Racist or not, the effect is still the same

Is President Trump a racist? This particular question seems to be frequently discussed on social media. But it’s the wrong question. It is clear that Trump’s statements and actions have encouraged the worst white nationalist elements in American society.

Immoral people have the wrong values. They do bad things because they believe in the wrong things. Amoral people essentially don’t have any values at all, at least in the Judeo-Christian sense. They just do what is convenient or good for themselves. In the business world, this usually means accumulating power and wealth. Does this sound familiar?

Much of my career has been spent working for and with corporate CEOs, Presidents, COOs, and CFOs. None of them were truly immoral. But many have been amoral.

Trump has a long history of deplorable racist statements and actions, coming to a head with his horrible original Charlottesville comments, but that does not necessarily mean that he himself believes he is a racist. My belief is that he is amoral, viewing racism as just one more way of accumulating power.

Trump said the judge who was trying the Trump University case had “an absolute conflict” because he is “of Mexican heritage.” Did he unfairly criticize Gonzalo Curiel, the Mexican-American judge because Trump is a bigot, or because it helped his case? My gut feeling is that it is the latter.

But, regardless, the result is the same. Trump’s statement encourages those who choose to view Latinos as less than “real” Americans.

Trump has constantly castigated Mexicans who have come here, as well as other immigrants. But, the story of how Trump built his Fifth Avenue headquarters, Trump Tower, shows Trump’s true nature. He is not so much anti-immigrant as he is pro-Trump, using the issue as a means to getting his way.

In NYC, Trump needed to knock down the old Bonwit Teller building to construct his monument to himself. So he found someone who would form a shell corporation and contracted with him.

With Trump’s knowledge, the head of that company then hired illegal Polish immigrants to tear down the building. To make matters worse, the shell corporation did not pay the illegals … who finally took the firm to court, winning a $254,000 judgement.

As opposed to other administrations, this administration did not mention Jews at all when it recognized Holocaust Day. Is Trump anti-Semitic? This is doubtful, in that Ivanka and his grandchildren are Orthodox Jews.

My opinion is that it was a calculated political move, probably with Steve Bannon’s encouragement, to shore up his support on the alt-right. But the result is the same -- encouragement of racist, anti-Semitic views.

Trump’s statements about African-Americans have been demeaning, to say the least. He has repeatedly implied that blacks are poor and ill-educated, among other disparaging remarks.

Bruce LeVell, an African-American pastor from Georgia, is the head of Trump’s National Diversity Coalition and a major Trump supporter. He was on CNN recently saying that he knows Trump and that he is not bigoted.

But in 2015, when asked about David Duke, probably the most well-known racist leader in America, Trump stated: “I don’t know anything about him ... whoever he is, he did endorse me. Actually I don’t think it was an endorsement. He said I was absolutely the best of all of the candidates.”

He has made similar non-critical statements about Duke in the past. In return, in 2015 Duke called the Trump candidacy a “great thing.”

Does Trump personally dislike African-Americans? Who knows? But the effect of Trump’s words is the same.

Apologists like LeVell and Steven Miller, a close Trump adviser who is Jewish, say he is not a bigot. And some of my best friends still make excuses for him, saying Trump is just trying to help the working man.

Trump’s approval rating is at a new low of 34 percent (Gallup, August 17). Will the one-third of Americans who still support him ever see the truth? Maybe, maybe not.

But regardless of our political party, the rest of us need to be very vocal and clear. We need to let Trump know that his promotion of racism will not move his agenda through Congress or get him reelected.

This story was originally published August 20, 2017 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Racist or not, the effect is still the same."