Something that Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discussed during one of their episodes on the US in 1968 was the alignment of Trump's strategies with those of George Wallace's.

Wallace, who'd initially begun his political campaigns promoting infrastructure renewal, education, and healthcare, found that he couldn't get traction with the American people with them.

Then he turned his attention to ethnic issues and exploiting the ethnic divide via taking a stand for segregation, and his popularity went stratospheric... not just with republican voters, but also with democratic ones.

As he said, years later, "You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about n****rs, and they stomped the floor."

After Wallace's political withdrawal in the presidential campaigns, Wallace's team predicted that his movement and strategies would not die with his exit... that a 'super Wallace' will rise to take his place.

It seems they were right.

N****rs became Mexicans and immigrants.

What Trump has proved is that Americans' historical predisposition towards ethnic separatism still plays out in US politics, as Wallace realised in his day.

As Americans from both sides 'stomped the floor' when Wallace platformed national segregation, so too has Trump evoked the same stomping in his political life.

The overreach of ICE indicates that Americans still have a fetish for putting their collective boot on the neck of the 'outsider'.

While Wallace intended to use his segregation platform only as a means to an end to advance his political career, he was ultimately defined by it and only escaped its vortex (not so his historical legacy) after he was shot.

With Trump, his Greenland and Canada annexation proposals were Wallace-style diversions that have faded from his political focus, but will probably permanently define his presidency anyway.

Trump will likely have more legacy success with his immigrant policies, as Americans have an insatiable historical appetite for them.

Wallace's N****rs have become Trump's Mexicans and immigrants.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 30^th, 2025 at 11:29pm:

With that in mind, it's an easy guess to predict Trump's inclination on almost any and every issue.

He'll be a 'morning in America' Reaganite (although more white-trash than Reagan was).

A Carteresque peacenik (without the perception of Carteresque weakness over US defence).

Deviously, even criminally, Nixonian in his personal dealings and the treatment of his perceived political 'enemies'.

And full, uber-Wallace when it comes to wedge politics on ethnic issues, and any other issue that will divide Americans.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 31^st, 2025 at 9:26am:


This post is brought to you by the words secondary and sanctions and the numbers 10 and 12.

Secondary sanctions: sanctions on countries that trade with a sanctioned country. 





Breaking:
Donald Trump imposes 25pc tariff on Indian imports, plus ‘penalty’ tax over purchase of Russian oil

MeisterEckhart wrote on Aug 1^st, 2025 at 8:56am:

Trump's tariffs/sanctions on Russia will amount to either:

(a) a deferrment from '10 to 12 days' to 30+ days during which Putin will up his offensive in Ukraine
OR
(b) impose a calculatedly ineffective tariff/sanction after which Putin will up his offensive in Ukraine.

Faced with a similar situation, Reagan, the true Cold War warrior, threatened Gorbachev with the Strategic Defence Initiative - 'Star Wars'.

No cat-and-mouse, limp-wristed diddling for Reagan.

It's almost a Seinfeld series watching Trump as the 'George' character trying to be Wallace, then Nixon, then Carter, then Reagan, each episode... and failing with the same dramatic comedy that Jason Alexander breathed into 'George'.