For Whom Does He Stand?

In the weeks leading up to the California primary election, much has been said about Donald Trump and his political agenda. According to the Positions page at www.donaldjtrump.com , his most important agenda item is building a wall at the U.S./Mexican border.  Trump also opposes the Affordable Care Act, wants to renegotiate U.S./China trade agreements, favors using tax reform to increase employment, wants to “fix” the Veterans Administration, strengthen the rights of Americans to bear firearms, and launch “real immigration reform.”

While Trump’s stump speeches provide an intriguing spin on each of these agenda items, the platform, itself, is just a regurgitation of previous conservative talking points.  There is nothing new or imaginative here.

My question of the Trump camp is not what the GOP presidential candidate stands for, but for whom he stands.

Immigrants

Trump plans to deport immigrants lacking legal status.  According to a 2013 report by the Department of Homeland Security, 11.4 million people currently fall into this category.  Like it or not, illegal immigrants represent three percent of the U.S. population.

Latinos

In his speech declaring his presidency, Trump shocked people here and abroad by declaring all Mexican immigrants to be “drug dealers” and “rapists.”  His bias is not limited to immigrants.  For approximately a week, Trump has leveled his sights on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel citing the Mexican heritage of this Indiana-born magistrate as a reason to disqualify him from hearing the fraud case against the now-defunct Trump University.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 55 million Americans, or 17 percent of the U.S. population, is Hispanic.

African Americans

A Huffington Post article (March 11, 2016) provided eight reasons Trump would not be an ideal president for African Americans.  Trump reportedly was sued by the U.S. Justice Department in 1973 for racial discrimination.  In a 1991 tell-all book by John R. O’Donnell, Trump was quoted as saying, “Laziness is a trait in blacks.” Trump’s clearly stated antipathy toward Muslims tacitly includes black Americans who represent 23 percent of all U.S. Muslims.  There are 42 million African Americans in the United States comprising 13.2 percent of the total population.

Muslims

Trump has targeted all Muslims, regardless of their race or presence within or outside of our borders as “terrorists.”  He has called for a “total ban” on all persons of this religious faith from entering the United States.  This stance is unconstitutional and was particularly offensive to Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London.  There are 3.3 million Muslims in the U.S. representing one percent of the total population.

Women

Trump has been particularly insulting to women, using epithets like “pigs” and “fat” to describe them.  Trump also has promised to further reduce access to gynecological health care services.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 168 million women in our nation comprising 50.8 percent of the total population.  If we reduce that number by women Trump admires (women like his wife who are European immigrant/supermodel/business owners), that population percentage does not change at all.

People Who Disagree With Trump

Trump predictably turns on critics and all who question his veracity.  Fellow GOP affiliates and elected officials who disagree with him like New Mexico’s Republican Governor Susana Martinez are told they are “not doing a good job” and Trump calls upon voters for their ouster.  (Not surprisingly, Martinez and other prominent GOP party members refused to be his running mate.)  Journalists recently were called “scum bags” and “sleazy” when they asked about the short-fall in promised donations to veterans’ organizations.  His list of detractors are labeled as “insane,” “stupid,” and “slobs.”  According to a recent survey in the Los Angeles Times, a whopping 71 percent of likely voters “disapprove” of Trump.  According to the latest tally, 146.3 million people are registered to vote in America.  Statistically speaking, Trump would be openly insulting toward 103.9 million voters.

And the Winner Is…

By simply adding up the numbers in five of the categories listed above, 85 percent of the U.S. population likely will be treated with great disdain by a Trump administration.

Certainly in the remaining 15 percent, Trump’s biggest supporters reportedly are conservative white males.  Alas, many prominent, conservative males have lodged vociferous opposition to Trump saying he would be bad for business, international relations, national security and GOP party unity.  While many Republican members of Congress now begrudgingly support Trump in the spirit of party cohesion, they will not support his agenda legislatively.  As they oppose him on legal and Constitutional grounds, he will turn on them, too.

Who will be left?  Many conservative, white male voters are still in Trump’s corner because he speaks to their fear that mobs of immigrants now rain the terrors of unemployment and escalating tax expense upon the land while liberals are taking away their guns.  As soon as these people live through predictable Trump policy repercussions such as joblessness spawned by international trade disputes, inflation, heightened public unrest due to racial and religious discrimination, and war, they will question Trump as well.

To Trump, all who question him or disagree with him are his enemies.

In the final analysis, only Trump will remain as a beloved party of one.