Trump’s election an indictment of US political system: Scholar

The fact that a charlatan like Donald Trump could be elected president of the United States is an indictment of the US political system, says Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs. 

Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, said in an interview with Press TV on Friday that by exacerbating global tensions Trump is accelerating the decline of the American Empire.

Professor Etler made the comments after the author of a new bombshell book about Trump's first year in office has revealed that "one hundred percent" of those around the US president consider him “moron, idiot.” Michael Wolff’s book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" went on sale on Friday.

PressTV-100% of those around Trump consider him 'moron, idiot'

The author of a new bombshell book about Donald Trump's first year in office says "one hundred percent" of those around the US president consider him “moron, idiot.”

“The rise of Trump to his preeminent position as president of the United States and leader of the so-called ‘Free World’ speaks more to the bankruptcy of US democratic institutions and the disillusionment of the US people rather than any aptitude or ability on his part to perform in that position. If anybody had said a decade ago that Donald J. Trump would be president of the US ten years hence it would have been taken as a bad, sick joke,” Etler said.

“Trump’s rise as a real-estate mogul was based on his close ties to mobsters and his manipulation of the bankruptcy courts, not any business acumen. His fortune was built on parlaying his reputation as a celebrity into a brand that he licensed to those competent to conduct business. There is also rampant speculation that he is not worth nearly as much as he says, since he refuses to reveal his tax returns as all other presidential candidates have done in the past. In other words Trump has been and still is a fraud,” he stated.

“The fact that a buffoon and charlatan like Trump could be elected to any position is an indictment of the US political system. The governance of a modern state, no matter what its ideological stance, should be based on competence. That is no longer the case in the US,” the analyst said.

“It must first be acknowledged however that Trump’s predecessors, both Democratic and Republican, pursued policies little different that those Trump has embraced. In pursuing their imperialist policies both at home and abroad, they showed little restraint, but they understood to some degree that precipitous actions could backfire, which of course did happen in many instances. All of Trump’s immediate predecessors engaged in illegal wars, interfered in the internal affairs of sovereign nations and imposed punitive economic sanctions against countries that refused to submit to US dictates,” he said.

‘Resistance to US aggression mounting’

“Resistance to US aggression and alternatives to Western financial institutions have recently been mounting, especially with the rise of independent centers of military and economic power in Russia and China respectively. Prior to Trump however there was some willingness of the US and its allies to engage in negotiations with its adversaries in order to seek compromises that suited the parties concerned,” the commentator noted.

“The election of a self-centered, egoist with no knowledge or competence in how to govern at home or conduct foreign affairs presents a shift in how the US operates. The danger is that all constraints on policy both foreign and domestic have been loosened to such an extent that prudence has been thrown out the window and precipitous actions that damage global peace and security are now more possible than ever,” he said.  

“Under Trump, the US has antagonized both friend and foe alike. As a result it has become more and more isolated on the world stage,” he said.

“Reckless actions by the US have escalated tensions in the Middle East, East Asia, and elsewhere, throwing the world into turmoil. By exacerbating global tensions Trump may feel that he is putting ‘America First’ but in reality he is accelerating its decline. The decline of the US as a global hegemon will be, in the long-term, all for the good, but in the short term US policies are a clear and present danger to the world’s peace and security,” Professor Etler concluded.

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