At that time, the other candidates going for the nomination denounced his calls for a “total and complete shutdown” of the country’s borders to Muslims in unequivocal terms. They looked, however, like “woke”, liberal wimps. Trump appealed as the strongman, tough on immigrants and all those who threatened America.
In 2015, Trump crowed that “Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our representatives can figure out what the hell is going on”.
For all his awfulness to liberal opinion, it was easy to see the appeal. Strong, simplistic slogans, an insistent demand for force and ruthlessness.
People protest Trump’s ‘Muslim travel ban’ in 2018 (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP)
This was the cartoon business mogul image he had projected for more than a decade on his successful reality TV show, The Apprentice. Of course, Trump was no mega business brain – he only pretended to be one for television. His skills have always been dramatic. Display and showmanship have always been his hallmarks.
The ban seems a lot less outrageous now. It didn’t seize the attention of the media in quite the same way that the “Muslim ban” did.
To these people, Trump’s true believers, the borders of the United States have taken on an existential significance. They fear that “millions and millions” people will arrive from what Trump called “shit hole” countries who will destroy the America Trump and his followers believe to have once been great.
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You can’t be sure. What is certain, however, was that the announcement was supposed to shore up his core support, at a time when his popularity is sinking, when his economic plans regarding tariffs are unpopular and increasingly erratic. It must also be remembered that his pre-election pledge to bring peace to Ukraine on “day one” of his presidency now looks absurdly hubristic, even by his standards.
The usual talking points were trotted out on Wednesday. He referred to “Biden’s open door policy”. He talked of “millions and millions of illegals” who should not be in America. He played a variation of the America first tune, saying that “we will not let what happened in Europe happen in America”.
The suspect was from Egypt, but Egypt was not on the list of banned countries. To Trump and his fans, none of this matters. The message is everything, even if the policy behind the headline is ineffective or incoherent.
Kwasi Kwarteng is a former Conservative MP. He served as chancellor between September and October 2022 under Liz Truss
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