David Griffin: Trump has no excuse not make America great
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
Despite having resigned in 2015, I’m even considering putting myself forward for election to the management committee of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – and at this rate I reckon I might even have a chance of winning!
Like him or otherwise, Donald Trump was subjected to ridiculously partisan media coverage with very few of his less-extreme statements fully reported; to the extent that I heard him live on the radio clearly congratulating Hillary Clinton for a hard-fought battle and going on to thank her for all of the work she had done over the past 30 years in public service. However, only the first part of his statement was mentioned on the Today programme.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWe have become so used to politicians making promises that they should, would or could not keep, so when Trump said he would bring back jobs to the US – but never stated how – I merely put this down to typical political rhetoric and, to a certain extent, the belief that he knew he would never be elected and therefore could promise the earth.
However, I now wonder whether those who queued for hours in aircraft hangars across the country actually got the full story from Trump of how he would deliver these jobs, infrastructure, efficiencies in government and the repatriation of illegal immigrants who were also criminals. The reason I don’t know this is because only the sound bites were ever reported.
When the political establishment conspires with the media as extensively and as blatantly as it has done over the past year, the public will see (and obviously have seen) through the intent. Be it the election of Jeremy Corbyn, our exit from Europe or now the vote for Donald Trump, undecided voters will react in exactly the way the establishment wanted to prevent.
In the case of president-elect Trump, it is imperative that the media now reports fully and impartially what he has to say. It is the detail that will affect us and we must know what this is if we are to react in an appropriate manner.
One thing for sure: if the news companies, TV commentators and A-list celebrities continue to bad-mouth Trump, he will recoil and come back fighting in an even more regressive manner than he might otherwise be prepared to do. It is imperative that he is treated with the respect the office deserves.
Unlike president Barack Obama, who was hog-tied by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, if Trump does not deliver and “make America great again” he will have no excuses – he leads their party.
And if he does deliver a “Great Wall of Mexico” with crops having to be ploughed back into the fields for lack of cheap labour; if he does rip up trade agreements resulting in other countries refusing to buy American goods and services; if he does have thousands of Muslims held up in Ellis Island suffering aggressive visa control applications causing Middle Eastern governments to buy their machinery of war from elsewhere, then Trump may just become the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party since John F Kennedy.
• David Griffin is managing director of Glasgow-based Griffin Webster Property Consultants