Joseph Muscat Thought Trump Would Win Election And Theorises Why He Ended Up Losing
Despite surveys indicating otherwise, former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had expected Donald Trump to triumph at last year’s US presidential election.
“Many Americans don’t like admitting they vote for Trump but they end up voting for him anyway,” Muscat said on TVM’s L-Erbgħa Fost il-Ġimgħa last week during a show held to discuss new US President Joe Biden.
“It’s just like it was in Italy with [former Prime Minister] Silvio Berlusconi, who always performed better in elections than he did in surveys because some people didn’t like admitting they were going to vote for him. The same applied with Trump.”
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Trump ended up losing to Biden, who was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States last week.
Muscat blamed Trump’s defeat on two aspects – both related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he described as a game changer.
“There couldn’t be an election campaign, and Joe Biden had to campaign from his basement without any rallies, and he basically let Trump campaign by himself.”
“If there had been a normal campaign, I think the results would have been different.”
Secondly, the former Maltese Prime Minister flagged a strategic error on Trump’s part when he discouraged people from voting through mail-in ballots by claiming that it leads to widespread fraud.
“Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of Republican votes were lost in places that were lost by a few thousand votes, people who couldn’t vote in person because they had COVID-19, were caught in bad weather or were stuck at work?”
“It’s not like Malta, when elections are a national holiday. Some people need to travel hundreds of miles to vote.”
Photo: Donald Trump (Facebook)
Muscat predicted the world has yet to see the last of Trump, suggesting he could run for president again in 2024, if not barred by impeachment proceedings, or perhaps open his own TV station or social media platform.
“Honestly I think Trump’s initial reaction to the election result was the start of his next election campaign,” Muscat said. “He was campaigning well, claiming to be a victim of the system, that the system and media broke him, and that this amounts to a betrayal of the American people.”
“I disagree with this message but although many people make fun of him, I think his communication style appeals to many Americans in a way traditional politicians don’t.”
Meanwhile, Muscat’s predecessor as Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi offered a different take on things.
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Gonzi blamed Trump and his supporters in the US media and the Republican Party for the infamous riot at Capitol Hill which left four people dead.
“Trump did something very few political leaders do, which was that he would tweet what he wants from the comfort of his chair. I don’t want to draw comparisons, but in a normal leadership system, a leader has their own people advising them and watching out for every single word they say.”
“A word can save a situation, encourage people or make them lose heart. What happened at Capitol Hill was scandalous and wasn’t a coincidence, but happened after a wave of declarations, which sections of the media participated in, that the election was robbed.”
“Despite the courts dismissing over 60 lawsuits of election fraud, including judges who Trump himself had nominated to the bench, Trump and his supporters, including Republican Congressmen and Senators, repeated those claims and this impacted people.”
What do you make of Joseph Muscat’s theory?
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