party
David Cameron has said he “respects” the controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump for making it through the gruelling Republican primary process.
The prime minister refused to retract his claim, made when a Trump candidacy still seemed an unlikely prospect, that the billionaire’s proposal for banning Muslims from the US was “stupid, divisive and wrong”.
Speaking at a joint press conference at 10 Downing Street alongside his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, Cameron said, having come through the tough primary process, Trump “deserves our respect”.
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Cameron offers more support to opposition fighters in Syria (Photo: AP archive 2012)However, he added: “What I said about Muslims, I wouldn’t change that view. I’m very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong, it is wrong, and it will remain wrong.”
Cameron’s spokeswoman later said the prime minister respected Trump, “politician to politician”, given the fierce state-by-state battle for party supporters’ votes that primary candidates must endure before they can win the right to fight for the presidency.
Global policymakers are scrambling to catch up with the fact that Trump, who once appeared an eccentric outsider, will be the official Republican candidate after storming to success in the primaries. Abe visibly smirked – before rearranging his face into a serious expression – when the idea of Trump gracing the table at next year’s G7 summit was mentioned.
Cameron’s change of tone came after George Papadopoulos, an adviser to Trump, told the Times that he thought the prime minister should reach out with an apology or some sort of retraction.
Papadopoulos said Cameron’s comments were uncalled for and it would be wise for the prime minister to “reach out in a more positive manner” to the Republican frontrunner.
Saudi oil shill
Trump’s energy security advisor is George Papadopoulos, a junior oil consultant formerly at the Hudson Institute, where he fed into a US-Israel-Egypt joint strategy to access Eastern Mediterranean offshore gas resources.
Papadopoulos advised Ben Carson’s similarly xenophobic presidential campaign, until the latter dropped out of the race.
But more intriguing are the array of interests Papadopoulos stands for – rather than his relative inexperience.
He is Director of the Centre for International Energy and Natural Resources Law at the London Centre for International Law Practice (LCILP), a law firm particularly active in representing Western corporate energy interests in the Muslim world.
This March, Papadopoulos’s LCILP organised its first annual conference on Energy Arbitration and Dispute Resolution in Middle East and Africa, whose co-organiser and regional partner was the Saudi Law Training Centre in Jeddah. The latter was set up by the Saudi Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice to improve “efficiency and performance” of judges in Shari’ah rulings.
MPs called Trump a ‘hate preacher’ amid calls to be banned from UK
