{"id":20693,"date":"2016-03-03T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T17:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/world-considers-a-trump-presidency-many-shudder\/"},"modified":"2016-03-03T09:00:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T17:00:19","slug":"world-considers-a-trump-presidency-many-shudder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/world-considers-a-trump-presidency-many-shudder\/","title":{"rendered":"World considers a Trump presidency, many shudder"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS<\/strong> \u2014 Following Donald Trump\u2019s breathtaking string of Super Tuesday victories, politicians, editorial writers and ordinary people worldwide were coming to grips Wednesday with the growing possibility the brash New York billionaire might become America\u2019s next president – a thought that aroused widespread befuddlement and a good deal of horror.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump candidacy has opened the door to madness: for the unthinkable to happen, a bad joke to become reality,\u201d German business daily Handelsblatt wrote in a commentary for its Thursday edition. \u201cWhat looked grotesque must now be discussed seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also glee from some Russian commentators at how American politics is being turned topsy-turvy in 2016. And in Latin America, Ecuador\u2019s president predicted a Trump win could boomerang and become a blessing to the continent\u2019s left.<\/p>\n

However, the dominant reaction overseas to the effective collapse of the Republican Party establishment in the face of the Trump Train appeared to be jaw-dropping astonishment, mixed with dread at what may lie ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meteoric rise of the New York magnate has left half the planet dumbfounded,\u201d wrote columnist Andrea Rizzi in Spain\u2019s leading newspaper, El Pais.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo consider Donald Trump a political clown would be a severe misconception,\u201d said another European daily, Salzburger Nachrichten. If Trump is elected to the White House, the Austrian paper predicted, his ideas \u201cwould bring major dangers for the USA and the world … basically a nationalist-chauvinist policy that would make America not great but ugly, and risk the stability of the international order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations at Israel\u2019s Bar-Ilan University, said the best word to describe Israeli feelings about Trump is \u201cconfusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are certain parts of him that Israelis can relate to, such as his aversion to political correctness, his tough stance on Islamic terrorism and his call for a wall with Mexico to provide security, Gilboa said.<\/p>\n

But others have been particularly jarring to Israelis, such as comments about Jews that many consider insensitive and his derision of U.S. Sen. John McCain\u2019s captivity in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that every Israeli would reject. It\u2019s a highly sensitive issue in a country where prisoners of war are heroes and people go out of their way to release them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thuraya Ebrahim al Arrayed, a member of Saudi Arabia\u2019s top advisory body, the Shura Council, said a Trump presidency would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d and set the world back \u201cnot just generations, but centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray to God that a racist, politically incorrect personality does not win the election,\u201d she said. \u201cHow can he tell Muslim students going there to study he will shut the door in Muslim faces?\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in the Financial Times of London, Martin Wolf summed up the mood of a good share of Europe\u2019s business and economic elite, arguing that it would be a \u201cglobal disaster\u201d if Trump, who won seven states in Tuesday\u2019s Republican contests, made it all the way to the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Trump is a promoter of paranoid fantasies, a xenophobe and an ignoramus. His business consists of the erection of ugly monuments to his own vanity. He has no experience of political office. Some compare him to Latin American populists. He might also be considered an American Silvio Berlusconi, albeit without the charm or business acumen,\u201d Wolf wrote.<\/p>\n

He also said Berlusconi, a former Italian prime minister and media tycoon, \u201cunlike Mr. Trump never threatened to round up and expel millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolf\u2019s verdict: \u201cMr. Trump is grossly unqualified for the world\u2019s most important political office.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Japanese online commentator used much the same language, and likened the Republican front-runner to the evil nemesis of wizard Harry Potter.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s unexpected political rise reflects \u201celitism and opposition to globalization, but at its heart is a xenophobia and populism that comes from ignorance,\u201d said Masato Kimura, former London bureau chief for the conservative newspaper Sankei Shimbun. \u201cAlthough this is another country\u2019s election, Japan\u2019s allies should raise their voices to help prevent the birth of a \u2018Voldemort\u2019 president in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Mexican newspaper Reforma, columnist Sergio Aguayo compared anti-Mexican sentiments unleashed by Trump to the anti-communist Red Scares of the 20th century, and accused Trump of igniting a \u201cbrown panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must answer again and again Donald Trump, and make the U.S. government understand that we\u2019re not willing to continue being pointed out as the only ones responsible for problems that are also caused by the United States,\u201d Aguayo wrote.<\/p>\n

La Jornada, a leftist Mexican paper, ran a caricature of Trump wearing a \u201cKKK\u201d necktie and declaring, \u201cI will make cremation ovens for the Mexicans and Muslims … and they will pay for their construction!\u201d<\/p>\n

In the moderate and predominantly Muslim West African nation of Senegal, Mame Ngor Ngom, editor-in-chief of La Tribune, a weekly newspaper, expressed hope that in the final analysis, Americans will not be \u201cso thoughtless\u201d as to hand Trump their country\u2019s highest office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that the Americans won\u2019t vote for him. They already paid the consequences with George W. Bush. … Donald Trump will fail,\u201d the Senegalese journalist predicted.<\/p>\n

In Russia, some took delight in how messy U.S. politics have become.<\/p>\n

The popularity of Trump and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, who took four states on Tuesday compared to the seven won by Hillary Clinton, \u201cbears witness to the crisis of trust in such traditional clans\u201d as the Bushes and the Clintons, wrote Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia\u2019s upper house of parliament, in a post on Facebook.<\/p>\n

According to Alexander Dugin, a Russian nationalist ideologue with close ties to the Kremlin, Trump \u201cis sometimes disgusting and violent, but he is what he is. It is true America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Europe, where some also feel their nations are being submerged by waves of foreign migrants and violent Islamic radicalism is a real danger, not all have condemned Trump. Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France\u2019s far-right National Front, has said that if he were an American, he would cast his ballot for Trump. On Wednesday, Laurent Wauquiez, a French conservative lawmaker, said Trump\u2019s popularity is revealing of a general trend that has traversed the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it shows is that in democracies today, citizens no longer want people to tell them what they should think, what they should say. That\u2019s what makes Donald Trump seductive,\u201d Wauquiez told France 2 Television.<\/p>\n

In the northern Indian city of Lucknow, one software company executive said he has been impressed by Trump\u2019s muscular rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump looks like a tough guy,\u201d said Rohitash Sharma. \u201cHe has clarity of idea, and he means business. He has advocated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, if these improve the protection and safety of the country. He has a clear road map on how to protect his country from extremist forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though no fan, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said a Trump presidential win could be a political gift to Latin America\u2019s left, which is recovering from a string of electoral defeats in Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most convenient for Latin America is a Trump victory, because his rhetoric is so clumsy, so basic, that I think it would awaken reactions in Latin America,\u201d Correa told a group of radio journalists Monday. \u201cI think a guy like him would be very bad for the U.S. (but) for the progressive movement in Latin America, it could be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

For weeks, a Canadian website has poked fun at Trump by inviting disaffected Americans to move to an island off Nova Scotia. On Super Tuesday, as the returns rolled in, searches for \u201cHow can I move to Canada\u201d on Google spiked by more than 350% in four hours, Google editor Simon Rogers tweeted. A social media link posted by Toronto city councilman Norm Kelly that gives helpful directions on how to apply for Canadian citizenship received over 37,000 retweets.<\/p>\n

Bruce Arthur, a Canadian sportswriter and political commentator, tweeted this after Super Tuesday: \u201cTo my American friends, I have an eight-person tent that I can set up in the forest behind my house but you may need your own air mattresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Geir Moulson in Berlin, George Jahn in Vienna, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, Danica Kirka in London, Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo, Jim Heintz in Moscow, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Lori Hinnant in Paris, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City, Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, India, Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, and Babacar Dione in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS \u2014 Following Donald Trump\u2019s breathtaking string of Super Tuesday victories, politicians, editorial writers and ordinary people worldwide were coming to grips Wednesday with the growing possibility the brash New York billionaire might become America\u2019s next president – a thought that aroused widespread befuddlement and a good deal of horror. \u201cThe Trump candidacy has opened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20693"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}