Media and Trump Victory

Shortly after Donald Trump secured the Presidency,  an Iranian media outlet asked me what contributed to his win.  In light of the Guardian piece today, it is worthwhile posting my interview here.

Trump’s Victory 

As surprising as Trump’s victory may have seemed, it would be a mistake to attribute this win to a single issue, just as it would be wrong to ignore the players behind the scene. 

The ideology among those who supported Trump was not uniform or unanimous.    Trump found support among those who opposed the social changes which contradicted their social and religious values foremost abortion and LGBT.  His main supporting block, the Evangelicals, even overlooked his character flaws such as his numerous marriages and womanizing.  Their support of Trump was due to his pro-Israel, pro-settlements and his anti-Islam stance.  Added to the mix was the undeniable racism of some of his supporters.  The White supremacists and the Christian Supremacists (embodied in his Vice President Mike Pence) were a solid block.    

Poverty played a big role.  It was the poverty and lack of jobs and opportunities that triggered anti-immigration by many of his supporters.  At a time of declining living standards, the number 1 culprit is perceived to be the immigrants ‘who take jobs

away’.  While the previous administration presented a picture of job and economy 

improvement, an independent academic study (2015) found that America was in economic decline.  

Some of the report’s finding made interesting comparisons such as America’s child poverty levels are worse than in any developed country anywhere, including Greece, and eastern European nations such as Poland, Lithuania and Estonia.   Median adult wealth was ranked 27^th behind Cyprus, Taiwan and Ireland, and life satisfaction ranked America 12^th (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2622722)

These ongoing elements prompted Trump supporters to vote for someone outside of Washington.   This gives an interesting twist to the role the media played in the election.

During the campaign, Donald Trump was front and center in the mainstream media.   The more the media marginalized him, the stronger his base grew.   I continue to ponder over and question media’s role.   It would appear that they tried to marginalize Trump.   A very old video in which Trump suggests groping women was ‘dug up’ and aired continuously.  What has baffled me is the fact that those who looked for and exposed this tape failed to expose the interview tape of Donald Trump aired on September 11, 2001 immediately after 911 in which he states  

clearly that there must have been demolition material in the basement. (bombs)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt-ldMj9y9w

Revelations of this video would have ended his candidacy, but it was not revealed.  Further, his promotion and endorsement and support of Netanyahu in 2013 was not aired either https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm5Je73bYOY  Though perhaps this latter was less consequential had it been aired, it would demonstrate to the ‘intellectuals’ looking for an ‘isolationist’ candidate who would not support wars to think twice about Trump and the continuity of US policies.

We have to ask why the media and anti-Trump faction did not find and reveal

reveal these videos (I had seen them prior to the elections).

Attention must also be drawn to social media.   We live in a world where social media, especially Twitter and Facebook have been behind color revolutions (generally referred to as Arab Spring).   Twitter diplomacy was first coined in 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_diplomacy) it was actually used against Iran in 2009.  Those tweets attributed to Iranians  inside Iran in the aftermath of the 2009 elections were traced back to Israel.  (“Wired Magazine” “Iran: Before You Have That Twitter-Gasm…). 

What is important to remember about Trump and his ‘Twitter Diplomacy’ is the fact that it was promoted by the mainstream media (as with all other cases where twitter is used for an agenda).

In the interest of brevity, it must be concluded that Trump owes his win to the disenfranchised, the poor, the jobless, the racist, and yes, the media!