Donald Trump is ending his presidential term in the same way he started it: amid chaos, confusion and bewilderment.
Now, finally, at his immediate instigation, a crowd literally stormed the Capitol, a symbol of American democracy, pushing for a variant of the certification that would see Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden named the next president of the United States. United States.
The scenes that traveled the world are revolting. In them, delusions are perceived, imbued with a messianic spirit, ready to face all obstacles, in order to achieve their goal: to reverse the will of the American people expressed during the polls.
The symbolic value of these images cannot be described. What they reflect is that such behavior has compromised the legitimacy of the United States’ democratic system.
As the chief provocateur of those actions, Donald Trump has written the epitaph of what could be his political grave. Of course it could have been different. Although he didn’t win the election, Trump wasn’t that bad. He received 74 million votes, 12 million more than in 2016, when he secured Hillary Clinton’s election victory.
Additionally, the percentage difference was 51.3 percent in favor of Biden and 46.8 percent for Trump. With numbers like these, before the attack on the Capitol, some thought that the New York tycoon could emerge as leader of the Republican Party and perhaps even return as a presidential candidate in 2024.
All of this is unlikely, and the reason is essentially due to one fact: Donald Trump’s personality or temperament himself.
Stable mood
Trump calls himself a stable genius. What is appreciated about him, however, is that he is an extravagant, picturesque and narcissistic figure, with an undeniable sense of superiority. In short, a complex personality whose goal was wealth, fame and power.
Basically a businessman, who inherits from his father a real estate empire dedicated to the purchase, renovation, sale and rental of apartment buildings in New York.
When he took charge of the family business in the early 1970s, Donald Trump turned it into hotels, casinos, golf courses and airlines. It is there where, with ups and downs, he manages to create and consolidate the Trump name as a brand or commercial seal.
At the same time, he felt the need to publicize through the media. For this reason, he took part in several television programs and made deliberately controversial statements and comments.
His interest was to attract attention, to become some kind of media celebrity. He hosted the Miss Universe pageant, broadcast the wrestling card, and owned a soccer team.
But it didn’t stop there. He appeared as a supporting actor in eight feature films. He created his own reality show, The Apprentice, with a large audience among young people with entrepreneurial aspirations.
To date he has published 19 books. One of them, The Art of the Deal, became a real bestseller or bestseller.
But strangely, he never wrote one. Someone else always does it, a ghostwriter. The most famous, Tony Schwartz.
To fully understand Donald Trump’s personality, it should be borne in mind that the first time he married a Czech model, Ivanna Zelnickova.
His second marriage was to a movie actress, Marla Maples; and on the third occasion, with his current wife, former Slovak model, Melania Knauss.
As can be seen, a very selective taste.
I’m on my way to the White House
In politics, Donald Trump has never been stable. He changed connections at an unusual frequency. In 1987 he joined the Republican Party. Then he joined a so-called reform party (which has nothing to do with the Dominican).
Later he enrolled in the Democratic Party; in 2009 he was a Republican again. Two years later, in 2011, he became independent; and the following year, 2012, he rejoined the Republican Party registry for the third time.
Several times he flirted with the idea of running for president. When it was finally released, in 2015, it wasn’t taken seriously. It was believed to be a new marketing plan to promote their business.
With slogans like America Primero; Let’s make America great; and Let’s Take Back Our Country, he was placed in his party’s primaries until he reached the nomination.
Various factors played a role in this. First, that any sector of North American society has never accepted the idea that an African American, such as Barack Obama, could be president of the United States.
Trump started his campaign precisely by questioning Obama’s nationality. He claimed he was born in Kenya, where his father was from; and demanded that he produce his birth certificate.
With the support of the Fox News network and other media outlets of the conservative propaganda machine, the message got through to the sectors most sensitive to the racial issue.
Trump also announced that he would take on the established or established powers in Washington, which he held responsible for the damaging effects of globalization, such as the closure of industries, illegal migration, unemployment, inequality, poverty and pessimism that it had on Americans. taken over.
With those ideas and a promise to drain the swamp, Donald Trump unexpectedly defeated Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
From the White House, with the support of far-right groups, he sought to eradicate Barack Obama’s legacy and promote racist, divisive and conservative policies domestically; and outwardly, internationally, a nationalist, populist, protectionist and isolationist court.
His main communication weapon was Twitter. He had a whopping 88 million followers, allowing him to challenge powerful media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, which he considered enemies of the people and promoters of fake news.
Despite his inflammatory rhetoric and confrontational style, Trump managed to gain strong support in key segments of American society. So much so that at one point it was thought he could even win re-election.
Its basic enemy was COVID-19. Knowing its true extent, he didn’t know how to deal with it. At the end of his tenure, the United States is the country with the highest number of infected and dead in the world.
But despite his defeat, Trump may be an influential leader in the ranks of conservatism and a potential candidate in 2024.
Now everything indicates that it will not be possible. His stubbornness to push his charges of fraud to the limit and not accept Joe Biden’s triumph, as it should be, make him a shadow of the past, or a museum piece at best.