Trump isn’t just ‘wrong-headed’

Re Not all economic nationalists are Donald Trump, Walkom, March 31 I don’t see the point Thomas Walkom is trying to make in this column. Who equates nationalism with liking Donald Trump? He says politicians are having trouble separating their dislike of Trump from his so-called economic nationalism but could do quite a bit more to support this idea — like detail some ideas, statements or policies.

He is staggeringly far off the mark when he refers to “much that is wrong-headed” about the Trump presidency. Wrong-headed is the term you use to complain about the Scarborough subway. The current White House is dangerous in a hateful and cynical way that is historic.

This nationalism gets its life from blaming minorities for its problems, referring to Muslims as terrorists and how Mexico sends its rapists and other criminals to hurt America. Then it enacts policies like travel bans and building Mexican walls to ensure those it needs to blame stay demonized.

It gets its strength from the false promise of a return to better days — jobs that won’t be coming back in industries because automation, not the Chinese or other countries, stole them.

This nationalism is built on a high wall of alternative facts: that climate change is a hoax, that the election was rigged, that journalists are the enemy.

Walkom would do better to focus on this, rather than conceding Trump has a point about economic nationalism, even if people don’t like his “wrong-headed” presidency. Dudley Paul, Toronto