When Is A Trump Not A Trump?

During his presidential campaign Donald Trump regularly said things that made people sit up and take notice. Tabloid headline writers frothed at the mouth, political commentators analysed and dissected, and the rest of us either hailed him as a breath of fresh air or accused him of narcissism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, misogyny and stupidity, sometimes in equal measure. He was certainly not a vanilla candidate. Love him or loathe him, you couldn’t ignore him. Which makes his behaviour post-election all the more puzzling.

Even the most casual of observers cannot failed to have noticed that Trump’s language and demeanour have both changed following his victory over Hilary Clinton. Gone, for the most part, is the bluster and the ‘shock and awe’ one-liners that would have a late-night radio DJ blushing in embarrassment. His tone is conciliatory, more statesman-like and far less aggressive than prior to the election. That’s good, you might think, given some of the unhinged nonsense that he came out with during the campaign, but I wonder how his staunchest supporters will feel if his more colourful pledges and promises are simply going to melt away into the shadows because they are unworkable, unrealistic or unpopular with the rest of his party. Will they feel that they have ordered a fresh helping of Dr. Jekyll and instead been served up a rather familiar-tasting batch of Mr. Hyde? Don’t get me wrong, I dislike Trump’s rhetoric and would hate to see many of his campaign commitments being enacted, but that’s not the point. I didn’t vote for him but Millions did, presumably because they liked what they heard. He won their votes because he promised to build a wall and stop Muslim immigration, so it’ surely only a matter of time before those voters start demanding their wall, regardless of the practicalities. 

This issue is important – I don’t want to live in a country where a politician can spout any old nonsense in order to get elected and then promptly deny comments and renege on promises once he (or she) has been handed the reigns. If this was Trump’s deliberate strategy to win, he’s been dishonest at best. People will not be getting what they thought they were voting for. If the new Donald-Lite (still with the same levels of artificial colouring) has emerged thanks to a series of back-room chats with political heads older and wiser than his, he’s been extremely naïve. Either way, there’s a certain irony to the fact that Trump’s campaign team went after Hilary Clinton’s character and personal credibility at every given opportunity! “She can’t be trusted,” they said. “She’s dishonest”. “She’ll say anything to get into power”. Sound familiar?  

One final thought: one of Trump’s key campaign slogans was “drain the swamp” – a pledge to cut the money and corruption out of American politics by clamping down on lobbyists and booting out the old-school-tie Washington career politicos. Anyone looking at his first series of appointments since winning the election would be forgiven for thinking they all looked a little, well, swampy.