Donald Trump’s elated that the British people have put xenophobia and fear over their own economic self-interest.
He views the nation’s exit from the EU (that’s the European Union, for those googling it today) as an affirmation of his own hate-fueled immigration proposals from one of America’s closest and oldest allies.
Many of our British brothers and sisters also viewed the vote as a way to close their borders. Even as global markets and the pound sank to depressing lows, Trump embraced the rushed Brexit.
“Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare their independence. Americans will have a chance to vote for trade, immigration and foreign policies that put our citizens first,” Trump said at a campaign and golf course christening in Scotland. “They will have the chance to reject today’s rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people.”
While Trump has been successful in employing similar fear-based arguments on immigration throughout the Republican party primary, he’s now in the big leagues and has to convince independent voters that his closed-door policies against Mexicans and Muslims are right for what was formerly the most open nation in the world.
The argument is simple, even simplistic: they don’t look, talk or pray like me, and my wallet’s feeling light, so it must be their fault.
Scapegoating comes with promises of gaudy Trump-like Monopoly money. But American voters would be wise to question the gold spray paint covering the package Trump’s selling.
They’d be even wiser to examine the Brexit rhetoric to understand what the Donald is selling.
Within hours of the vote to leave the EU, Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independent Party (Ukip), pulled the veil back on the lies that propped up the Leave campaign, especially the pledge that was painted on buses across Britain that the vote would put £350m ($475m) directly into NHS.
“No I can’t [guarantee it], and I would never have made that claim,” Farage revealed on Good Morning Britain. “That was one of the mistakes that I think the Leave campaign made.”
Just like Farage, Trump is holding a shiny object in one hand – his personal wealth, or at least boasts of wealth – to distract conservative voters and politicians alike from the race and religion-baiting that enlivens his hardcore base.
I must pause for a minute and admit that as I write this a copy of Mein Kampf stares me in the face. I bought it last week, because to be a professor and political reporter in the era of Trump, one needs to be well versed on historical racism.
And no, this isn’t going to devolve into one of those Hitler comparisons. They’re tired and overused.
But just thumbing through the book as I write this, I’m struck by the mind control employed by the author.
“From day to day I was becoming better informed than my companions in the subjects on which they claimed to be experts,” he writes.
Sound familiar? Trump’s a master of illusions. His reality TV and no-politics brand is built on convincing his audience that he’s the smartest, wealthiest and toughest in the room. He’s said as much so often that even he believes it (if he believes anything at all).
One doesn’t need to reach that far back in history though. In this age of digital distractions we may forget that just months ago Trump struggled to say a disparaging word after he won over the support of David Duke.
It would seem easy, and wise, for the now presumptive Republican presidential nominee to dismiss the support and move on. Trump didn’t. He’s smart, even cunning. He signaled to those bigoted voters that he’s their man.
To know Trump, one also needs to be well versed in today’s racial code words. When Trump calls Mexicans “rapists and murderers”, or promises to ban Muslims from entering the US for that matter, he’s also sending a signal to his white, mostly male supporters.
The scary thing is that, unlike many in the contemporary GOP, Trump doesn’t do that with a sly wink and telling eyebrow raise. On immigration policy, he uses the language many reserve for the back booth at their local pub to attract thousands of cheering fans.
That’s why Brexit isn’t just a pivotal moment for Britain. It should also be a game-changer for conservatives in the US.
Please, never forget Farage’s moment of honesty, after his countrymen disrupted all of Europe and their own bank accounts, about the smokescreen his movement sent up with promises of bags of cash for better healthcare.
“Do you think there are other things the people today will wake up and find out?” the exasperated host asked a smiling Farage.
The answer to that is surely yes.
For conservatives deceiving themselves into supporting Trump for his laughable promises of wealth, they too will wake up the day after Trump enters the White House filled with regret, remorse and bewilderment because they’ll have helped elect a bigot-in-chief who would rather write Trumpland on the White House gates than help unify a country that’s crying out for healing.