by
Hans I. Kriek*
There are 2,472 delegates to the Republican National Convention, a candidate needs a simple majority of 1,237 or more delegates to win the presidential nomination. Most of the delegates are tied for at least the first ballot on the results of the 2016 Republican presidential primaries .
Trump would be the first presidential nominee of a major party since Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate in 1940, who neither held political office nor a high military rank prior to his nomination. He would also be the first presidential nominee of a major party without political experience since General Dwight D. Eisenhower first won the Republican presidential nomination in 1952.
I had luckily the opportunity to speak with Donald Trump by phone at one of my visits to his Beach Club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. I talked many times with the Manager but never got the opportunity to see or speak Trump till I introduced myself as his neighbour because I am living in Palm Beach since 2008.
My first question: ‘Mr. Trump are you convinced you’ll be nominated on the convention in Cleveland for President of the United States?’ He waits a moment and says: ‘ Listen, that’s not an issue, I have got millions of votes, more than all former candidates, Reagan, Bush senior, McCain and Romney. This has never happened before in history of our party. No one can ignore that’.
Next question was about NATO. “You have doubts about the future of NATO, right?” Trump directly: ‘The hallowed North Atlantic alliance is obsolete, we have to rebuild this institution. NATO is ill suited to combating international terrorism, which is the world’s single biggest threat’.
He especially objected the US paying so much of the NATO bill, saying that the allies should “pay up or get out”; he refuses to see the US as the “world’s policeman”. In a town hall meeting in Wisconsin Trump said: “maybe NATO will dissolve and that’s OK for me, not at all the worst thing in the world.”
In casting doubt on the future of NATO, Trump has challenged an establishment consensus that goes far beyond Washington DC. Both Trump’s Republican rivals have denounced his view. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, accused him of “putting at risk the coalition of nations we need to defeat Islamic State”.
I asked him : ‘Mister Trump, as President, what will happen with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, the free trade deal with the European Union. Trump: “The deal is bad because it doesn’t cover currency manipulation. It’s the number-one weapon used by foreign countries to hurt the United States and take away jobs. The deal is insane; it should not be supported and not be allowed to happen. We are giving away what ultimately is going to be a backdoor for China.’
‘Mister Trump, as you know, Europe has big problems with Muslims. We had a lot of attacks in Belgium and France. What’s your comment?’ He answered right away: ‘Those blasts are a total disaster. I already made a number of inflammatory claims about Muslims since launching my campaign. The Islam hates us. I already have provoked international condemnation by calling for Muslims to be banned from the US in the wake of the Paris attacks. Frankly, we have problems with Muslims and we have problems with Muslims coming into our country.’
‘After winning the Republican nomination for President, are you going to act in a more presidential way?’ His answer: ‘I do not worry about behaving differently than I am. Listen, I'm not going to change. My relation with the media is good, they know where to find me, but I am extremely dissatisfied about the way some journalists and newspapers are writing about my campaign and are twisting my statements and taking my words out of the context. Media are often unfair and unreliable! Okay, that's it.‘
The connection is cut. I still would like to ask him about the quality of the political leaders in Europe. I suppose his answer would be: ‘very bad’.
*Hans Izaak Kriek is a former Dutch television-journalist and now editor-in-chief of Hans Kriek Media.
By: N. Peter Kramer
