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Beware Trojan horses.
Beware Trojan horses.
The news was welcome campaign fodder for US presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Referring to German chancellor Angela Merkel's open door policy on refugees from Syria, he commented in his usual rhetoric: "I don't know what the hell she is thinking".
Trump went on to say that he did not want to have "people coming in from migration from Syria (sic)" as these were aggressive young men who "look like they should be on the wrestling team". More dangerously still, Trump believed such people could act as terrorist "Trojan horses".
Trump's comments are in line with his vicious verbal attacks on Mexicans and other immigrant groups in the United States. But they betray his own family background. His grandfather, Friedrich Trump, a German, lived a migrant life in the US on the edge of illegality and rejection. During the World War I, he belonged to an immigrant group which was sweepingly labelled the "enemy within" or - in his grandson's parlance - a Trojan horse.
The great wave
Friedrich Trump was swept to the United States in one of the biggest waves of mass migration in history. During the 1880s and early 1890s, 1.8m Germans emigrated to various European and overseas destinations. When young Friedrich arrived in New York in 1885 he joined around 200,000 of his compatriots who had already settled in the metropolis, forming a distinct "Little Germany". After working for six years as a barber, he was caught by the Gold Rush, moved west and opened up a chain of restaurants and hotels in Washington State and British Columbia. Hospitality did not only include food and lodging, but also alcohol and prostitution. Friedrich anglicized his name to Frederick and became a US citizen.
By 1901, Frederick had made a small fortune and decided to return to his hometown of Kallstadt in south-west Germany. (Incidentally, the Heinz family of Ketchup fame has its origins in the same town.) Frederick married his childhood sweetheart, Elisabeth, and planned to settle down.
Frederick Trump
Wartime spy fever
World War I was not a happy time for German-Americans. They were summarily labelled as "alien enemies" whose true allegiance lay with the Fatherland. Nativist spokesmen agitated against "hyphenated Americans" as potential spies and saboteurs. Use of the German language was seen with suspicion. In contrast to many of their compatriots, the Trumps did not need to anglicize their surname as it worked perfectly in English.
The most notorious case of public violence was the lynching of German immigrant Robert Prager in Illinois. He was tarred and feathered, forced by an agitated crowd to kiss the American flag and sing patriotic songs, and finally hanged from a tree in front of 200 onlookers.
Frederick Trump evaded the fate of Prager, but not the other deadly weapon which swept the world once the war was nearing its end. In 1918 and 1919, Spanish influenza killed between 20m and 50m people worldwide. On a summer's day in 1918, Frederick returned home from a stroll through New York with his son Fred (Donald's father), went to bed feeling sick, and passed away the next day.
Paranoid nation
The dangerous mix of paranoia and xenophobia directed against German-Americans during World War I had profound and long-lasting effects. The Alien Enemy Bureau was established in the early days of the war with a brief to identify and arrest disloyal foreigners. It was headed by J. Edgar Hoover, then a young civil servant in the Justice Department. Here he picked up the tools he would use later as all-powerful director of the FBI.
In 1940, the notorious House Un-American Affairs Committee published The Trojan Horse in America, a compendium of domestic organizations believed to work for foreign powers. Chapter titles included "Mussolini's Trojan Horse in America" and "A Trojan Horse of German War Veterans".
All this was reason enough for the business-minded Trumps to deny their German heritage, claiming they hailed from Sweden instead. Donald's father Fred invested heavily in New York real estate, laying the foundations for today's business empire. It was only from the 1980s that Donald Trump started to stand by his German roots.
Trump's own grandfather was an illegal emigrant whose income stream included alcohol and prostitution at a time when these were legally contested. He was an unwanted returnee to Germany, and then a potential "enemy alien" within the United States who had declared his loyalty to the German Kaiser - but ultimately made an immense economic contribution spanning generations.
Today, his grandson lambastes Mexicans as criminals, intends to erect a wall to keep them out, and warns of Syrian refugees as Trojan horses. If Donald Trump wins his party's nomination, historians will have many a field day digging out the contradictions between his anti-immigrant rhetoric and his family background.
Methinketh you protesteth too much, for IMO Trump is, like his father, an opportunist with enough street smarts to know which way the wind is blowing and keep his sail in that wind... most of his statements are mere standard party bluster, remember when the key platform policy of the Repubs was against abortion? They had the White House and Congress both and yet never did a thing about it, and since then it's become essentially a non-issue. Most of Trump's statement are the same bluster that has filled the party's platform propaganda for the last couple of decades at least. Most businessmen on this level have worked with all kinds of corrupt people and I'm sure the Donald is no different. Haven't all his wives been immigrants as well? Does anyone really believe he's gonna build that wall? Do they still believe George Jr. will build one or find those WMD in Iraq? All of this is BS.
He reminds me of the the Kennedy's father, running illegal booze during Prohibition, working with the Mafia to help his son get in office etc. Both seem full of BS at times, but learn to change course when the wind changes direction. Neither Kennedy Sr nor the Donald seem to have any real core beliefs, or perhaps I should say that Kennedy Sr was fond of the Nazis like many of the American establishment of the time, but the Donald doesn't seem to have any attachment to either party here in the States, nor any particular belief that I'm aware of, perhaps only a keep interest to stay on top of his game, that has of late gone political, setup rather perfectly after a few years of reality tv and before that, years of self-promotion, perfect for the modern American showman.... is there any substance? Hard to tell. My guess is that he would learn to work with anyone to get what he wants, and hopefully, given his personality, that would be good for the USA if he identifies himself with the state as his kind is fond of doing. The real problem is the system seems designed to crash before the election and that should change the bluster and fluster quite a bit.
At least with the Donald, most of his crap is a known factor from the press, whereas the rest of those running are hidden behind billionaire supporters that the public hasn't heard a word about... be it the Bush clan, Hillary, Rubio or Cruz, which leaves only Bernie as a potential outsider, or rather as close as outside as we can get after the others have now left the race, such as Rand Paul and ... can't remember his name now... but here's a list of Dem candidates never mentioned at all: [Link]
I we hear if what the establishment media wants us to hear, and a reason the Donald is so successful so far, he's a known commodity to the general audience after decades of self-promotion, which is key to anything in sales. And another point is that all of the candidates on both sides, except for the Hillary, are first time Prez candidates, right? And first timers never make it to the end unless they are 'chosen' from the establishment like the last two insiders. The Donald is self-funding and thus a danger to all of those he's been working with for decades. Is this good or bad for the public? Does it matter in a system ready for collapse? In a game so rigged like the markets, that any consideration of 'fair and balanced' is not even funny these days?
Why crash on the Donald party, at least it's entertaining? Ask why the media doesn't cover the Hillary or Rubio or Cruz? Why are they being pushed so much?... well, Hillary isn't a favorite anymore, but Bernie as well as the Donald and the rest all speak loverly of Zion, so that means they all have that in common, isn't that "the bigger picture"?