How people are conditioned to revile Trump  
How people are conditioned to revile Trump

Around the globe the President seems to be regarded as a blight on mankind equal to the ten plagues God brought upon Egypt. How did the media instill this Trump mania? What accounts for anti-Trumpers at large being unaware, let alone suspecting, they’ve been implanted with clever devices? Let Thomas Wright, Fellow at a Democrat think tank, light the way. 

Notice how Wright first sedates the patient before implanting revilement for Trump. “After 614 nights with Donald Trump in office, we know quite a lot about the president’s foreign policy.” Hello! Who are “we’? Where is “I”? The writer may know how and what foreign policy Trump cooks up, but he won’t stop there. He must take along Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. We know. To forestall having to persuade people as to the nature of the White House beast, Wright puts the audience at ease.

You know as well as I, he auto-suggests; after all it’s common knowledge what Trump gets up to. The ogre is what it is. Prove and persuade – what for! The views of the left-winger are accepted wisdom. Cogent examples to back up sweeping statements are redundant. That pronoun ‘we’ is more than presumptuous. It’s chutzpah, an arrogance, a lazy liberty the author had no business taking. Above all it’s an intellectual fraud.

Then foolishly Mr Wright disrobes, allowing the discerning to see that the emperor wears no clothes. For the Fellow to make a declaration so bold, and so early, is beyond foolish. “(Trump) has visceral beliefs about America’s role in the world that date back 30 years, most notably scepticism of alliances, opposition to free trade, and support for authoritarian strongmen.

”Visceral': meaning behaviour by instinct preferring it to using the intellect. How would the author know this about Trump! …Unless he got into the President's head and proved to himself that Trump’s beliefs are instinctive and not the outcome of rational thought.

We may allow a think-tanker to be multi talented; but a mind reader! …And Trump’s mind above all! Even on best behaviour the President is combustible, unruly and blunt. Yet Wright can read the pink and yellow beast in the Oval Office like a book. Trump’s scepticism of alliances, his opposition to free trade, and that shameful support for authoritarian strongmen – all are supposed to ooze like a septic sore from the ogre’s gut instinct. This is more than knowing “quite a lot;” the author has invaded the head, a feat which his followers have not done, yet may rest assured, to believe Wright, that they know what he knows about the foreign policy of a buffoon of a president who earned the right to be ridiculed and reviled.   

The train has hardly pulled out of the siding yet we know quite a lot – more about the Trump- hater than the portrait he paints. “Visceral beliefs,” Wright said, but they will be someone else’s…And have more fascination, I think. There’s revelation to come, self-inflicted, for which Wright alone bears the blame. Those sweeping claims he made don’t go to waste. They’ll turn on the maker, permitting a head entry (real this time) where biases work too visibly for Thomas Wright’s own good.

Why such Neanderthal animosity runs helter-skelter at an elected president is for a different inquiry. The point for now is what happens when it does.
Already the clues he scattered left right and centre reveal quite a lot about the head penetrator, mind reader, Trump trashing think-tank Fellow. “Visceral” was more than a stab in the dark; it was the key to what  do intellectuals of Wright’s ilk think they’re doing, subjugating their intellects to feelings below the belt. Why such Neanderthal animosity runs helter-skelter at an elected president is for a different inquiry. The point for now is what happens when it does.

Trump, scoffs the author, has an old fashioned scepticism for alliances. Wait a minute! Scepticism.  Barak Obama was not the model sceptic? Recall how he ditched America’s long-time alliance partners (Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel) in favour of America’s long-time foe (Iran).

Trump supports authoritarian strongmen, says Wright. Hang on! Obama was not a supporter par excellence? Remember the way he coaxed and coddled Tehran’s warlord Mullahs; how he defiantly protected and praised them; how he greased their palms, how he cleared the decks for the lifting of sanctions and gave Iran’s strongmen a new lease of life with subterfuge finance, how he brought America’s enemy number one in from the cold.  

Not forgetting Russia...How Obama on the fence barked at the strongman Putin, “I’m watching you, but carry on, my bite’s nothing,” when the war-monger invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

So too with Assad of Syria, who may know more about crossing red lines than his master Putin. The line Obama drew in the sand meant nothing to Assad, who dropped his chemical bombs with gay abandon. Come to think on it, when did another American president support authoritarian strongmen more than Barak Obama?

Compared to the Democrat’s darling, Trump has been a study in contrasts. Think how the White House has infuriated the warlord Mullahs; how Trump (putting past presidents to shame) actually kept a campaign promise, ditching the nuclear deal and snapping back sanctions;  how Trump stiffened them on Russia, and warned his European allies not to become dependent on it for critical gas. As for “opposing free trade” since when was that synonymous with unfair trade!

Now we understand why Wright had to sedate his audience. “We know quite a lot,” he said to stop us thinking for ourselves, before we cottoned on to being played for a fool. The consequences of anti-Trump mania are as grim as they are wide.

When intellectuals put their intellect on hold in order to bend distasteful truths, in no time at all, if history is any guide, they’ll be the propaganda henchmen for evil strongmen.