Trump channeling into Americans’ frustration: Academic

Press TV has conducted an interview with Alexander Azadgan, professor of Strategic Global Management from California, about US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s controversial quotation of Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Certainly Donald Trump seems to be breaking and going through all the red lines. How do you feel about his latest gaffe, if I may call that, by quoting Mussolini?

Azadgan: Well, just when you think Donald Trump has outdone himself, once again he makes a completely controversial statement quoting a dictator, a fascist. You have to understand the mood in this country is one of anger, one of frustration, one of revolt, one of revolution, and what Donald Trump is very shrewdly doing is channeling into that anger.

The irony is that Donald Trump, being the billionaire that he is, is part of that one-percent club. I would say one percent of that one percent. And yet through using such rhetoric, he’s trying to channel into the anger of, I would say, the bottom five percent that are really suffering in this country.

We have to understand the mood in the US. There is high unemployment. There is a lot of fear about the future. There’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of vagueness. We’re going through a technological revolution and you have massive global competition from places like India and China. 

So, Donald Trump… has a very fear and anger-driven campaign and he’s somebody who likes to be on the media. This is an entertainer who loves making controversy and to people like him there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Press TV: I’m wondering, Professor Azadgan, even though he is just a media personality, there seems to be a real chance that he could become the president of the United States. How would that work out?

Azadgan: Well, I don’t know if our audience watched the last Republican debate a few nights ago. I think once you set up Donald Trump with either, Mrs. Clinton or Senator Sanders, I think once you talk about the specifics of his plans, he’s going to fumble just as he did during the last Republican debate. When he was asked several times by the moderators as well as Senator Rubio and Senator Cruz about his healthcare plan and he had nothing more than a couple of sentences. He was merely repeating himself. 

So, he may very well be the Republican nominee. I mean this is exactly what’s happening right now. We see the trend in that. So, he’s got a momentum, but I think once he’s standing up to either of the Democrats that are fighting amongst themselves right now, I think, he’s going to fall short.

Having said that, quoting Benito Mussolini or Mr. David Duke, who is the former KKK [Ku Klux Klan] grand wizard, I really don’t know what he’s thinking. Is he doing this intentionally? Is he trying to channel into those people’s anger or is he just trying to stir up controversy so he can stay on the news cycle as much as he can and this he has been very successful in doing that.

The media is talking about him day and night. And there are very much ignoring a lot of the solutions for example that Senator Sanders is talking about.

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