Will The Real
Donald Trump Please Stand Up?
In early November 2016,
Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon,
expressed more clearly than many other world
leaders the hope that Donald Trump, when in
office, would be very different from the Donald
Trump she had witnessed on the presidential
campaign trail.
Comments attributed to Mr
Trump while campaigning have led many to accuse
him of being racist, sexist, and discriminatory
towards people with disabilities – to name
just three character traits that have met with
liberal-minded disapproval.
If Ms Sturgeon and others
are to have their wish fulfilled, however, Mr
Trump, after entering the White House on 20th
January 2017, will need to consistently
demonstrate liberal, tolerant, non-discriminatory
opinions and behaviour.
Suppose this did indeed
occur. Imagine that the first act of the new
president was to personally champion the cause of
disabled, Mexican, Muslim women. Many would
wonder what could possibly have led to such an
apparent transformation.
In such circumstances, the
following might be rationales to consider –
doubtless all would be proposed:
1 – The
CIA – or the shape-shifting, lizard-like
aliens who control the world – had replaced
Donald Trump with a liberal look-alike.
2 – A
divine messenger had shown up in the Oval Office,
pointed out that Mr Trump was in his latter years
and explained that God remained undecided about
whether the president’s final elevator
journey should be up or down.
3 –
Donald Trump had been part of an elaborate hoax
for a US reality TV show. The writers had
constructed a character from a composite of least
desirable presidential characteristics. Then,
somehow, it had all got out of hand.
4 –
Donald Trump had been a really nice guy after all
and had wished to be president to do good in the
world. He had lied to get elected as he had
correctly calculated that only a racist, sexist
bigot could hope to win the hearts and minds of
more than half the US population. Also, the Ku
Klux Clan vote could have been a clincher.
This scenario has an interesting corollary in
that Mr Trump’s alleged threats to go after
his opponents after the election could transform
into him targeting his own supporters. He might
passionately castigate those who elected him,
saying how disgusted he was by their behaviour
and telling them that their appalling attitudes
had no place in the modern world.
5 – Donald
Trump had always been the ideal president. He had
been targeted with a misinformation campaign by a
biased media – a media that had been
supporting a political elite who had become out
of touch with, and had ceased to care about,
ordinary US citizens.
6 –
Donald Trump had really been as bigoted as the
liberals had feared. He had discovered, however,
that, as president, the pragmatics of balancing
complex political factors, both at home and
overseas, constrained his words and actions. He
had been forced to concede that a president is
not nearly as powerful as one might think.
When will the real Donald
Trump reveal himself?
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