Donald Trump has unleashed America’s nastiest Presidential election yet. But his latest pronouncements, on the US polls — in fact, the entire system — possibly being rigged, and his posturing — “I’ll keep you in suspense” — that he might not accept the election results have broken even his own record of causing outrage. That is no easy accomplishment. From the beginning to the closing days of this bitter contest, Trump’s made discriminatory statements that left the world in disbelief. His identity-based slurs, from suggesting all Muslims be banned from entering the US to claiming Mexico provided America with numerous rapists and drug-dealers — “bad hombres”, as he calls them — who should be kept out via a great wall, broke multiple conventions. His views on women shattered all norms of civilised talk, Trump repeatedly attacking women over their physiology, defiant even over footage showing him bragging about brutishly groping women, breezily dismissing this as “locker room talk”. Some women stated Trump did assault them, to one, the Republican nominee responded — no, she wouldn’t have been his first choice.
His railing against the Beltway establishment, his calling out the Clintons’ cosy patronage politics, did strike a chord with many pushed to the margins by the rapid force of change. For some Americans, Trump represents a clever “outsider”, challenging elite political insiders like Clinton. Initially, Trump appeared to mock and shock the status quo, jeering at Washington’s fine words and dirty deals. But his own trash talk seriously dented Trump representing greater transparency and equity. As poll after poll shows him slipping, he’s snarling back — and further undermining himself. Like a bully cornered, Trump finds fault in everything except himself. So the entire media is sold out; “The Donald” even feels the polling system itself could be rigged. President Obama has caustically and helpfully suggested he provide evidence or stop whining. But Trump’s is a fact-free world, he is no agent of positive change but a potentially sore loser.
His latest hissy fit has broken his USP — he’s now a Presidential candidate who doesn’t believe in the sanctity of the very process by which a President is chosen, thereby unlikely to follow the procedures a President must. Previously, Trump showed dangerously anti-democratic tendencies, suggesting he’d imprison Clinton if he won, felicitating Russians hacking US election data, stating Clinton — whom he calls “a nasty woman” — shouldn’t even be allowed to contest. He’s now shown himself to be a petulant, spoilt bully, who can’t change what’s broken in America. He can perhaps benefit it by vanishing behind his own metaphorical wall.
