On Thursday night (August 27, 2020) President Donald Trump
of the United States delivered his acceptance speech as the presidential candidate at the
Republican National Convention (RNC) that was held in the White
House. It was the first of its kind when the White House was used as a podium
for campaign by a seating president. As noted by presidential historians, the decision
to use the White House as a backdrop is a perfect metaphor for how Trump has
handled the presidency: With total audacity -- and no regard for how his
actions will change the lines of acceptable conduct for whoever follows him in
the office. He treated the White House as his personal property.
More than 1,500 people
were in the audience, packed cheek to jaw with very few putting a mask, on the
South Lawn of the White House to hear Trump's speech. Unlike the Democratic
convention a week earlier that was held virtually, Trump wanted a big crowd
whether or not coronavirus was still rampant in the country, and he got that
crowd size.
However,
if Trump was looking for a better Nielsen rating, it was disappointing. His primetime speech drew a rating of 14.1, which means
14.1 percent of homes in more than 50 major markets around the country tuned
in. The Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden, by contrast, drew a 17.5 rating
for his acceptance
speech at the Democratic National Convention. In terms of viewers, an estimated 24.6
million watched Biden’s acceptance speech across 12 networks,
which was 22 minutes long, compared with the 23.8 million who watched Trump’s
70-minute RNC address across 13 different
networks (one more than Biden’s).
Opening
night numbers showed a wider gap, with 17 million viewers for the RNC's first
evening on Monday, compared to 19.7 million viewers for the DNC on Aug. 17;
Wednesday night saw 17.3 million viewers for the RNC compared to 22.8 million
who watched Aug. 19, when Kamala Harris accepted the vice-presidential
nomination. The only night the GOP drew better than the Democrats was on the
convention's second evening, Tuesday, which featured a speech from First Lady
Melania Trump. The RNC drew 19.4 viewers over 11 networks, compared to the
Democrats' 19.2 million viewers on Aug. 18.
Trump’s
speech was preceded by his eldest daughter’s speech. Ivanka presented her
father as a person who speaks his mind: "I recognize that my dad's
communication style is not to everyone's taste. And I know his tweets can feel
a bit unfiltered. But the results speak for themselves."
Knowing
that he is behind his rival in approval rating by double digits, Trump and his supporting
cast did not waste any time with the scare tactics: i.e., what could go wrong
if the ‘socialist’ and ‘police-defunding’ Joe Biden and his ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘crazy’
democrats were to get elected and run this ‘great’ country. The message was loud
and clear: you may not like what Trump says and even some of the things he does,
but the alternative is your worst nightmare – unending chaos and the collapse
of democracy with hoodlums and rioters running the country. "No one will
be safe in Biden's America." "Your vote will decide whether we
protect law-abiding Americans, or whether we give free reign to violent
anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens," Trump
said in his acceptance speech.
Why
the scare tactics? The answer is simple and a prudent one. Fear tactics work (thus,
continue to be exploited in post-Hitler-Mussolini era by neo-fascist leaders like
Narendra Modi in India, Suu Kyi and the Tatmadaw military establishment in Myanmar
and Viktor Orban in Hungary) and is known to be a
hugely powerful motivator when it comes to voting. And Trump and his team knows
he isn't winning this presidential race, unless, of course, his base is
catalyzed to action and the undecided voters are mobilized to vote in large
numbers in his favor.
Part
of the Trump campaign’s reelection strategy has been to try to make this a
choice election rather than a referendum on how Trump has handled the
coronavirus pandemic, the biggest test to his presidency. It’s also a brilliant
ploy - to deflect the public opinion or inquiry into his own performance, e.g.,
when he claimed
half a year ago that “when we get
into April, in the warmer weather—that has a very negative effect on that, and
that type of a virus.” He has proven himself to be either a moron
or totally ill-prepared to tackle the pandemic. His arrogance, combined with sheer
stupidity or failure to take timely preventive measures has resulted in the
deaths of nearly two hundred thousand Americans, let alone the infection
of so many.
As
to his own achievement, Trump did not fail to mention the economic ‘miracle’ he
had delivered before the Covid-19 hit hard. It’s true that before the coronavirus
pandemic struck, the U.S. unemployment rate was just 3.5% — as low as it had
been in half a century and that the U.S. economy
added 6.8 million jobs in 37 months. But economic growth fell short of
what he promised. Moreover, in the 37 months before Trump took office,
the U.S. economy added 8.2 million jobs, surpassing Trump’s record.
The
economy grew 2.2% last year, roughly on par with the pace over the past decade.
Growth briefly hit Trump’s 3% target in 2018, following passage of the
Republican tax cut. However, it was short-lived with sagging global demand as
well as uncertainty stemming from the president’s trade war with not only China
but with more friendly nations like Canada and those within the European Union.
With
high unemployment rate, the economy is in dire condition now. Trump claimed, “Over the past three months, we have
gained over 9 million jobs, and that’s a record
in the history of our country.” The fact is while U.S. employers added more
than 9 million jobs in May, June and July, Trump and his administration has
nothing to take credit for the job numbers. More importantly, that’s fewer than half the
22 million jobs that were lost in March and April as the economy slid into the
deepest recession since the Great Depression. What’s more, job gains slowed
last month. And at 10.2%, the unemployment rate is still higher than at any
time during the Great Recession more than a decade ago. On Thursday, the Labor
Department reported that more than a million people filed new claims for
unemployment benefits last week. Twenty-seven million people were collecting
unemployment as of early August.
President
Trump’s battle cry against the S-word – socialism is one that has been repeated
throughout the RNC, from his campaign advisers to former Ambassador to the U.N.
Nikki Haley. In fact, the S-word has been leveled against Democrats for
decades. But as noted by many analysts, Democrats’ propensity to lean toward
regulation and empowering the federal government isn’t actually a socialist political system, where the state
uniformly provides social welfare services like health care and controls large
sections of the economy.
Trump
tried to present himself as the law-and-order
restoring president and the theme was not lost in his acceptance
speech by trying to draw a contrast with Democrats. Quite a few Black Americans
were brought to the podium to share their anecdotes, which belie
the reality experienced by most Blacks in this land of Lincoln where they
are more prone to be killed for minor crimes in the hands of the police simply
because of their skin color. Trump’s racially charging and religiously maligning
tweets and speeches have sent a wrong message polarizing the communities as
never before in this century. During his tenure, religious bigotry and racial
injustice have simply compounded multifold. But such ground realities did not
stop him to falsely claim
that he has “done more
for the African-American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our
first Republican president.”
White
evangelicals and other conservative Christians have remained, by and
large, a bastion
of support for President Trump, and his speech didn’t disappoint them.
He presented himself as an upholder of the Christian faith and a protector of
its faithful. He said, “Unlike
many presidents before me, I kept my promise, recognized Israel’s true capital
and moved our embassy to Jerusalem.” He said, “I withdrew from the terrible one-sided
Iran nuclear deal.” He also said, “We also recognized Israeli sovereignty
over the Golan Heights.”
It is worth noting that Trump recently said publicly that he moved
the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem “for the evangelicals,”
who express strong support for
Israel. The embassy move was met with support from many Jewish and evangelical
groups but was criticized by
some religious leaders. All these actions, appeasing the
Zionist state of Israel, are illegal under international law and have weakened
American position internationally. But to Trump such supports from the
international community never mattered an iota.
From
the first day of his administration, President Trump signaled that he has little
use for the international order. Since taking office, he has pursued his
“America First” foreign policy with gusto, withdrawing from an Asia-Pacific
trade agreement, the Paris
climate accord (on how to fight global warming and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions), the Iran
nuclear deal or, more properly, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), and
even the World
Health Organization. He has questioned the value
of NATO and sought to undermine the World
Trade Organization.
In his acceptance speech, Trump
did not mention that his unilateral action to withdraw from the JCPOA has been
a breach of promise that has weakened America’s position globally, which is
reflected in a number of recent votes in the United Nations. Within
the UN, the U.S. is more isolated than ever before. When the administration
asked the U.N. Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Iran this month, the Dominican
Republic was the only country to side with the United States.
Trump claimed to reduce the U.S. troop presence in the three
countries where the American military has been most active — Iraq, Afghanistan
and Syria. However, the conflicts have not been resolved, and many in the U.S.
national security establishment say the U.S. should maintain at least a limited
presence to prevent a resurgence of heavy fighting.
Remember: four years ago, Donald Trump promised that Mexico
would pay for the wall he wanted to build along the U.S.-Mexico border? In his
speech, Trump claimed, “We have
already built 300 miles of border wall, and we are adding 10 new miles every
single week. The wall will soon be complete”
The facts are, 275
miles of that wall have been built and Mexico has not paid a penny. While Congress
has authorized some spending for the project, most of the money for wall construction
has been redirected
from the military at the president’s insistence. Last week, his former
advisor Steve Bannon
and three others were indicted on charges that they siphoned hundreds
of thousands of dollars each from the wall fund for their own personal use.
Bannon has pleaded not guilty.
In the midst of race riots, defunding the police in some
cities have become a major issue, which Biden opposes. And yet, the issue is
exploited by Trump to portray Biden as the future of disorder. He said, “Make no mistake, if you give power
to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across
America. They will pass federal legislation to reduce
law enforcement nationwide. They will make every city look like
Democrat-run Portland, Oregon.”
Before ending his 70-minute long speech, Trump promised to
deliver, “And on November 3rd, we
will make America safer. We will make America stronger. We will
make America prouder. And we will make America greater than ever before.”
For years ago, Trump promised to
make America “great” again. That did not happen. America is isolated
internationally, and remains divided and polarized internally, as never before.
The words ‘great’, ‘safe’, ‘strong’ and ‘proud’ have all been abused and lost their
usual meanings and luster under his administration. Can American voters afford
to have four more years of nightmare with Trump back in the White House? I know
my answer: it’s a “no”.
Adios, Mr. Trump.
