Since the start of the school year, six presidential candidates have campaigned in the Columbia area. Four more are scheduled to come by Saturday, Sept. 26 alone. But perhaps none will draw as much attention as the individual scheduled to speak Wednesday, Sept. 23 at the Koger Center here on campus.
I’m talking, of course, about Donald Trump.
I’ve been critical of Trump in the past, and I stand by my words. But clearly a significant amount of voters support his candidacy for president — enough to make him the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Perhaps he merits a second look.
Perhaps no individual is more identified with New York City than Donald Trump. He was born in Queens in 1946 and is a proud New Yorker. Trump is one of five children — his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a distinguished former U.S. federal judge and Trump has suggested her as a possible appointment for the Supreme Court should he become president.
Much has been made of Trump’s father, Fred Trump, and his business and personal relationship with his son. It is true that “The Donald” got his start in his father’s already successful real estate business and benefited from his father’s wealth and connections in building his business empire. But Fred Trump focused on middle-class housing in Queens and Brooklyn, whereas Donald diversified the family business into higher-class buildings in Manhattan.
Trump loves to talk about his college education and intelligence in his speeches. He attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most prestigious business schools in America. Bragging about this constantly might be a turn-off for some voters, but, going by the track record of recent presidents, an Ivy League degree might as well be a prerequisite for the job.
After college, Trump, like most young American boys in the late 1960s, faced the prospect of being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. He was eventually declared medically unfit to serve due to bone spurs in his feet. Despite never having served in uniform, Trump has recently made veterans issues a central theme of his campaign.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Trump made a name for himself by participating in his now legendary splashy real estate projects. He transformed himself from simply another real estate developer into a media personality. He became a modern-day Howard Hughes — a larger-than-life figure with his hand seemingly in everything. Part P.T. Barnum, part Gordon Gekko, he shook up the New York media scene.
By taking on the NFL (long before Tom Brady did), marrying a model who called him “The Donald,” writing a best-selling book, giving countless interviews and putting his name on everything he could, Trump became an icon.
The 1990s were rough on Trump. There were two divorces, two high-profile failed business ventures and a failed attempt to court Princess Diana. But then came "The Apprentice." The show capitalized on Trump’s bombastic personality and became a phenomenon, rocketing to the top of the ratings. “You’re fired,” Trump’s catch-phrase, caught on quickly.
Trump is always looking for the next big thing. He launched "The Celebrity Apprentice" in 2007, which has seen notables from all fields compete for Trump’s approval.
Throughout his business career, Trump has always kept his toes in the political waters. He donated vast amounts of money to candidates on both sides of the aisle, frequently discussed his political views in interviews and, most notably, flirted with running for president multiple times.
In 1987, he flew in his signature helicopter to New Hampshire amid presidential buzz and gave an incredible speech. “They’re ripping us off left and right,” he said of foreign countries. “They knock the hell out of the United States.” Sound familiar? He also said Iran’s leader made Mikhail Gorbachev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the time, “look like a baby.” Ultimately, Trump decided not to run.
In 1999, he toyed with the idea of running as a member of the Reform Party. Calling the party’s ultimate nominee a “Hitler-lover," Trump displayed his trademark persona. Again, he chose not to run.
Then came 2012. While his previous forays into presidential politics had been based on his celebrity and his penchant for speaking his mind on every issue under the sun, that time he zeroed in on one specific topic. It happened to be the birth certificate of President Barack Obama.
Lost in all this talk about Trump’s campaign this time around is the shocking spectacle that played out for a few months in the spring of 2011. Here was a man currently leading the polls for the Republican nomination openly questioning whether the president was an illegal usurper of his office. The racial undertones of this argument were troubling to say the least.
Of course, it all ended when Obama released his birth certificate. He followed that up by openly mocking Trump in a vicious takedown at the White House Correspondents' dinner. A few weeks later, Trump announced he would not run.
That brings us to this campaign cycle. Trump’s campaign began with the same racial overtones that underlined his 2012 efforts, most notably with him calling illegal immigrants rapists and suggesting the Mexican government was deliberately pushing undesirable people into the country.
I don’t believe Donald Trump is personally a racist. I do believe he is a master showman and will do whatever he thinks necessary to drive up attention, ratings and money. If it happens to be playing on xenophobia, so be it.
Ultimately, however, Trump’s campaign should be viewed through a wider lens than just his stance on immigration. It says a lot about the media and the state of American politics. It’s not unprecedented — businessmen have long been considered excellent candidates for public office, even president. But Trump is the first “celebrity” candidate, and he has been extremely successful using the same traits that made him famous to rise up in the polls. Indeed, Trump’s record of success in his ventures is the best case he can make for the highest office in the country.
His is a quintessential American story, and, like it or not, he is the talk of the country. I can only imagine what Mark Twain or Hunter S. Thompson would have to say about his run, but I certainly know anybody who’s anybody today is following Trump’s run. Perhaps his personality-driven, confrontational political style could be what America needs, and he can reign in his verbal diarrhea and incendiary language.
So I suggest going to the rally on Wednesday night. Make up your own mind about Trump. It’s far past the time of writing him off as a serious contender; instead, it's time we all prepare ourselves for a lot more exposure to Donald Trump in the months ahead.