Newsweek quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Associate Director Robbie Gramer and Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Senior Fellow H.A. Hellyer on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent comments against Islam and how it could impact the world’s view of the United States:
The rise of Trump, says Gramer, shows the power of the politics of fear, “of terrorism, the migrant crisis, Russia and the Middle East. Americans don’t appreciate the impact this is having in Europe. Our European allies pay attention to the polls. He is making headlines, and the primaries do alter perceptions of the United States.”
Beyond the populist rhetoric, Trump is playing an extremely dangerous game, analysts say. “He has inserted a kind of discourse into public debate that was once radical but is now mainstream,” says Hellyer. “Bigotry has become normalized; this kind of language has become normalized.”