As the US prepares to go to the ballot in November and the world considers the very real possibility of Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States, Trump: The Author of Monster or Hero sees his book as a wake-up call to anybody who considers the controversial entrepreneur to be a buffoonish but ultimately benign presidential prospect.
Trump: Monster or Hero is certainly scathing of its subject, but it is neither a scurrilous biography nor ad hominem attack. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of the Trump train and artfully deconstructs the claims or beliefs with hard facts and figures, neatly summed up in approximately 50 original infographics.
For instance, the author clearly shows the gaping holes in Trump’s support for the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, as a means of protection with an infographic neatly summing up the point that since 1968 more Americans have died from firearms deaths than from every war in the country’s history combined, some 1.4million versus 1.2million.
Written by a Kuwaiti businessman as a debt of gratitude to the United States for liberating Kuwait during the Gulf War, the book takes a critical look at Trump’s policies and claims with a view to getting past the spin and looking at the facts.
In writing the book, author Mohammad O. Alanjari has one aim: to open the eyes of American voters and people around the world to the Trump campaign and potential outcomes of a Trump presidency.
He firmly believes that while Trump is a proven businessman, he would be totally the wrong choice for the White House. In fact, he warns that Trump’s election could have catastrophic consequences not only for the USA but rest of the world, given how inter-connected national economies are in today’s global village.
In a heartfelt introduction the author sets out his stall, calling Trump out for unashamed demagoguery, scape-goat strategies and empty policies. He points to other prominent figures who have used the same modus operandi in the past, including a certain Adolf Hitler.
That’s not to say the book out and out labels Trump as a 21
st century incarnation of Hitler, but rather that he fits a pre-existing right-wing archetype that has proven so dangerous in the past.
To emphasise this point, the title of the book is taken from a prescient comment Sir Winston Churchill made about the Furher in 1935, four years before the outbreak of the Second World War: “History will pronounce Hitler either a monster or a hero”.
There certainly are some valid comparisons to be drawn between the Nazi leader and Trump - not least in his ability to draw voters into a dangerous way of thinking that pits their own nation against ‘outsiders’ and paints people of other faiths as enemies.
He also argues that Trump should be considered the thin edge of the wedge and his investiture could not only enable more extremist organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan, whose former grand wizard has encouraged support for Trump, to gain a voice in national affairs, but could also encourage a swing to the far-right in other countries in and beyond Europe.
And still on the point of extremism, the author warns that despite loudly opposing the likes of ISIS, Trump’s borderline Islamophobia could actually help their cause by pitting religions against each other and tacitly endorsing their reductive world view of friend and enemy.
In other words, if the US no longer takes the moral high-ground then what makes their position any more valid than that of the terrorists?
The author, who has been to the US many times, also calls upon a wealth of potent media commentaries and a wide selection of Trump quotes illuminating his character, and couples this information assault with astute observations on the Trump phenomenon, including his own reflections on how America’s social climate has become more polarised in recent years.
His recurring theme is comparing the Trump phenomenon to the spread of a disease. By this analogy he suggests there is still time for America to heal itself, but the clock is ticking, and not just for the United States.
As well as investigating the Trump phenomenon, this book is also a tremendous treasure trove of rarely-known information about the present state of the USA. Here are just a few examples:
- The GDP of the state of California alone is bigger than all the combined GDPs of: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Egypt.
- While the population of the United States is approximately 330 million and has over 2.2 million prisoners in its jails, the combined population of Russia and India is almost 1.4 billion with less than 1.1 million prisoners. America has double the prisoners even though it's population is a billion less people.
- The revenue of just one American company, Walmart, is bigger than the whole GDP of Iran.
- Almost 25 per cent of the world's youth will face difficulties advancing in their careers, as they are not in education, employment, or training.
These facts open the readers' eyes to many of the interesting realities of America and the world we live in.
It might sound far-fetched to some, but then the very idea of Trump as a potential US President would have seemed outlandish just a couple of years ago. Trump may be widely vilified, and ridiculed but his huge success on the campaign trail, and the fanatical support he inspires in many American citizens is proof that he is no laughing matter.
This is a must-read for anybody with an interest in world politics and global economics.
Trump: Monster or Hero by Mohammad O. Alanjari is out now in paperback, published by Pin Mark Research Center, priced £22.50. Visit www.MonsterOrHero.com
Comments (0)
Leave A Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.