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Contemplating the Trump presidency

By Bayo Ogunmupe
19 December 2016   |   3:47 am
Moreover, Trump is a thinker for he has scores of books to his credit unlike previous presidents with the exception of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Barrack Obama.
 President-elect Donald Trump / Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

President-elect Donald Trump / Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

As soon as I discovered that educational qualifications were not enough to become rich, I started seeking out the nuggets of entrepreneurship from books. Then decades ago, I came in contact with Donald Trump through his many books on the subject. Trump became my hero. Here is a man who was born rich but still worked his life out as a writer, television producer and real estate executive. Which is why I believe he will be a great President of the United States.  In his books on entrepreneurship, he cast himself as a businessman and critic, aloof from politics. And by 2006, the Forbes Rich List estimated Trump’s fortune at $2.9 billion, making Donald John Trump America’s 94th richest person.

Moreover, Trump is a thinker for he has scores of books to his credit unlike previous presidents with the exception of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Barrack Obama. More so, Trump has been ranked the 47th among authors on Entrepreneurship in 50 Prosperity Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon. But his victory in the last election hit the world like an earthquake. His victory showed that the American electorate was disillusioned with the liberalism of the Democratic Party and globalization which took much of their jobs offshore.

Thus, Trump without any political experience, political infrastructure, who has been abusive to women, ethnic minorities and Muslims, won. Against all odds, the man the media and the pundits cast as villain emerged President-elect in an election Hillary Clinton was tipped to win. In identifying the factors responsible for the Trump victory, we found that Trump had realised the strategic importance of the electoral college and Trump prepared for it by campaigning nationwide.

The electoral college elects the president every four years. According to the U.S. Constitution, each state shall appoint a number of electors equal to its representation in the Senate and the House of Representatives ( the Congress). And since the 19th-century electors always vote as a block in favour of the Presidential candidate who won the highest votes in their states.  Then, the candidate who receives the absolute majority of the electoral votes in all the states becomes the President-elect.

The awareness that he could win through the electoral college encouraged Trump to mount his nationwide election campaign early. In 2012, Mitt Romney had lost to Obama at the electoral college despite his large majority in the popular vote. In the same way in 1876, Samuel Tilden beat Rutherford Hayes, a Republican in the popular vote but lost at the electoral college. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison, the only grandson of a president to become president, was elected despite the incumbent President Grover Cleveland winning the popular vote.

The second strategy that worked for Trump was his knowledge of the Republican Party. Aware of their needs, their hatred of minorities; aware that technological innovation and globalisation had rendered many middle-class Americans jobless. Trump structured his campaign along that line. That strategy enabled him to clinch 61 per cent vote of white women; 60 per cent of white men; 306 electoral votes as against 232 for Hillary Clinton. Since no party favoured the Hispanics, blacks and illegal immigrants, most of them did not vote.

That demonstrates how smart and strategic Donald Trump could be in decision making. I predicted his victory because he demonstrated great ingenuity in his books. The third factor for the Trump triumph is his adoption of Britain’s Brexit Campaign strategy to win the election. He played on the people’s emotions, campaigned for immigration control, strong borders including a wall along the Mexican border. He promised to halt Muslim entry to the U.S.; expel aliens, his slogan was to make America great again.

Trump kicked against the establishment and the Wall Street which was why all ex-presidents campaigned against him. Unknown to many but known to readers of his books is the factor that forced Trump into politics. Trump hated the penchant by politicians to trade human life for money. He claimed George Walker Bush went to war in Iraq to make money because Bush was aware Iraq did not have weapon of mass destruction. Trump preferred that wealth seekers should go into business instead  of going to war and killing humans for money. In one of his books he said he would jail Bush for lying to the world on weapons of mass destruction which never existed.

Thus, what can we expect from the Trump presidency? I believe Trump will enhance the prestige of the United States rather than bring it down. There is nothing reprehensible in making members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) pay more for their own defence. The burden of NATO defence must be shared by all. Better still, Trump isn’t going to engage in baseless wars like NATO did in Iraq , Afghanistan and Libya.

Furthermore, Trump as a businessman will be a better manager of scarce resources. He would also not allow Russia to take over Eastern Europe. Trump’s pledge to scrap the Iran nuclear deal will make the world unsafe, for Saudi Arabia will not sit still and allow Iran overrun her borders.  For Nigeria, I will urge Trump to put pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to listen to the agitation for restructuring and resource control by the Yoruba Unity Forum, the Niger Delta Avengers and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    WOW!what a load of crap!!I cant believe i actually read the whole thing.Oga Bayo keep waiting am sure Trump will make Nigeria great again or better still,he would make Yorubaland great again.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Egbon Bayo seems to live in the dreamland of Utopian Nigeria. I am sure Mr Bayo is not unaware of the wedges in stock for Trumpland America. Mr. Bayo needs to update his fertile sense of history. Trump won the election because of the complacency and lackluster attitudes of the Democratic party, and the monstrosity of the media.

    Hillary Clinton has the popular votes with more than 2 millions in her glass ceilings. Just like Brexit, those who voted out of resentment, religion and hate have started gnashing their teeth for Trumpland and its threat to American exceptionalism.

    I laughed hysterically when you mentioned Nigeria impending benefits or suggestions to president Trump. Whether Harry Truman or Barack Obama or Donald Trump, American interest is sacrosanct to America. Do not wait for our illusion of foreigners to make “Nigeria great again.” “We the people” in Nigeria can make Nigeria great again. PERIOD!!!