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The (American) Elephant in the Room

By agoudsward

Whenever I tell people here that I'm from the U.S., there's usually one topic they cannot help but discuss: Donald Trump.

People I've encountered from Greece to China to Germany and the U.K. have all asked me with a sense of curiosity and often a healthy dose of friendly ridicule how the man they knew as a brash and boastful reality television star became the Republican nominee for president.

Without getting too political, let's just say he doesn't appear to be too popular overseas.

There's usually a similar set of questions: What do you think of Trump? Can he win? Why does America like him? Do you know people that support him?

This is usually followed by a mix of astonishment, amusement and horror when I tell them that I have family members who've donned "Make America Great Again" baseball caps and "You're Hired" Trump for President T-shirts. It's almost as if it personifies some phenomenon that they've only ever heard on T.V. or read about in the news. I guess it gives them a sort of connection to a candidate and a drama that has amazed and certainly disgusted people here over the last year or so.

While I should stress all of these conversations have been friendly, at times I feel I'm in a tough spot. I certainly can't explain in one conversation all the complex political, social, and cultural conditions that created Trump, I don't fully grasp it myself. There's also an undeniable racist and xenophobic undercurrent to at least some of Trump's support that I certainly don't want to be attached to.

It feels like the Trump campaign is used by non-Americans as a way to lampoon the United States and justify all the things about America that bother people overseas.

Perceived as arrogant, careless, and greedy, Donald Trump is every American tourist who ever talked loudly and boorishly on a Tube train, or drunkenly snapped selfies with a member of the Queen's Guard. He's the American that doesn't know about or understand the rest of the world, but still thinks he knows what's best for it.

Not that the excessive interest in Donald Trump is unique to non-Americans, certainly he's absorbed much of America's collective attention since he announced his candidacy. Still, the global fascination (and revulsion) at American politics, namely Trump, makes this an interesting time to be a study abroad student.