If elected Trump will backtrack on inflammatory positions: Pundit

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's rhetoric may get him elected but he will change his tune once in the White House, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in politics.  

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, told Press TV on Wednesday that Trump is an “unprincipled chameleon who will opportunistically change his tune when necessary.”

On Tuesday, Sadiq Khan, the new mayor of London, rejected Trump’s offer that he could be an exception to his proposed ban on all Muslims entering the United States.

Khan said that Trump’s call to prevent Muslims from travelling to the US directly affected the people closest to him, and added that offering an exception for him was not the answer, The Guardian reported.

“This isn’t just about me – it’s about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world,” said Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, who scored a resounding victory over his billionaire Conservative rival last week.

Trump's campaign has been marred by his defamatory remarks against minorities in the US. His policy proposals include calling for a total ban on Muslims in America and forced deportation of undocumented immigrants.

What Trump realizing about Muslims

“Trump, who deals in racist stereotypes in stigmatizing whole groups of people, seems to have belatedly come to the realization that there are over a billion Muslims in the world, two thirds of whom live in South and Southeast Asia, not the Middle East or North Africa,” Professor Etler said.

“The vast majority of Muslims are not Arabs or Iranians, but Indonesians, Malays, Pakistanis and Indians. There are dozens of countries with majority Muslim populations whose heads of state, politicians and business people travel the world, including the US, without incident but would be banned from visiting the US under Trump's proposal,” he added.

“But is Trump as ignorant as the people who support him seem to be? He tries to make himself out to be a mirror image of the know-nothing political Luddites who inhabit about one third of the electoral landscape,” he continued.  

Trump is a supreme manipulator

“He is, however, a supreme manipulator and self-professed ‘persuader’ who will change his tune when it serves his interests. For Trump to win in November he needs an overwhelming turnout of white déclassé males, his electoral base. In courting this demographic Trump has already alienated major voting blocs such as women, Hispanics, Blacks and college aged youth,” the analyst said.

“In addition a significant number of mainstream Republicans are opting to support Hillary Clinton in lieu of the unpredictable Trump. On the other hand, although the deck seemed stacked against him Trump has already achieved more than what was expected and is now the heir apparent to receive the Republican nomination. All this makes it incumbent upon Trump to galvanize his base of support by demagogically appealing to their baser instincts,” he stated.

Trump will change his mind when necessary

“If Trump does manage to gain the presidency expect him to quickly backtrack on his more inflammatory positions. Already Trump is having to explain away some of his more impetuous remarks as being quoted out of context and he says that he is will change his mind when necessary,” Professor Etler said.

“He seems more than ready to chuck some of his more controversial stands when challenged. Trump is an unprincipled chameleon who will opportunistically change his tune when necessary. That is the main reason mainstream Republicans distrust him. The Republican Party serves as his vehicle to power not vice versa,” the academic noted

“If elected Trump will quickly resolve the issue surrounding the Muslim travel ban by saying that he has studied the issue and determined that stricter precautions will be implemented to ban ‘bad’ Muslims from entry while allowing ‘good’ Muslims in,” the pundit argued.

“Trump trumpets his unpredictability as an important asset in his ability to ‘make a deal,’ so it is to be expected that whatever he says during the campaign will be jettisoned once he is in office. The question is, has he alienated so many people both at home and abroad that his credibility will be affected? The bottom line is that once elected he will have to deal with the real world and his adversaries will have to deal with him, whether they like it or not,” he concluded. 

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