News   /   Interviews

Republican Party beaten by Donald Trump insurgency: Analyst

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 18, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst from Washington, about division in the first day of the US Republican National Convention, where some opponents of the party's candidate tried to block his presidential nomination.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do you make of the way things have been panning out with regards to the Republican national convention? It seems like a divided party.

Jatras: I think that appearance might be deceiving. I think the word chaos is far too strong. What we saw was a minority at the convention that the ... is playing hardball with, because they represent the establishment of the party that has been beaten by Trump’s populist insurgency and they don’t like it. And these are some of the same people that throughout the primaries play hardball in the state conventions, store delegates from Trump by using the rules. Now they’re getting a taste of their own medicine. They don’t like it but frankly they don’t represent very much if these are primarily the establishment, neo-conservative wing of the party. They’re very upset the guy that is a nationalist that does not reflect their views is the nominee of the party.

Press TV: How is this going to translate in the next few months as Trump will then be taking on Hillary Clinton directly? Would the lack of backing from the heavyweights in the GOP not hurt his cause?

Jatras: These heavyweights don’t really represent much of anybody, as I say, these are dying neo-conservative wing of the party. They’re used to having their own way. Look, we’re going to have a very stark choice here in the fall. We all have Hillary Clinton who never met a war. She didn’t like her shadow defense secretary Michele Flournoy just called for military intervention in Syria to topple Assad. The American people are not going to have this. At the convention, the neo-cons want to put in a plank to arm Ukraine and the Trump people insisted on taking that out. And America’s foreign policy is one that would resonate with the American people because they’re tired of this invade the world mentality that has dominated both parties.

Press TV: It seems that when you speak of Trump, you also have to look at the fact that there has been criticism against him for not having a coherent foreign policy. He’s been rambling on about China and also when it comes to domestic policy he has managed to offend almost every sector of society other than the average white American.

Jatras: I don’t think that’s accurate. First off, he has a very coherent foreign policy. He has one rule, ‘What’s in it for us? What’s good for America? Not what’s good for global corporations? Not what’s good for a bunch of freeloading worthless so-called allies as far as Russia, China and other countries?’ Sure, he makes critical remarks, but his bottom-line is, ‘Let’s make a deal. Let’s talk.’ That’s his approach. As far as his domestic politics go, we have to look at how divided this country has become under Barack Obama, divided by class, divided by race, divided by language. I think what Trump is basically saying is that ‘We need to have one American identity that all Americans can agree with.’ And this is the unifying factor rather than a divisive one as we’ve seen under Obama and we get even worse under Hillary.

Press TV: When Trumps speaks of building a wall between Mexico and the US and says most Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals or when he speaks of a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States, is he working towards a united America?

Jatras: Absolutely, he’s looking at what’s good for the United States. Nobody has a right to cross into our country. You come into our country, because we think it’s good for our country. Iran is the same way. We don’t tell Iran that you must admit certain people into your country. That’s your decision. And that should be our decision as well whether it’s people from Mexico a lot of whom are criminals or whether it’s Muslims some percentage of which are going to be terrorists and we can tell which ones are which.

 


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku