What is Donald Trump’s hidden agenda for making controversial statements?
BAN all Muslims. Switch off the internet. As his comments become ever more insane, speculation has turned to his hidden agenda.
BAN all Muslims. Switch off the internet. Surely he can’t be serious?
As Donald Trump’s “policies” and public comments become ever more insane, some are beginning to speculate about his hidden agenda.
Trump is currently leading the Republican presidential nomination campaign but his latest calls to ban all Muslims from entering the United States have provoked worldwide outrage and demands for him to be dropped from the race.
His remarks have even sparked a petition in the United Kingdom for the billionaire to be banned from the country for hate speech.
He’s been called “white ISIS” and even compared to Adolf Hitler, with the Philadelphia Daily News running a front-page photo of Trump with his arm raised in a Nazi salute alongside the headline “The New Furor”, while the New York Daily News overnight ran a front page cartoon of Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty.
Today's Daily News, 12/08/15 #DNFrontpage pic.twitter.com/MTxKv11oBd
— Philly Daily News (@PhillyDailyNews) December 8, 2015While the real estate mogul has generally benefited from the free publicity his controversial statements generate, his statement on Muslims is widely considered to have overstepped the mark.
But Trump is not backing down. He’s even defended them in a Facebook post: “Wow, what a day. So many foolish people that refuse to acknowledge the tremendous danger and uncertainty of certain people coming into US,” he wrote.
“Our country is facing a major threat from radical Islamic terrorism. We better get very smart, and very tough, FAST, before it is too late!”
Commentators have noted the timing of his latest remarks coincide with the release of a Monmouth poll that put his Republican rival, Texan senator Ted Cruz, ahead of Trump by five per cent.
But even more interestingly, some have begun to speculate that the billionaire may actually want to be pushed out of the race.
“It’s entirely possible that Trump is looking for ways to exit this race without appearing to quit,” political writer Sean Illing notes in an article in Salon in which he suggests Trump’s “brazen rhetoric and willingness to run as an independent may be proof that he was bullsh-----g us all along.”
“A ‘winner’ like Trump can’t be seen losing to low-energy ‘losers’ like Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio — that would undermine his brand and thus defeat the point of running in the first place. If he does want out, he needs to save face, to leave on his own terms.”
Illing isn’t the only one to float the theory.
The theory was discussed on The Rachel Maddow Show, with the host pointing out that Trump’s Muslim policy was “radical to the point of obscenity” and could be aimed at trying to blow up his presidential campaign. Maddow said Trump could actually be “spooked” by his lead.
“Is he trying,” Maddow asked, “to get himself effectively kicked out of the Republican party?
“Obviously the Republican party has to consider disowning him in some way and I think Mr Trump is smart enough to know that and expect that.
“And I think that we really ought to consider the prospect that is an outcome that he might be after here.”
Prior to announcing his candidacy this year, Trump has always maintained he did not want to be president.
Back in 1987 he told Time he had no intention of running for president and told Playboy in 1990: “I don’t want to be President. I’m 100 per cent sure. I’d change my mind only if I saw this country continue to go down the tubes.”
“My theory is that he is ramping up the crazy for the moment when he decides to drop out of the race,” one Gawker commenter wrote. “And when he does, the three other wing nuts (Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson) will, by proximity, look that much more ‘moderate’ and ‘electable’ in the general election.”
In an interview with The Washington Post Trump has said he would never drop out of the race voluntarily.
“I’m never backing out,” he said a few days before his controversial comments about a Muslim ban. “I will never leave this race.”
Illing suggests Trump’s success may have caught even himself off guard.
“Perhaps Trump thought his “campaign” would last a few months; that it would boost his brand, keep him in the headlines, and hopefully sell a few books. But this thing spiralled out of control, and in ways no one could have anticipated. Trump, as much as anyone, knows his campaign is a farce.”
But if the outlandish billionaire really does want to be thrown out by the Republican party, he’s not going to make it easy. In a Facebook post on Tuesday he warned:
“A new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP & ran as an independent.”
Trump famously refused to rule out running as an independent during the first Republican debate if he was not selected as the GOP nominee for president.
So is he serious? Here’s a look at the increasingly insane statements that Trump has made:
It’s time to turn off the internet
During the same South Carolina rally where he called for a Muslim ban, Trump also called for the internet to be turned off as it was leading to radicalisation.
“We have to go and see Bill Gates, and a lot of different people, that really understand what’s happening,” Trump said.
“We have to talk to them, and maybe in certain areas closing that internet up in some way.”
Muslims should be tracked via a national database
Last month Trump told NBC News that he “would certainly implement” a database tracking Muslims in the US.
“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump said.
“There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases,” he added. “We should have a lot of systems.”
When asked whether Muslims would be legally obligated to sign into the database, Trump responded: “They have to be — they have to be.”
Mexicans are sending US ‘rapists’
Trump set the tone for his campaign from the very beginning when he made the speech announcing he would seek the Republican nomination.
One of the lowlights was his remarks about Mexican immigrants.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you,” Trump said.
”They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Immigration problems can be solved by building a big wall
Trump also said he would build a giant wall on US’s southern border and make Mexico pay for it.
“I will build a great wall, and no body builds walls better than me and I would build it very inexpensively and I will have Mexico pay for it, mark my words.”
Tough question? She must be on her period
One of the most talked about moments in the first Republican debate happened when Fox News presenter Megyn Kelly questioned Trump about misogynistic, sexist comments he had made including calling some women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals”.
Trump responded: “The big problem this country has, is being politically correct.”
But later criticised Kelly saying her questions were ridiculous and off-base, saying:
“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.”
Yes, he went there.
But at least he didn’t call her ugly
On comedian Rosie O’Donnell, with whom he has a feud, Trump has said: “If I were running (talk show) The View, I’d fire her. I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say: ‘Rosie, you’re fired’.”
Even presidential rival Carly Fiorina was not spared: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that? The face of our next president?”
‘I like people who weren’t captured’
On Republican Senator John McCain, a man on his own side and who was a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War: ‘He’s a hero because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured.’
Accusing Muslims of celebrating 9/11 in New Jersey
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down,” Trump declared.
“And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.
“It did happen. I saw it. It was on television. I saw it. There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Centre came down.”
Unfortunately evidence he provided has been debunked.
Making fun of a disabled reporter
Trump was defending his remarks about 9/11 when he derided journalist Serge Kovaleski.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, who suffers from arthrogryposis, which affects arm movement, recently said he didn’t remember “thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating.”
At an event in South Carolina, Trump held his arm in a claw-like pose as he ripped into Kovaleski.
“Now the poor guy. You ought to see the guy: ‘Err, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember’,” Trump said, waving his arms around.
“He’s going: ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.’”
Playboy’s not the same without naked women
Trump said he recently rejected an offer to be featured in the men’s magazine, saying “it’s not the same Playboy”.
Trump is one of the only men to grace the cover of the magazine, which recently announced it would no longer feature nude models.
“Maybe I’ll pass,” Trump said of his recent offer.
He’s also suspicious that Obama wasn’t born in the US
Trump has also made plenty of controversial comments before he announced his nomination.
On President Obama: ‘If he wasn’t born in this country, it’s one of the great scams of all time.’
An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s “birth certificate†died in plane crash today. All others lived
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2013He believes global warming was a concept created by the Chinese
This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012He doesn’t mind talking about how hot his daughter is
“I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
Ewwwww.
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