Might Trump’s extremist agenda be his undoing?

Donald Trump’s principal campaign slogan is ‘America First’. With this slogan, he portrays American society’s problems in the most simplistic way possible while ignoring fundamental issues such as the wealth disparity between rich and poor.  All of America’s woes supposedly emanate from foreigners.  Add potent racism to the mix and Trump’s toxic message is complete.  This meshes easily with his overwhelmingly White core supporters.

These are key elements of his narrative:

1. America is unduly burdened by military expenditure. If other countries of the world (such as Saudi Arabia and even Taiwan) require American protection for their security, they will have to pay for it. This includes the US’ European allies in NATO.  Trump declares they will have to pay a larger share of NATO’s expenditure: in practice, buying more American weapons. He is unhappy with American expenditure on Ukraine and claims that, should he be elected, Ukraine’s war with Russia will be ended almost immediately.

2. Trump does not share the world’s concern about global warming and does not recognise American responsibility in this regard. Instead, he says climate concerns are deeply harmful to America’s economy.  On the one hand, they lead to restrictions on the extraction, sale and use of US oil and gas deposits while, on the other, such restrictions lead to higher costs for American manufacturers.  As such, they damage the American job market.

3. Trump does not like ‘globalisation’ and considers this tantamount to the export of American job opportunities.  Therefore, he calls for the return of industrial and commodity production to the US, preserving more American jobs.

While this narrative chimes with Trump’s core base, it has alarmed most of the rest of the world, who have been watching the presidential contest with increasing alarm.  (The exceptions are the few who think they may benefit from Trump’s policies.)

For good reason, both world leaders and many American voters are deeply concerned about what form American “democracy” will take under a second Trump presidency.

But Trump’s supreme arrogance and extremism may finally have tripped him up.  For weeks prior to Biden’s sudden announcement that he was pulling out of the race, the Democrats’ campaign appeared to be in total chaos. Trump seems to have assumed the race was a foregone conclusion.  Therefore, he declared that James David Vance will be his vice-presidential running mate. Vance is a younger, less experienced fire brand of Trump’s own ilk - but younger, even more extreme while less experienced and so less cautious.  

Biden’s surprise announcement and the presume candidacy of Kamela Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, has seriously slowed down Trump’s bandwagon.  Trump’s pick of Vance as his vice-president seems to have alarmed many of America’s “average” voters.  Maybe – hopefully -- Trump’s extremist agenda will bring about his downfall.