Donald Trump as US president? It’s going to be so much fun
Yonden Lhatoo says America’s agenda will remain the same, no matter who wins the election, but at least Trump will provide plenty of entertainment
Is Donald Trump really going to be the next US president?
I certainly hope so, but hear me out before questioning my sanity or writing me off as one of those boneheaded American bigots who flock to his campaign rallies.
Remember back when George W. Bush was president? For eight years, there was no shortage of global entertainment every time he opened his mouth in public, thanks to his buffoonery, cluelessness and near-illiteracy. It was such fun.
His presidency also gave us a smug sense of satisfaction that, for all its power, wealth and hegemony, America had a clown sitting in the highest office.
Of course, Bush was also the dangerous warmonger who reduced Iraq to rubble, but let me get back to that in a moment.
The presidency of Barack Obama, on the other hand, has been a crashing bore. All those promises of change, all that intelligence and idealism, and yet all we’ve seen is eight years of nothing much, except for the extrajudicial killing of Osama bin Laden when he was not even relevant any more.
And Obama’s foreign policy is really no different from that of his predecessor. In fact, he’s left a bigger mess in the Middle East – just look at Syria and the scourge of Islamic State.
Enter Trump. The property mogul and reality TV star was a joke when he threw his hat in the ring last June, and he remains a joke, but look who’s having the last laugh now.
No matter how repugnant the words coming out of the loud mouth of this racist, misogynist and repulsive man, he just keeps moving from strength to strength, bad comb-over and all. His xenophobic and fear-mongering rhetoric resonates with large swathes of the US population.
Now he’s heading for a final showdown with Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton for the presidency, and those of you who think there’s no way he’ll win had better learn from poor Jeb Bush what it means to “misunderestimate” Trump.
While Trump’s hate speech against Latinos has cost him swing states such as Florida, Colorado and New Mexico, he may only have to secure the so-called Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin, where people have taken a shine to his rants against US trade policy, to win the election in November.
And if he succeeds? It will not be a global disaster, as his haters like to think. In fact, it will make no real difference to any of us, the non-American majority around the world. We can resort to conspiracy theories about shadow governments, or just use common sense to look at the agenda of influential lobby groups, financiers and billionaires who help put men like Trump in the White House.
It doesn’t matter a damn who becomes US president. America will always do what America wants to do and has always done.
Remember how excited everyone was in Hong Kong when Obama was elected in 2008? Like anything would actually change for us. That’s why I find it amusing when I hear people in this town say, “Oh my God, what will happen to the world if Donald Trump really becomes president?”
Nothing will happen. He won’t ban Muslims from the US or build the equivalent of the Great Wall of China to shut out Mexicans. It’s all bluff, fear-mongering and rabble-rousing.
I can’t wait for Trump in the White House. It’s going to be endless entertainment if he wins.
How prophetic, the muddled words of George W. Bush: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” Amen.
Yonden Lhatoo is a senior editor at the Post
