Do Americans love or hate Trump?

By Chang se-moon

The answer is both. Many Americans love him, while many others hate him. Not many Americans are neutral toward his candidacy.

Let us, first, see why many Americans so strongly stand by him as presidential candidate. Many Americans feel uneasy about the state of the American economy, which is in deep trouble. Annual deficit of the U.S. government has been running well over $500 billion a year, while the trade deficit has also been running well over $500 billion a year. Neither is sustainable in the long run. These figures have not been fluctuating between deficits and surpluses. They have been deep in deficit for many years and will continue to be that way for foreseeable future. Trump promises to correct both problems.

When imports are so much greater than exports each year, it clearly indicates that the competitiveness of the American economy has been in steady decline. Impact is obviously the loss of jobs to other countries and stagnant wages. The latest unemployment rate is below 5 percent, which should indicate a full-employment economy and a healthy growing economy. Actually, the annual rate of growth has never exceeded 3 percent since the 2009 Great Recession, whereas the 3 percent is the average rate of growth for the past 100 years. This means that most jobs created after the Great Recession have been low-paying service jobs.Trump promises to bring back high-paying jobs that are sorely needed.

When government borrows so much money during a growing economy, it clearly indicates that there are wastes everywhere. One out of every five Americans receives food stamps. In many communities, one out of every four Americans receives food stamps. Well, this is not true, and let me correct it. These Americans do not receive food stamps because food stamps are too demeaning to those who receive them. Instead of food stamps, the government now issues EBT cards that are accepted virtually everywhere, including expensive ethnic and specialty food stores and beyond. People who use EBT cards have less incentive to save than people who pay their own since it would be dumb to return any left-over money to the government.

The real problem is not that people use EBT cards, but that the number of people who depend on EBT increases during a growing economy.Trump promises to get rid of government wastes, balance the budget, and implement efficient management.

There are social issues, also. Americans are scared of radical Islam terrorism. Leading politicians want to accept overseas refugees without proposing any convincing means of screening out potential terrorists, saying that refusing to accept refugees is not American. Americans are also scared of violent crimes waged by illegal immigrants. When the government policy supports sanctuary cities such as San Francisco where violent illegal immigrants can live without any fear of deportation, main stream Americans feel betrayed. Even legal immigrants are not acting like angels. The first thing they learn when they open a small business is how to cheat on taxes. Many of these businesses collect sales taxes but not submit them to the government, not in their entirety anyway. Trump promises to protect America from radical Islam terrorism and from violent crimes by illegal immigrants.

Hard-working middle to low-middle income Americans feel sick and tired of the lack of leadership by leading politicians. This is why so many Americans support Trump for presidency. These Americans are totally convinced that Trump will correct all these problems rooted for so many years in American society.

Why then would anyone hate Trump as president? Well, Trump is a populist, saying anything that will keep him on the front page of the media without thinking through issues. No one believes that he can build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. that will be paid by Mexicans. He believes that the large amounts of trade deficit against Japan, Korea, and especially China are due to currency manipulation by these countries, when in fact the deficit is caused primarily by the faulty U.S. corporate tax structure as well as lethargic progress in the quality of K-12 education. Trump is also vulgar. Many Americans feel reluctant to have someone as vulgar as Trump as their president.

Trump’s world view is too simplistic, making it dangerous. Suggesting Korea and Japan to arm themselves with nuclear weapons and withdraw trip-wire American troops shows how ignorant he is in world politics. He misses the point that protection of Korea and Japan is for preservation of American interests, not Korean and Japanese interests. When America acts as an isolationist, it is a clear invitation toward the third World War.

Trump talks what he thinks will make voters happy, without thinking through the final outcome of such policies. There are many examples indicating the shallowness of Trump’s thought process. The latest example is to suggest, albeit reversed quickly, that women who have, or may have to have, an abortion should be punished.

Further, Trump appears to have an authoritarian, more likely dictator, personality, as evidenced by his not-so-implicit assertion that the U.S. intelligence people who abide by the law on interrogation will be replaced if they do not carry out his illegal orders of torture. When he announced an advisory committee of “experts” on foreign policy, none of them appears to be of quality close to that of Henry Kissinger or someone who has done an in-depth study of the complex and dangerous global politics.

This raises a serious concern that competent people may not stay with Trump who, instead, is likely to be surrounded by people who enjoy power and money. People who hate to see this practice now may find themselves to encounter this practice continuing under Trump as president.

Donald Trump is absolutely right in saying that it is important to make America Great Again. Many, however, worry that policies he has so far proposed may make America more dangerous than great again.

Now you heard stories of both sides. You make up your mind. Or you may look for a candidate, if you can, who understands the fear and frustration of many Americans as much as Trump says he does, but is more thoughtful and virtuous than Trump.

Chang Se-moon is the director of the Gulf Coast

Center for Impact Studies. Write to at changsemoon@

yahoo.com.