15. INTO THE AGE OF TRUMP

THE "TRUMP STYLE"

The media as kingmakers. The 2016 presidential primaries gave rather strong confirmation that the traditional nominating conventions, attended by seasoned politicians assembled to choose from among their ranks the best-qualified candidate for the American presidency, had given way to the new process of selecting presidential candidates by the national media, on the basis of social identity.  This was not entirely a new thing, but it was becoming the determining thing.  Indeed, this new driving force in American politics reached back to 2007-2008 when TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey helped considerably push the only slightly politically experienced Obama past the well-developed political machine of Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2008.

Thus it was that in this new age of constant (24/7) barrage of entertaining news and media social hype – complements of not only the TV, but also the computer and the smartphone – the media would be the platform from which American leaders would now be selected.  All the media needed to do was to shape and ultimately control the political narrative.  And that is exactly what they lived for.

The "Trump Style."  And it certainly was the case when the 2015-2016 series of televised debates hosted by the various news networks helped push the totally governmentally inexperienced Donald Trump to the head of a huge list of presidential candidates, and thus gain the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016.  But this media coup Trump carried off all by himself, having served a dozen years as an aggressive TV director and host of the popular TV program, The Apprentice.  Thus he made up in extensive media experience what he lacked in political office experience, and used that skill to run crudely over his Republican opponents in the primaries.

The unwieldy number of  Republicans come to explain 
themselves at the CNN debate – September 2015

By March 3, 2016, at the 11th Republican debate, the number
of Republican contenders was down to four:  Marco Rubio, 
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and  John Kasich  (with – as usual –
Trump dominating the conversation)

By the time of the opening of the Republican National 
Convention in Cleveland on July 18, Trump was clearly 
the frontrunner

Donald Trump and Mike Pence (his running mate) 
at the Republican National Convention – July 20, 2016

He was heavily engaged in Twitter in offering ongoing accounts of the failures of his opponents.  Employing a stream of personal insults, he would run roughshod over his Republican opponents, issuing such ad hominem phrases as "Little Marco" (Senator Marco Rubio) or "Lyin' Ted" (Senator Ted Cruz).  About Republican opponent Florida Governor Jeb Bush, he had this to say:  

Jeb failed as Jeb! He gave up and enlisted Mommy and his brother (who got us into the quicksand of Iraq). Spent $120 million.  Weak no chance! 

He even needlessly went after former Republican candidate John McCain (thus turning McCain into a dedicated political enemy):

. . . not a war hero, he's a war hero because he was captured.  I like people that weren't captured.

But he kept up this attack also even during the televised debates – when he would offer very audible insulting side comments, drawing the attention of the cameras to himself, away from those whose turn it was to present their case before the viewing audience!  And thus it was that he drove his opponents to defeat one by one, and ended up, by the process of such elimination, with the Republican Party's presidential candidacy.

Then he turned on his Democratic Party opponent Hillary Clinton, whom he constantly termed "Crooked Hillary," over the use of her personal email account to transmit Secretary of State messages, some considered top secret.

But the media act did not stop there.  He also issued sweeping statements that had virtually no chance of being true, but which, repeated often enough in simple form, took on their own weight, thanks to media coverage, (even if the coverage was trying to be fully negative).  Thus Trump keep repeating about how Mexico was going to pay for a greatly expanded wall along America's border with Mexico (which refugees from Central America were breaching in massive numbers).  But exactly how was he going to get Mexico to pay for that expansion?  He never explained.

The 2015-2016 Democratic Party contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  Over on the Democratic Party side of the presidential contest, Clinton had stepped down from her position as head of the State Department back in February of 2013, allowing her to devote her energies to directing the Clinton Foundation – focused primarily on developing women's rights globally (ah, identity, more identity!).  But those years also saw her busy fending off Republican efforts to undercut her politically because of the Benghazi fiasco and the discovery of her use of her private email accounts to send confidential messages, in violation of Department of State policy.  Basically she held up well under the accusations.  At the same time, she was preparing herself for another run at the U.S. Presidency, gathering massive campaign support and hitting the speaker circuit extensively.

Bill and Hillary Clinton and their daughter Chelsea and her
husband Marc Mezvinsky and their daughter Charlotte - 2014

Her only serious opponent within the Democratic Party was the Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, an avowed Socialist with all the political instincts Socialism stands for.  Actually, the race was intense and Sanders did surprisingly well, indicating how far America had moved away from its traditional Middle-Class cultural roots.^[1]  Hillary had tremendous support from major corporate donors (such as the billionaire George Soros), as well as Blacks and Hispanics, and of course, women.  Sanders' support came from younger, White, and more small-town Americans, as well as the more independent-leaning of Democrats.  But in any case, from a very nearly equal start at the beginning of primary season, Clinton began to pull ahead of Sanders in gaining pledged delegates – and arrived at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July of 2016 with approximately a 20 percent lead in the delegate count (still, an amazing count in support of the Socialist Sanders), ensuring her the Democratic Party nomination.

The 2016 campaign.  Clinton gave indication that she would stand with the changes in American society undertaken by Obama, even protect those from any effort of her opponent, Trump, to reverse those changes, as Trump clearly indicated he would do if elected president.  In a sense, the campaign between the two seemed to be a lineup (as a continuation of the Obama social legacy) of Middle America versus America's many minorities, which included not only Blacks and Hispanics, but women, or at least the professional class of women working outside the home who saw themselves as part of that "minority" world.  That was a huge segment of the American population.  Thus Hillary was expecting a fairly easy win over Trump. 

The Steele dossier.  But just to make sure, Clinton campaign operative Marc Elias paid Fusion GPS $1.02 million to dig up dirt on Trump, and Fusion in turn hired for $168 thousand former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele to see if he could find some kind of political connection between Trump and the Russians.  Steele obliged the Democrats, coming up with 16 different memos (based on information that Steele later admitted he had taken from a discredited CNN blog).  Then in October of 2016 the periodical Mother Jones published rumors about the existence of Steele's anti-Trump dossier,  which was actually put in the hands of the FBI, US State Department officials, and the office of Senator John McCain – the latter whose office in turn would put the very damaging dossier in the hands of the nation's press on January 10th, only 10 days before Trump's inauguration.  While this would have no immediate effect on the election – which Trump had already won handily in the electoral college – this would provide the fuel for efforts immediately to impeach Trump and chase the Democrats' new "public enemy" from the White House.

The election itself.  Trump, though indeed crude and vulgar, was no nitwit, and carefully targeted his campaign efforts with an eye on winning the electoral college vote (exactly as the Constitution specifies).  And the results on election day (with only about 55 percent of eligible voters turning out to vote), he won 304 electoral votes to Clinton's mere 227 votes.  

The Democrats were shocked at the result, complaining bitterly about the way the electoral college weighted the vote in favor of Trump, because in the actual popular vote, Trump had won only 63 million votes to Clinton's 65.9 million votes.  Thus she "won" the popular vote.  Actually she did not.  4.5 million votes went to the Libertarian Party (generally considered a party of the Right) and 1.5 million went to the Green Party (generally considered a party of the Left).  If these votes were combined by actual political lineup, the Political Right won 67.5 million votes and the Politically Left won 67.4 million votes!  Close, but in any case, not exactly a Hillary victory.

Angry protests about the election results broke out immediately, not only in America but across much of the world.  Here too, telecommunications aided considerably in mobilizing this huge outcry.  Younger generations of Americans took to the streets announcing "not my president."  And women dressed in pink also turned out to make it clear that there was no way they would ever consider Trump their president.  And celebrities joined the anti-Trump chorus, some even announcing the possibilities of simply leaving the country, they were so angry.

They were all angry, very angry.  Trump personally represented everything they had come to believe to be the source of great evil in the country:  White privilege, toxic masculinity, homophobia and Christian superstition.  And, with Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" (MAGA), it was obvious that Trump intended to undo all the wonderful changes Obama had brought to America.  They would fight him over his MAGA program, from protesters in the streets to angry Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Already, Congressional Democrats were calling for Trump's impeachment, even before he had formally taken office.  Not only was the new president-elect vulgar and ridiculous, they were claiming that he was a dangerous sociopath.  But to impeach him he had to be found guilty of having committed the high crime or misdemeanor of ... ?

President Obama and President-Elect Trump meet in the
Oval Office two days after the election

Anti-Trump post-election march - St. Paul, Minnesota, November 9

Trump taking the oath of office, with his wife Melania holding 
the Bibles on which he pledged his service

The swearing-in with Donald Trump, his wife Melania, his son 
Donald, Jr., his son Barron, his daughter Ivanka, his son  
Eric, his daughter Tiffany, and Supreme Court Chief 
Justice John Roberts.

Inauguration Day:  Trump formally signing his Cabinet nominations
... with his family and Congressional leaders looking on

Donald and Melania Trump at the Liberty Ball 
on Inauguration Day

Anti-Trump chain of purple-clad protesters along 
the Golden Gate Bridge on Inauguration Day

The anti-Trump protest in front of San Francisco's 
City Hall on February 4th

And yes, Trump certainly came across most frequently as vulgar and ridiculous.  And he could certainly be very theatrical.  That was indeed a key part of his background.  But he was a successful venture capitalist, who took on huge investment risks, sometimes failed, but never backed down (except one period of depression in his life), and pushed ever-onward to various goals he had set before himself – big goals.  And certainly one of those goals included residency in the White House.

Trump was born in 1946 (just months apart from both Bill Clinton and Bush, Jr.) and came from a family line of successful entrepreneurs, especially his father, who developed a huge housing construction and landowning company in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn after World War Two.  Trump grew up in a dedicatedly "Middle Class" (despite the family's enormous wealth) Presbyterian home as the fourth of five children (two sisters, one who went on to become a U.S. Circuit Court judge and another to become a Chase Manhattan Bank executive, and two brothers, one a TWA pilot and the other who eventually took over the family's property-management business).

Donald Trump (leftmost) with his brothers and sisters, Fred Jr., 
Robert, Maryanne and Elizabeth

Donald Trump with his father Fred and mother Mary Anne at 
the New York Military Academy

Trump was raised fashionably, eventually entering (8^th grade) the New York Military Academy, where he proved to be an outstanding athlete in several sports.  Upon graduation in 1964, he started college at Fordham University, then transferring to the Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania, to prepare himself to take up the family real estate business. During those years he worked closely with his father in a major apartment complex redevelopment in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then, with $1 million in support from his father upon graduation, took on the challenge of major building construction in New York City (Manhattan).

Donald Trump and his father Fred at Donald's graduation 
from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
– 1968

He would work hard at developing his professional world.  But within a dozen years the was able, at a cost of $100 million, to convert an unprofitable hotel into the fabulous Grand Hyatt on 42^nd Street, adjacent to the Grand Central Terminal.  And things got only grander after this.  By 1979 he built his Trump Tower ($200 million in expenses) on New York City's fashionable 5^th Avenue, then went on other projects:  a casino in Atlantic City, an Eastern Airlines shuttle service, a skating rink in New York City's Central Park, partial ownership of Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants, a New Jersey football team (briefly), and in 1985 ownership of the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida, something that became a personal get-away home for him and his family.  And along the way, he met and then a year later married (1977) the Czech athlete and model, Ivana Zelnikova, and soon father three children, Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric. 

Trump with NY City Mayor Ed Koch, NY Governor Hugh 
Carey, and Urban Development Corp.  VP Robert Dormer
looking over plans for the new New York Grand Hyatt hotel
and convention center – 1978.

The Grand Hyatt – Manhattan – completed in 1979

Trump holding a model of the Trump Tower

The 6-story Atrium inside Trump Tower

Trump, as owner (1984-1985) of the short-lived New Jersey
Generals football team, with Fred Wilpon of the Mets, Sonny
Werblen of Madison Square Garden and  George
Steinbrenner of the Yankees ... at a breakfast forum on the
future of professional sports  – 1984

Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate at Palm Beach, Florida 
(purchased in 1985) which was built by and lifetime home 
to the supremely wealthy Marjorie Merriweather Post. Ivana 
loved to "hold court" here with the rich and famous.

Trump announces plans for a new arena to be built in the
Queens – December 1985

Such a grand success was he that in 1987 he published something of an autobiography, Trump:  The Art of the Deal (New York: Ballantine Books).  It would become a New York Times bestseller for almost a year – and stay on the top of the list for three months – making the fairly young Trump one of Gallup Poll's top-10 best-known Americans at the time.

Trump and Ivana the day she received US citizenship – May 1988

Trump and Ivana hosting their pastor Norman Vincent Peale's
90th birthday party – May 1988

Trump and Ivana coming off their newly refurbished Yacht, 
Trump Princess – July 1988

But ironically that same year financial disaster hit when the stock market crashed, and America slid into deep recession, throwing masses of people in the world of industrial and real-estate development into bankruptcy when the market for their products dried up.  Trump himself was deeply invested in his work, owing $billions to banks, and nothing moving on the sales front of his real estate projects.  But fortunately, the banks were not interested in another bankruptcy (especially one on this scale) and worked out a program to help him pay out his debts, costing him the loss of a lot of property in order to do so. 

Trump and Ivana at a Manhattan social event at the time
of his supposed financial "melt-down" – December 1989

And this was accompanied by the news that he was having an affair with a pregnant Georgia model, Marla Maples, shattering his married world as well.  He and Ivana would go through a very expensive divorce in 1992, and Trump would then go on the next year to marry Marla after their daughter Tiffany was born.  But that marriage was not really headed down a primrose path, an in 1997 they would separate, and then divorce two years later.

Trump remarried with Marla Maples (1993-1999)

But 1997 was the year he published his second book, The Art of the Comeback (New York: Times Books).  And indeed Trump had slowly achieved just that, a true comeback.  In 1994 he had been able to acquire 50 percent ownership of the Empire State Building, and in 1995 finally finish the restoration and then sell the Plaza Hotel (which he renamed the Trump Building). 

The following year he met the Slovene model, Melania Knauss, though it would not be until 2005 that they would marry.  Attending the wedding were numerous political and media celebrities, including Bill and Hillary Clinton!   A little over a year later Melania would give birth to their son, Barron.

Trump and the Slovene fashion model Melania Knauss at a New York
Giants preseason game – August 1999

Trump's third wedding (January 22, 2005) – at his Mar-a-Lago Estate
with his bride Melania ... and Hillary and Bill in attendance!

Being the restless soul that he was, in 2003 he turned to the challenge of the world of television, becoming producer and host of the NBC show, The Apprentice ... the program becoming very popular.  Eventually he would take on celebrities as his show's participants, thus in 2008 renaming the program The Celebrity Apprentice.  He would continue in this role until 2015, when he turned fulltime to his next challenge, national political office.  At this point, Trump's personal fortune was in the $3 billion range.

Trump as TV host for the TV series The Apprentice / The 
Celebrity Apprentice (2004-2015) with his daughter Ivanka
and son Donald, Jr.

Meanwhile ... some of Trump's other projects

Trump Towers Las Vegas (completed 2008)

The Trump Ocean Club – Panama City, Panama – (completed 2011)
(condominium apartments built in connection with Roger Khafif
under the Trump name and managed by the Trump organization)

Trump Towers – Mumbai, India

Other Trump Towers are found in Miami, Toronto, Turkey
... plus other major buildings of a similar order in multiple
cities ... all of them of unique design

Trump had some earlier thoughts on the matter of politics, back in 1999 trying a run at the U.S. presidency via the Reform Party, then in 2004 even undertaking fundraising for the Democratic Party presidential candidate Kerry.  But in 2012 he would return to the Republican Party, thinking of a presidential run himself, before throwing his support to Mitt Romney.

Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination, running on the challenge to "Make America Great Again" (MAGA).  This, unfortunately was a concept in total violation of the moral inclination of America's younger generations, who believed that their "shaming" of America was a sign of personal nobility and that such patriotism as Trump was proclaiming was simply ugly Fascism, which they were personally dedicated to root out at all costs.

Trump and his family at the Trump Towers at the formal
announcement of his presidential run – June 2015

Nonetheless, employing  the same careful calculation by which he had built up his huge business empire, Trump pulled ahead of his competitors, first of all to gain the Republican Party presidential nomination, and then to conduct a carefully strategized move to win the electoral college votes needed to gain the presidency itself.

No, Trump was no nitwit.  Vulgar and abrasive at times, yes.  Misleading in his broad public statements about what he planned to do with respect to this issue or that, often yes.  But a nitwit.  No.

Trump the Christian.  Trump was also a dedicated Christian, but in a very Trumpian way.  He was raised in a Presbyterian family, but once deeply immersed in the business world, religion seemingly played no particular role in his life.  But in later years (around the year 2000?) he seemed to find an interest in Christian televangelism, eventually especially in that of Paula White, an attractive (and very wealthy) White woman leading a largely Black congregation.  Her "prosperity gospel" version of the Christian faith, popular among many Evangelicals, touched Trump deeply (she is said to have finally "led him to the Lord" in 2011), and he found himself taking advice from her on matters of Christian faith, both before and then during his tenure in the White House.  Thus it was that he was identified fairly closely with the American Evangelical community.

His political opponents accused him of course of taking on these Christian loyalties for purely political reasons.  But then Trump was accused of a lot of things, which Trump was always quick to argue back in his own way.  In any case, it will always be hard for anyone else to assess the reality of another person's spiritual life.  Indeed, religion can be a matter of much show.  But privately, it can also be very sincere in a most individualistic way.

In any case, as President he would work closely with the Christian pastoral world (as had Presidents before him), but especially with the various members of his evangelical advisory council, and join them in attempting to free public Christian prayer from governmental prohibition (placed there by the courts), only minorly successful in the effort.  And he would push (again only slightly successfully) to allow people whose faith did not put them in accord with the legal requirements of "political correctness" not to be punished by the courts for failing to obey the courts' official social-moral directives.

He was accused of politicizing the Presidential prayer breakfast in February of 2020,^[2] commenting on the religious hypocrisy of individuals "who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong", "nor do I like people who say, 'I pray for you' when you know that is not so."  It was generally understood that he was referring to political opponents, Mitt Romney who had just cited his Mormon faith as to why he, as a Republican, had voted for Trump's conviction, and Nancy Pelosi, who had announced that she prayed regularly for the supposedly deeply misguided President ("He really needs our prayers"), while directing the ongoing effort to remove Trump from office.  Trump apologized for his comments at the end of his speech.   "I'm sorry.  I apologize.  I'm trying to learn.  It's not easy.  When they impeach you for nothing and then you're supposed to like them, it's not easy folks.  I do my best."

And indeed his Good Friday Message that April – and accompanying prayer by Pentecostal bishop Harry Jackson, who also praised Trump for his Christian work – was a deeply moving event calling for peace, reconciliation and deliverance in this time of national troubles, brought on especially by the Covid-19 pandemic.  There were no Trumpian swipes at his Washington opponents in the message!  And it was also another indicator of the very high standing that Trump had within key parts of the Black as well as White Evangelical community.

---

   
Go on to the next section:

Trump ... and America

---

  Miles H. Hodges