PHOTO: Donald Trump makes a point in campaign for Republican nomination for US Presidency (Getty)
I In an interview with Britain’s Daily Mirror on Wednesday, I speak with Tom Parry about the impact of US Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for all Muslims to be barred entry into America:
Donald Trump is exploiting frustration, anger and fear. Fear more than anything.
Recently, he took an event like San Bernardino , where 14 people were gunned down by just two individuals, an American Muslim husband and wife, and converted it into the notion of a cultural war.
Trump is not unhinged; he is calculating.
For example, he made these latest comments about excluding all Muslims in South Carolina, which is a really conflicted state on issues of race and inclusion.
While it would appeal to much of his own core vote, what Trump won’t do is cross the line of saying we can’t let people of African descent into the country, because without the African-American vote he’d never win – so he is going after Muslims instead.
He’s tapped into this notion of a clash of civilisations.
There are huge costs to that.
I don’t think he’s going to get elected to the White House , or even as Republican candidate, but what worries me is that damage is still done.
He is still going to inject poison into the American system and more suspicion.
In America there is always this notion of the outsider who’s going to set things right because Washington is regarded as unfeeling and corrupt, and doesn’t know what people want.
Trump has consistently tapped into that, the view that the Government appeases the terrorist threat.
He hasn’t just done it with Muslims; he’s done it with Mexicans, Syrian refugees and China, as a country rather than its people.
I think by the time we get to the primaries next March, the Republican party will have mobilised to get behind another candidate.
But even if Trump gets the Republican nomination, when it comes to the Presidential election Americans generally move towards the center and away from the extremes.
