https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/campaigns-elections/the-conceits-donald-trump-translators/The Conceits of Trump’s TranslatorsNOAH ROTHMAN / JULY 27, 2016
The impulse to see patterns, intentionality, and strategy where there are none is a deeply human trait. For example, many conservatives had convinced themselves there was foresight and tactics in Donald Trump’s appeal to Moscow on Wednesday, in which he suggested the Kremlin should dig up and expose the many emails Hillary Clinton scrubbed from her “homebrew” server. If Trump’s message benefited his campaign—a big “if”—it is doing so in spite of him and his team and not because of them.
In June, the Democratic National Committee was hacked by what private security firms believed were operatives with links to Russian intelligence. Over a month later, the Russian-backed espionage wholesale outlet WikiLeaks published what federal investigators believe were DNC documents obtained in that hack. WikiLeak’s intentions—and, by extension, the aim of the state-based outfit laundering stolen goods through the group—was clear: to disrupt the Democratic nominating process and to damage Hillary Clinton.
Since Donald Trump began running for the presidency, he has displayed conspicuous favoritism toward the Russian government and Vladimir Putin. His expressions of admiration have ranged from apologizing for Putin’s murders to promising not to defend nations he attacks to allowing him extraordinary deference in the Middle East. Given that history, it’s understandable that some would suspect that these Russian-linked leaks were designed not only to hurt Clinton but to help Donald Trump. Clinton’s campaign and her allies imprudently made explicit a charge that was previously only implied: that Trump has a soft spot for a nation with geopolitical objectives that are at odds with those of the United States. It was a vulgar accusation, but by refocusing furious and betrayed Bernie Sanders-backing Democrats on Trump and November, it served a purpose.
In response, Donald Trump did what Donald Trump always does: he turned a story that had been tearing the Democratic coalition apart and made it about himself. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump declared at a press conference on Wednesday. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Democrats pounced on these comments and suggested that Trump was not only inviting foreign espionage but was siding with a foreign power. “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue,” said Clinton campaign advisor Jake Sullivan. Ah, but there’s the rub. Some conservatives determined that Trump had Clinton right where he wanted her. Her campaign confessed something it had long denied: that those missing emails were, in fact, work-related. In a masterstroke, some contended, Trump had shifted the focus back to Hillary Clinton’s deadly email scandal.
If this was brilliant messaging by Trump, someone should have told his campaign. Within minutes, Trump’s own vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence, released a statement in which he insisted that there will be “serious consequences” if an ongoing FBI investigation concludes that the Kremlin is “interfering in our elections.” House Speaker Paul Ryan followed suit. “Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election,” he wrote. Ah, but Trump was only joking, his more committed apologists insisted. But if this was a joke, Trump was fully committed to it. “If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!” he exclaimed on Twitter. As the Democratic National Convention commenced for its third night and speaker after speaker hammered Trump’s irresponsible and vaguely seditious comments, Trump insisted that he was being “sarcastic” the whole time.
The mixed messages from Republicans on this issue should be enough to convince skeptics that there was no strategic genius in Trump’s comments. Those who were inclined to see his appeal to Putin as an indictment of Clinton likely already came to the conclusion that some of her missing 30,000 plus emails were sensitive in nature as early as last August. Meanwhile, the GOP is scrambling and set against itself, complicating any narrative that might favor their candidate. Pundits who saw multidimensional chess in a game of checkers were only kidding themselves.
The hack in question had nothing to do with Clinton’s emails. The targets were two private campaign committees. These are not public entities, and they did not violate any governmental protocols. Nevertheless, they were likely infiltrated by a foreign power, which subsequently tried to use what it stole to change the trajectory of a presidential election. That’s not something of which Americans will or should approve. Moreover, that foreign power is really unpopular. The latest Gallup survey in February found 65 percent of the public hold an unfavorable view toward Russia with just 30 percent viewing the Russian Federation favorably.
The impulse among some in the commentary class to translate Donald Trump into “Everyday American” is both understandable and condescending. The notion that Trump’s comments incepted into the subconscious of his listeners the idea that a foreign government hacked Hillary Clinton server is a complicated one. The most simple narrative to emerge from this campaign trail gaffe is also obvious: The Russians interfered in the American electoral process, and Trump approved of it.
To see Trump’s comments as anything other than a misstatement—another on a growing pile and, thus, one not likely to affect anyone’s vote—asks the observer to ignore the simple in favor of the complex. That’s usually an error.
Those on the right and the left who feel it their duty to translate Trump into laymen do so out of an understandable frustration. But that is less an intellectual exercise than it is solipsism; an unwitting admission that the thought process of the average Trump supporter is unknowable. As discomfiting as it is to admit–from talk of endorsing torture, to a Muslim database, to pro-Putinism–Trump voters don’t need a translator. It’s coming in loud and clear, and they like what they hear.
