WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Several prominent Republicans, including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain, announced they would not vote for Trump after Friday’s release, widely circulated in US media, of an 11-year-old video in which the businessman and reality TV star makes vulgar comments about women.
“The Republican elites are basically neocons,” scientist and political analyst Professor John Walsh said. “So when Trump said he wanted to ‘get along’ with Russia, wanted an end to regime change operations and an end to nation building, he was saying he wanted to back away from Empire.”
However, Trump’s genuine desire to cooperate with Russia and pursue a more restrained US foreign policy outraged the maximalists who have dominated US strategy over the past two decades, Walsh warned.
“That is unacceptable to advocates of the Indispensable Nation,” Walsh explained. “Nothing captured Trump's position like his declaration that he is running to be President of America, not President of the World.”
“Trump threatens to upend the whole imperial scheme,” Walsh stated. “So the Empire, its rulers, its mandarins and retainers are threatened. They are striking back with everything they have short of assassination.”
Trump had also outraged the establishment by his support for the victims of US policies of free trade and global domination, Walsh observed.
“Add to that his championing of the people left behind, as the vast equality gap builds, the so-called ‘peasants with pitchforks,’ whose low wages make the wealth of the banksters and hedge fund managers possible,” Walsh noted.
Trump had built up passionate support among the marginalized and disadvantaged across US society by voicing their suffering, he continued.
“He declared to those who are forgotten and left behind, ‘I am your voice,’ perhaps the most powerful words spoken in this campaign,” Walsh added.
“The Bush faction leaked the tape to sink Trump at the same time they pledged financial backing to all GOP [Republican] candidates who break with Trump,” Steinberg said. “Their preferred option is Hillary Clinton in the White House while GOP retains control of both Houses.”
Republican 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney also supported the attempt to destroy Trump, Steinberg maintained.
“The split between enraged blue collar base and party elite is very real and very damaging,” Steinberg predicted. “If Trump continues to poll at no higher than 35 percent, he will drag down the entire GOP slate.”
Supporters of the Bush family were already prepared to take further actions to discredit Trump in order to destroy his presidential prospects, Steinberg concluded.
Trump has apologized for his remarks in the 11-year-old video and insisted that he will not withdraw from the campaign despite calls among some in his party to do so.
