Trump will tone down rhetoric later on: Academic

Press TV has conducted an interview with Alexander Azadgan, a professor of Strategic Global Management from California, about anti-Muslim remarks made by US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The Muslim groups are demanding an apology from Donald Trump. But the question is will he ever apologize?

Azadgan: No. I think... I advise them not to hold their breath. This individual thrives on controversy and any type of publicity.

You have to understand in the US, in the beginning of the election cycle or election season, both candidates play to the base of their party. The base of Donald Trump being people who are obviously xenophobic, people who are Islamophobic, people who are ultra right-wing and in many cases radicals.

So, he’s going to continue playing to them. Of course, Donald Trump is very much ahead in the primary. So, at some point, he will start slowing his tone and taking the race to the middle.

We had a gaffe by him a few days ago, where he quoted Mussolini, then following that, David Duke went ahead and endorsed him; then, he pulled a stunt where he claimed he didn’t know who David Duke was. So, we had quite a few of these gaffes. And I suspect that there’s going to be quite a few to go.

Press TV: Well, life is already hard as it is for Muslims in America. What would an America look like under Trump, and how worse will it be for Muslims?

Azadgan: Well, God forbid, if he presides the way he was campaigning, the life is not going to be only difficult for Muslim Americans, it’s going to be difficult for anyone who’s not of his particular ethnicity, being Caucasian race.

So, if he said the things he’s saying about any other minority, for example Jewish Americans, he would be knee-high in trouble. Just happens to be that everybody seems to be kicking it to the Muslims. There seem to be an easy target.

We do have organizations like the Council of American Islamic Relations. It’s a lobby group. They are very much a watchdog group. They are on top of these things. They try to bring publicity. They try to bring awareness about Islamophobia and these kinds of comments, but it seems Donald Trump is still playing to the base of his party.

And what’s worse, Donald Trump, whether he’s aware or not, he is actually playing to the narrative of ISIS savages. They are the ones that are claiming West is in war with Islam. Of course the entire Muslim community is in fight with these so-called radical Muslims, which are not really Muslims whatsoever. They are counterfeit Muslims and nobody’s mentioning that in the US.

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