PDP Laban presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte should not be surprised why he’s sometimes likened to Republican candidate for president Donald Trump.
After all, they have some similarities, one of which is responding impulsively with answers that could have been better thought of and processed.
Second is the habit of flip-flopping after the responses get controversial.
Cases in point are Trump’s statements on uncontrolled migration and banning Muslims into the U.S., and the latest one on punishing women who underwent abortion.
Duterte’s flip-flops are about his womanizing ways, about putting both his legal wife and second wife in Malacanang, if and when elected, and his quick-justice approach to criminality, drugs and corruption.
Fortunately for Duterte, though, his advisers are quick to the draw, cautioning him later about better responses when the same question does arise.
Moreover, their respect for the man shines through. His VP bet, senator Allan Peter Cayetano, justifies Duterte’s one-line responses as due to the presidential candidate being “a shy man.”
And some in his PR team, when told of people’s shock over their man’s tough talk, do some quick assuaging by saying, “Sometimes drama lang na, but he’s really a very nice person.” Hmmm. A case of the public persona not reconciling with the private persona?
But Trump is a totally different case. He talks tough, he is brash and abrasive, boasts he’s not beholden to anyone, and dishes out threats left and right.
Worse, he has wittingly or unwittingly cloned himself among his inner circle. His campaign managers manhandle newspaper reporters, and his aides out-Trump Trump’s doomsday scenarios and threats, with matching braggadocio.
Needled on CNN about the rude comparison of photos of Trump’s wife with opponent Ted Cruz’s wife, Trump adviser Stephen Miller tried to downplay the faux pax by dragging in a red herring.
Miller said, a more important issue was that American women run the risk of female genital mutilation if migration of Muslims into the US of A was left unbridled.
Earlier, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski faced misdemeanor battery charges because he had allegedly grabbed a reporter during a rally.
One also wonders why Trump issues ridiculous responses, such as the ban on Muslims. Who whispered that thought to him?
Sam Clovis, a tenured professor of economics at Morningside College, USA, is among Trump’s whisperers. Currently on leave so he could sit as national co-chair of Trump’s campaign, Clovis himself was heard defending Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from entering the U.S.
Reminded that many international students in the US are Muslim, Clovis hurriedly said he did not believe that Trump’s ban-Muslims policy would result in deporting these students.
But if these students went home to visit family, would their return to the US be affected? Clovis then admitted that they’d have to remain outside the US during the moratorium period sought by Trump.
Morningside College has since then distanced itself from Clovis, citing that his present stand contradicting his academic reputation as a strong advocate for religious freedom was both “outrageous and disappointing.”
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)