Crippled America – Donald Trump

I’m English, I live in England and I don’t know too much about American Politics; I do however know of Donald Trump, his ambitions of becoming America’s next president and his fascinating, if chequered history.
Yesterday saw the release of his latest book; Crippled America How to Make America Great Again, it promises to be an interesting read.

Yesterday saw the release of his book “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again.”

“Crippled America” lays out why Trump is running for president, elaborating on what he finds wrong with the U.S. and how he would fix it, The Associated Press reports.

“This book is designed to give the reader a better understanding of me and my ideas for our future,” Trump writes. “I’m a really nice guy, but I’m also passionate and determined to make our country great again.”

Crippled America (US)
Crippled America (UK)

I have to say, reading through a few excerpts of his tome, ‘nice guy’ is probably about as subjective a term for the author as you could possibly get.

The Washington Post reports, ““Crippled America” reveals personal details about Trump, including why he chose to switch from the Democratic Party to Republican, his thoughts on the “gotcha” media and his history of failed marriages.” 

If that weren’t enough to whet your appetite for what promises to be a book you either read to tatters or fling across the room in disgust he also lays out his policy proposals throughout the book. These include his desire to limit the Department of Education, allowing wealthy citizens to turn down social security benefits, and his dismissal of green energy research as “just an expensive way of making the tree-huggers feel good about themselves,” .

Trump also discusses his plans for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, comparing it to the Israeli wall along the West Bank and reinforcing his stance that immigrants in the country illegally take away jobs from underemployed Americans and after all, remember his comments in his June announcement speech that many undocumented immigrants from Mexico are “rapists” and “killers.”?

Yikes! A wall is good yes?

It appears he was misunderstood. In Crippled America he writes,

“The vast majority” of undocumented immigrants, “are honest, decent, hardworking people who came here to improve their own lives and their children’s lives.”

“America holds so much promise, and what honest person wouldn’t want to come here to try to make a better life for himself and his children?”

But he still wants that wall.

He does try and soften opinion about himself throughout the book ruminating over those negatives that are always used against him both satirically and in business and politics.

Trump concedes that comments about his hair are aimed at where he’s “most vulnerable.”

“These veteran politicians looked for the place I was most vulnerable — which is why they attacked my hair, which is mine, by the way,” Trump writes.

And he becomes unusually contrite and apologetic when discussing his relationship break downs.

“I blame myself,” Trump writes. “I was making my mark in real estate and business, and it was very hard for a relationship to compete with that aspect of my life.”

However he maintains he has always been a good father to his five children,  of whom three are executives at his company.

“I was a much better father than I was a husband,” he writes.

Is the book political genius? An inspired piece of writing designed to make Trump feel like ‘one of the guys’, a man who spends his evenings sitting at the bar, watching the game and lamenting the loss of America’s greatness with his buddies over a beer or three?

Or will it damage his chances, is this pointless posturing bordering on narcissistic self glorification and self congratulatory platitudes. Pandering to the public to garner votes and cement his place in America’s political future?

I know which side I fall on.