The US establishment only has itself to blame for Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Workers Party President Michael Donnelly has said.

“Donald Trump has astonishingly managed to pose as an anti-establishment figure at a time when many working-class people are angry at decreasing living standards and a rotten corporate media, which unconditionally supports Wall Street, the political establishment and endless war”. Michael said

“Trump’s populist right-wing rhetoric was able to strike a chord with voters who are fed up of the status quo and are desperate for change. It would be facile to base Trump’s success on rising racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia within American society.

“Undoubtedly, there is a dangerous polarisation of American society currently taking place, but this is being fuelled by establishment figures laying the blame for a weak economy at the door of immigration.”, said Michael

“US Capitalism has abjectly failed working-class people through a systematic dismantling of industry and manufacturing. This is fast becoming the driver of radical changes globally within the political system.

“The gains made by UKIP in Britain and the National Front in France are overwhelmingly in working-class areas, which have been decimated by decades of unemployment and the de-industrialisation process. This was also the case in areas such as Wisconsin and Ohio, which turned their backs on the Democrats as Trump promised to renegotiate trade deals and re-open factories”, he said

“Trump also managed to capitalise on Clinton’s obsession with war, global interventionism and lust for escalating tension with Russia.

“The Workers Party stands in solidarity with all the minority groups who will today be feeling a great sense of fear and trepidation at what the future holds in store for them under Trump’s regime. We reaffirm our belief that it is the US establishment’s actions of increasing inequality and racial tension that have created the monster of Trumpism”, concluded Michael