The media vs. Trump's patriotic appeal

By Cliff Kincaid

Donald Trump may be the most politically incorrect candidate on the Republican side. He openly mocks the news media and addresses the problem of illegal immigration. But even more importantly, he attacks the trade policies that benefit our enemies and adversaries. By doing so, he challenges what radio talk show host Jeffrey T. Kuhner calls the bipartisan "ruling establishment," whose dominance "is based on the complicity of the mainstream media."

With regard to the media, Trump's attack on NBC after the network cut ties with him demonstrates his understanding of what appeals to the conservatives who vote in the Republican Party.

"If NBC is so weak and so foolish to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem in the United States, coupled with the horrendous and unfair trade deals we are making with Mexico, then their contract-violating closure of Miss Universe/Miss USA will be determined in court," he said. "Furthermore, they will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won't stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be."

Williams is the serial liar who, despite being exposed for numerous fraudulent claims about his own career, has been kept on the payroll of NBC News.

The response to Trump, who is rising in the polls, demonstrates that conservatives like a candidate who exposes the liberals in the media as the hypocrites they are.

But it's not just standing up to the media – or his criticism of criminals coming into the country through Mexico – that has made him into a hero. As analyst Nevin Gussack notes, "Trump's economics and aspects of his national security strategy challenge the Washington Consensus of globalism, free trade, and other internationalist policies." This may be the sleeper issue of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Gussack is the author of the book Sowing the Seeds of Our Destruction: Useful Idiots on the 'Right,' which contends that trade policies under both Democrats and Republicans have served the interests of countries hostile to the United States, most especially China.

In his voluminous writings on the topic, Gussack is particularly critical of current and former Republican governors, some of them running for president, noting that they have "colluded to hasten Red Chinese economic colonization of the United States under the guise of foreign investment." He faults them for traveling "hat in hand" to the Chinese "to negotiate for the outright takeover of U.S.-owned assets."

He cites the case of 25 wealthy Communist Chinese investors visiting Orlando, Florida, for a "US-China Investment Week" in 2012 that was attended by Florida Governor Rick Scott, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

In 2010, Gussack notes, Governor Rick Perry helped the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies open a headquarters in Plano, Texas. A 2012 report from the House Intelligence Committee called Huawei a threat to U.S. national security interests because of its connections to the Chinese government, including the People's Liberation Army.

Accuracy in Media disclosed in a 2014 investigative report that the firm was linked to the murder of an American citizen, Dr. Shane Truman Todd, who had been working on a project in Singapore involving Huawei.

Governor Walker opened something called the Wisconsin Center China in Madison, Wisconsin, to facilitate trade with the communist regime. At the time, Walker said, "This trade center strengthens our relationship with China and provides Wisconsin businesses the resources and assistance to pursue export opportunities in this growing market. Through the years, Wisconsin has built a strong trade relationship with China, and the opening of the Wisconsin Center China will help Wisconsin businesses continue to strengthen our trade relationships and grow export opportunities."

Walker embarked on a trade mission to Red China in 2013, Gussack points out, where he met Communist Party officials and Chinese President/General Secretary Xi Jinping. The Communists then hosted a reception for Governor Walker and his delegation, which was made up of 300 Wisconsin businessmen and officials.

"Tragically," Gussack goes on, "it appeared that Governor Walker and a majority of state Republicans sought to liberalize foreign ownership laws over Wisconsin land. Specifically, Governor Walker sought to overturn the law that prohibited the foreign ownership of more than 640 acres of land in Wisconsin." Republican State Senator Dale Schultz acknowledged that repeal "would allow the Chinese government to buy a big chunk of land in northwest Wisconsin if it wanted to."

However, outrage over the provision caused Walker to drop it from a budget plan.

In 2011, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush visited the Chinese province of Hainan, where he talked about stronger economic ties, and in January 2012 met with the former Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, now the President of China. Xi Jinping said the Bush family had made great contributions to promoting relations between China and the United States, "which the two nations and the two peoples will not forget."

Gussack comments, "Naturally, Bush was following in his father's and brother's footsteps in the promotion of the economic and political interests of a communist enemy of the United States. The Bush family was another case of a family rooted in transnational capital which promoted Beijing's interests, rather than solely the advancement of American national interests."

In a piece entitled "Is the U.S. Being Colonized By Red China?," Tom Deweese, president of the American Policy Center, wrote that "The genius of the Chinese system is that they are using its growing industrial might to create wealth the Soviets could never have dreamed of possessing. China is using its vast wealth (trillions of dollars) compiled from the glut of Chinese goods sold in American stores, to buy its power. It's buying American debt and wielding heavy influence on the American economy."

DeWeese argued that through the so-called Immigrant Investor Regional Centers of the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service, countries like China are investing in American communities with federal help. "While the program is open to immigrants from around the world, the main interest appears to be from Communist China," he said, adding that "the waning American economy and a U.S. government that no longer sees communism as a threat, makes us vulnerable to a power that knows exactly what it seeks."

Trump has challenged this kind of pandering to Beijing and other foreign interests, leading radio talk show host Jeffrey T. Kuhner to comment that Trump "is a Teddy Roosevelt-style nationalist, who seeks to break the stranglehold of Big Business, Big Media and Big Government. Moreover, his vast wealth means that he cannot be bought and paid for."

Kuhner added, "Economic nationalism has been a cardinal principle of conservatism dating back to our Founding Fathers. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams – all supported protective tariffs and a trade policy that guaranteed America's economic independence."

While his comments on criminal aliens have garnered the attention, Trump's criticism of the trade practices of foreign countries may be what ultimately sets him apart from the other Republican contenders. It could be his path to the Republican nomination and victory in 2016.

© Cliff Kincaid