Trump’s hate is not getting him ahead of Hillary, for now

After Donald Trump tried to cash in on the Orlando shooting by spewing hate against all Muslims, one would expect a jump in his approval ratings. In her speech, Hillary Clinton was restrained and careful in her choice of words. Wouldn’t you expect Americans to feel frustrated and angry at Hillary’s lack of anger and retributive reaction? So it’s interesting that, according to a national poll reported by Bloomberg, Hillary had jumped to 49 per cent with Donald at 37 per cent. Also, 55 per cent said they would never vote for Donald.

Donald, on the other hand, wallowed that he was bang on about his strongly stated position on blocking Muslims from entering America.

Again, one would expect Donald to get appreciation for his tweet, as he probably anticipated. But, here’s the surprise, Twitter reacted with a backlash and disgust at his self-serving tweets amidst a tragedy.

Donald played right into Hillary’s accusations about his out-of-control temperament and knee-jerk reactions being un-Presidential. His lowest blow was his attack on Barack Obama when he said, “We’re led by a man who is a very – look, we’re led by a man that either is, is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump said. “And the something else in mind, you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot – they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism’. There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable.” To accuse with innuendos that Obama was in collusion with Islamic terrorists was so off the wall, that Donald was again the target of a backlash. It triggered Obama to respond in uncharacteristic anger.

We in India are accustomed to politicians jumping into people’s tragedies for their own political gains. The rush to be photographed with mourning families and promising compensation is always distasteful.

Politicians the world over seem to believe that the general public is basically unintelligent and easily fooled. It reminds me of my cousin who was being told off by his father for something he thought was unreasonable. My cousin said to his father, “There’s a fool in this room and it isn’t me.”