US Republican Party presidential hopeful Donald Trump is being described as a political "phenomenon”. The label deserves closer examination. He is indeed one of the recurring electoral exceptions — the independent Ross Perot would be the most recent example — who burst upon the US political stage and appear to offer radical alternatives to the way that Washington does politics. Trump speaks his mind. Yet the most charitable of commentators would be hard-pressed to pretend that the Trump mind has very much worth speaking. The property billionaire's main point of attack is the issue of Political Correctness which has made the United States something of an international laughing stock. Trump's diatribes against this nonsense strike a loud chord with a significant group of Republican supporters. Internationally there are many who are tempted to cheer him on. But unfortunately, attitudinizing against liberal rubbish is not the best qualification for a future occupant of the Oval Office. What is completely lacking from the Trump campaign is a world view. The guess must be that were he to make it to the White House, Trump would focus on popularist domestic policies to the exclusion of an informed approach to the role that the United States should be playing in international affairs. The harsh truth has to be that there is a great deal more to directing American foreign policy than railing against women and illegal immigration. Yet, Trump's willingness to challenge the liberal establishment with the most outlandish comments is currently playing extremely well with Republican voters. But there is surely every possibility that these high ratings reflect the candidate's entertainment value as much as his political message, such as that is. Even if Trump wins the Republican nomination, few imagine that he will go on to win the White House. As with other troublesome aberrations like Ross Perot and environmentalist Ralph Nader, the Washington political establishment will return to business as usual once Trump and his billions are spent. It is highly unlikely that anyone on Capitol Hill, let alone the Republican Party itself, will have taken any lessons from Trump's triumphant run. Yet it is precisely this arrogance that has underpinned the man's support. Voters are fed up with sending Congressman to Washington only to see them become ensnared in the web of lobbyists such as the National Rifle Association and the more subtle but no less powerful Zionists. They are also dismayed by the highly-polarized politics which have repeatedly brought government to the verge of bankruptcy. The bombastic, loose-mouthed Trump represents himself as the embodiment of the American can-do ethic in which a key marker is business success. But already there are rumors of malpractice in Trump's property empire. The knives are out. If the political outsider's threat to the establishment does not diminish, as sure as night follows day, the smears will begin. Yet unless he is caught out in some truly appalling piece of hypocrisy or dishonesty, Trump might even be boosted by such attacks. He could use the assaults on his reputation as evidence both of the low principles and essential rottenness of the establishment and also of the increasing success of his campaign. Even if many of America's foreign friends are not convinced that Washington needs Donald Trump himself, they nevertheless share the domestic view that US politics need shaking up. They therefore quietly welcome the shock that he is delivering to Capitol Hill.
