Published: 2 January 2024
Last updated: 5 March 2024
VIC ALHADEFF talks to BRUCE WOLPE about his book on Trump and Trumpism and the nightmarish prospect of him winning the 2024 US presidential election.
Bruce Wolpe pulls no punches when discussing the figure at the centre of his latest book, Trump’s Australia.
“Trump never repents, recants, reverses or admits,” says Wolpe in his trademark laconic style. “He lied 30,000 times during his presidency, he invented the notions of `fake news’ and `alternative facts’, and the only elections he believes are legitimate are ones that he wins.”
As for Charlottesville – the 2017 rally when neo-Nazis yelled “Jews will not replace us” and Trump’s response was “there were very fine people on both sides” – Wolpe said the former president “was not ashamed to echo Hitler and Mussolini. He wants neo-Nazi power behind him in the street and at the voting booth. He talks as if he’s immune from being stopped. He believes racial extremists have had enough of identity politics and he’s created an atmosphere where he can say that with impunity.”
As if the world is not in enough turmoil right now, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Israel at war with Hamas in Gaza, and the advent of AI, the coming year heralds the frightening prospect of Donald Trump attempting to run again for president in the US elections.
A former staffer for US Congressman Henry Waxman, Wolpe served also as senior adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, as her chief of staff after she left office and as head of corporate affairs at Fairfax (now Nine Newspapers). His analyses appear frequently in the latter’s newspapers. His new book on Trump and the implications of his presidential run has just been published.
