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On Balance | How US oligarchs are riding wave of lies into Trump’s White House
Billionaires who ought to know better are backing Trump’s re-election bid and appear to be using it as a way to secure White House influence
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Just a week before Election Day in the United States, the candidate wishing for the kind of generals Hitler had has, according to some polls, at least a 50 per cent chance of retaking the White House.
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If it wasn’t obvious before, the US has entered a new ideological paradigm. Former US president Donald Trump’s Nazi fetishism would have ended a contest in the political era that preceded him, but it no longer appears to have any impact in terms of support from most Republicans.
His base is embracing the extremism either out of spite or because they have become convinced of lies such as Democrats controlling the weather, or perhaps both.
Those closer to the middle maintain we should not take Trump literally. Whether they themselves believe that or not doesn’t matter any more. To this group – let’s call them the nose-holders – all that matters is that their party takes back the White House.
Ignore attempts by Republican nose-holders to suggest that Trump doesn’t mean what he says. The former president is out for retribution and will attempt to rewire the Justice Department and the Pentagon to crack down on opponents in a manner that would make hardliners in Beijing and Moscow blush.
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Some in Beijing must be thrilled. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act or the other new legal efforts targeting Chinese officials for alleged human rights violations would ring hollow if Trump pulls off a victory.
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