Why SA should care about Trump

Donald Trump once said, when on the campaign trail: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue [in New York City] and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

That is why those who believe his political future is in danger because of his indictments on charges relating to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election result, are sorely mistaken.

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For the Trump faithful – and there are millions of them – he is nothing but a martyr in a vast conspiracy to prevent America from becoming “great again”.

For others – both moderate Republican Party supporters, as well as their traditional opponents in the Democratic Party – Trump was the first person in US history to try to overthrow the country’s democracy through encouraging the assault on the Capitol building in Washington on 6 January, 2021.

The other harsh reality is that, at no time since the Civil War in the 1860s, has the world’s superpower been so riven by internal conflict.

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And Trump’s campaigns – including his run for the White House next year – are further widening the ideological and emotional gulf between ordinary Americans.

Why should we care about this? Because an unstable America is unpredictable.