Bracing for a Trump administration: Why Trump’s got this

Bracing for a Trump administration: Why Trump’s got this

Donald Trump's appeal and growing potential for victory rests not on his suitability for the office of president but on his perfection as a foil with which Americans can destroy the status quo.

Midas Letter, National Post, September 9 2016

( Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer via AP)

If you took mainstream media sources verbatim, there is zero chance that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. But as is broadly understood by the voting public, the mainstream media is controlled entirely by five major corporate entities that are themselves controlled by what the rest of us call the “one per cent.”

Thus, the mainstream media can be regarded as little else but a broadcasting platform for their interests.

At best, it then follows that their “polls” and “opinions” are to be taken with a grain of salt. At worst, they are simply meaningless.

In understanding Trump’s rise against what is portrayed as impossible odds, it is important to consider the rise alternately of Bernie Saunders and Barack Obama. In all cases, it is frustration with the status quo that provides the wave of support upon which these candidates achieve their respective successes.

The frustration stems from the demonstrated reality, in administration after administration, that political and financial elite are not capable, interested, or even aware of, the interest of the 99 per cent. With every new president, the vast majority watch the public record unfold on CNN, and see and hear that their interests are not only not being represented, but that they are being systematically polled, categorized, and demographically classified so that candidates can tailor their message to present the appearance of having the electorate’s interests first and foremost on the agenda.

But the jig is up. Instantaneous transmission of images, conversations and parodies from the entertainment industry (have you watched HBO’s Veep with Julia Louis-Dreyfus? Is that how they really talk on Capitol Hill?) has over-ridden the overpriced spin output of flashy Madison avenue ad agencies. Everybody knows that the elite political class will say and do absolutely anything they and their advisers think will get them to the ultimate power pulpit in America.

There is a sociological reflex that is not often recognized whereby a person who becomes disenfranchised from all social institutions trends toward a misanthropic mindset, preferring to destroy the existing institutions rather than find a way to fit in. Contrary to the conventional “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” wisdom, the ascendance of nihilistic extremism across multiple social strata demonstrates clearly the predominance of the former.

Trump’s appearance as an option is an opportunity for those feeling disenfranchised – which arguably constitutes the bulk of the 99 per cent – is precisely the opportunity to wreck the existing political apparatus and force a revision that somehow better addresses the needs of the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

This reality is not projected or reported on in mainstream financial media. It is reality that the mainstream and political elite would just go away. But it is the reality that is propelling Trump to new heights of popularity, despite what is being projected in the mainstream media.

The political class is terrified that a Trump victory threatens the centuries-old power structures behind Capitol Hill, and could indeed catalyze an end to many of them.

The mainstream media fails to comprehend that by pointing out Trump’s flubs and lack of credibility and unsuitability for the title Commander in Chief that they are reinforcing and amplifying this sentiment. They’re missing the point that this powerful and growing under-represented majority don’t care about a slick, polished, consistent, pitch-perfect delivery. On the contrary, the absence of such underscores the perfection of Trump as the only possible horse in the race who could actually cause the downfall of the favourites, and force a revision to the rules and structures that have evolved to create and protect the political elite.

The more Trump shoots from the hip, contradicts himself, casts outlandish aspersions against the character of his competitor, the more he tickles the glee factor in the disenfranchised.

The more Hillary delivers demographically attenuated, glib and professionally synthesized sound bites to her already galvanized circle of supporters, the more she demonstrates that a vote for Hillary is a vote for the status quo.

The mainstream media, for its part, demonstrates its collusive culpability in projecting and supporting the status quo by focusing its substantial amplification resources on Trump’s foibles – his donations to Pam Bondi’s campaign to induce a cooperative approach to the Trump University debacle, his remarks in superficial support of Putin, his permanent foot-lodged-in-mouth approach to commenting to any woman and women generally – while downplaying Clinton’s flaws.

The outrage around Bill Clinton’s runway visit with Attorney General Loretta Lynch just as the Department of Justice is deciding whether to proceed with charges against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server during her tenure as President Obama’s secretary of state came and went in a breath. Her sale of access to her office while Secretary of State to various interests has come and gone and resonates no longer in the mainstream.

All of these things obviate the failure of the American political elite to correctly identify the very real threat of a Trump presidency, and consequently develop a coherent and intelligent defense against his rise.

For this reason, the odds of Trump becoming the next president are much higher in favour of his eventual victory.

James West  is an investor and the author of the Midas Letter, an investing research report focused on Canadian markets. The views expressed are his own and are presented for general informational purposes only.