Milo Morris wuchs unter Demokraten auf, heute unterstützt er Donald Trump. Warum findet er, dass der Ex-Präsident trotz allem zurück ins Weiße Haus soll? Weil er ihm einiges nicht glaubt.

M94.5: Milo, you grew up in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s in a family that was all democrat, your grandfather even was a local politician in the city government. How did you become a republican?

Milo Morris: There was one particular situation back in the mid 1980s that prompted me to move my vote to Ronald Reagan and start looking more seriously at Republicans. And that was the breakup of AT&T. I had a summer job that summer in 1984 and it was with AT&T and that that was the year that the company was broken up and my job disappeared. So I had to think about that, you know, what made that happen? And the Democrats were largely supportive of breaking up the company.That’s what really started me being more curious about the Republican Party. 

You even got to know Trump, back when nobody thought that he would one day become a politician. What was that like?

I’ve been in performing arts most of my life. Along the way, I was also hired for a number of different contracts as a dancer. And in 1988, there was a show in the main show room at Trump’s Castle, which was a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A friend of mine who was also a dancer, we drove down to Atlantic City one day and got hired. And so for about six months, five months, I worked for Trump to Trump’s castle in Atlantic City. Now, during that time, there was an occasion to actually see Donald Trump in our environment backstage. At the time, he was married to Ivana. She was there all the time and she was very friendly. Like I said, we saw a lot less of Donald back in those days. But when he would come through, he was fine. You know, I would say he was very cordial, very businesslike. 

“I wasn’t thinking much about the character flaws”

Milo Morris

His image of a businessman helped him during his successful campaign in 2016. Did it also convince you that he was fit to serve as president?

You know, here’s the thing. Regardless of Donald’s personality or Ivana’s personality, it was how we were treated as employees. And that’s really what I bring forward in life and bring forward with my perspective on Donald Trump. Keep in mind, we are dancers. And we were not hired directly by the hotel. We were hired by a production company. However, whatever deal it was that Donald and his management team struck with the production company, it provided us as entertainers with the same benefits that the hotel employees got. So the access to the cafeteria, access to health care benefits. They didn’t treat us any differently as subcontractors as they did the hotel employees who were direct employees. And to me, that speaks volumes. 

That was in the 1980s, when Donald Trump was still seen as a successful businessman. But in the years after, scandal after scandal hit: bankruptcies, divorces, court cases. Didn’t that impact you when he decided to run for president?

It really didn’t. I really wasn’t thinking much about the character flaws that people were talking about at the time. Even right there on day one when he came down the escalator people were being critical of him and the things that he said in his speech. His presentation that day, some of it was mischaracterized. I was working that day, I saw the news after I came home. And they said Donald Trump had said this about Mexicans and so forth. And I said, wait a minute. I said, it really doesn’t sound correct. So I went online and I looked for the actual written transcript of the speech that he gave. And I realized that not everybody, but many people in the media on that day had decided to extract a phrase that he had said about Mexicans. And they took it out of context and deliberately mischaracterized what he had said. 

When looking at the election this year, what are the reasons you are voting for Donald Trump?

Primarily for economic reasons. That’s really the driving force. And inflation is not the only element. We are still dealing with trade balance issues, not just with China, but also with some of our allies, including Germany. But I also think about the gross domestic product, job growth, housing starts. Kamala Harris is running a campaign on housing – she wants to create an environment that we already had under Trump.

Über Milo Morris

Milo Morris ist in Boston in einer demokratischen Familie aufgewachsen. Schon als Kind hat er für die Partei Flyer verteilt, bevor er sich 1984 Ronald Reagan und den Republikanern zuwandte. Er ist ausgebildeter Opernsänger und hat unter anderem am Boston Conservatory studiert. Heute arbeitet er in einer Firma für Handglocken und lebt in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Under Trump the US economy was strong, at least before the pandemic hit. His main economic legacy were his tax cuts that increased the federal deficit by $1 to $2 trillion. Especially the rich benefited – if he is elected, Trump wants to cut taxes even further.

I know that the Democrats are very fond of characterizing that tax bill as for the rich. At the time I was making, let’s just call it $30,000. I was not working full time. So my $30,000 a year before Trump was being taxed at 3% more than after Trump. Okay. So here I’m not rich. Yet I still benefit. So when I hear tax breaks for the rich, I’m like, it’s un-nuanced. Did rich people get a tax break, too? Yeah, they did. But so did everybody across the board. So the other item that and I don’t know if this is included in the, you know, tax breaks for the rich or not, but he lowered corporate taxes. Now, when people hear that, they think of the big banks, the big oil companies, they think of, Verizon or AT&T or, you know, some giant corporation with tens, hundreds of thousands of employees. Yes, those companies are definitely benefiting. But so is the dry cleaner and the pizza shop right around the corner. So the business tax came down across the board and that stimulated several things. I do think that’s a vote getter.

“You’ve got the rhetoric and then you’ve got policy”

Milo Morris

But right now, the US economy is not doing badly. The GDP growth is at about 3 percent, inflation is down at about 2.1 percent, unemployment rate is low at 4.1 percent. It looks like the US is on the right path, why do you still think it needs Trump back in the White House?

But we are still faced with higher than normal prices, higher than comfortable prices. And for some people, higher than affordable prices at the gas pump primarily and at the grocery store primarily. And that’s that’s important because you can talk to me about economic analysis all day long. Until it’s making a difference to my pocket, it’s not a real number. And people are going to vote that way. 

Many of his claims are xenophobic or racist, and he is not really trying to hide it. Doesn’t this disqualify him from office?

Here in the United States, the immediate reaction to Trump was one of racism and xenophobia. That’s how he was characterized. Based on that statement, the border itself, which is very much a separate issue, kind of came along later. And the many in the media and many of his critics were able to take that initial statement and tie it to his border policy. There are many Americans on all sides of the political spectrum, that are concerned about border security. It is not necessarily considered a racist topic unless you’re talking about Donald Trump and by extension, the Republican Party. 

“Populism is not always a bad thing”

Milo Morris

The border is still a big issue in Trump’s campaign. He promised to build a wall in 2016, now he wants to deport thousands of people. Donald Trump offers simple solutions, but immigration is a complex issue, some states rely on people coming into the US to work. 

This is always a problem with politics. You’ve got rhetoric and then you’ve got policy. So rhetoric says build the wall, sounds good on the campaign trail, gets people out to vote. Focal point when it comes to actually creating the policy. So now you know how long the border is between Mexico and the United States. You also know that there are mountains and there are rivers and that you cannot build a wall from point A all the way to point B, but you can definitely put a physical barrier in many places along that border. Every administration in recent times has contributed something to a physical barrier in those places where it’s possible to have one.

But promising things that can’t be done? That is populism.

Populism is not always a bad thing. There’s good populism and there’s really bad populism. He’s talking about murderers and rapists. But there’s a lot of individuals who have crossed the border illegally and then going on to other crimes. They’ve been captured, and so we know who they are. Whether some of them might be sitting in jails. We may know some of them might be on probation or parole right now. That’s a place to start with regards to deportation. On it, deporting criminals again, is something that I don’t think many Americans are going to push back on because, you know, it’s one thing for a person to cross the border illegally, come here and become a productive citizen. It’s another thing for them to come here and do nothing rob convenience stores or banks or whatever it is they do. I think the deportation item is part of the solution.

Aren’t you worried about what this kind of rhetoric does to the political discourse?

No, I don’t. Because, again, I see that rhetoric lives in one world, basically on the stage, on the camera. Policy lives in another world. Policy lives in Congress. Policy lives in the Oval Office. Policy lives in offices, all government offices and non-government offices all over the place. So when it’s time for the policy makers to sit down and write the laws, they’re not listening to the rhetoric. And, you know, you can talk smack and say things about people all day long. It’s really not going to have any effect on policy at all. 

Shouldn’t  a candidate be honest about his or her intentions and capabilities in office? Shouldn’t voters get the complete picture?

How do we know that he’s not being honest? How do we know? I mean, we don’t really know how Trump feels about illegal immigration. We have on numerous occasions over the many, many years where an illegal immigrant has committed a heinous crime, has committed a rape, has committed a murder. To ignore that would be to try to sugarcoat the problem. In a fair and balanced conversation, we could talk about the murderers and rapists and talk about the people who are fleeing persecution. If they didn’t leave El Salvador, they would be dead right now because somebody had threatened their life. And when they got here to the United States, they went through the application process and are now waiting for an asylum. They’ve been to court at least once. So you’ve got both going on. 

But where is a balanced conversation? Donald Trump seems like he is not even trying.

The number of people in the United States that are really able to have a 360 degree conversation is fairly small because people either line up on the, ,we should let them, they’re hurting’ or ,we should keep them out because they’re going to hurt us’. You’ve got two different perspectives, neither one of which is 100% accurate. 

We need to talk about Project 2025. The paper was co-authored by a lot of former officials in the Trump administration with excellent connections into the Republican party. It suggests giving the president direct control over federal agencies and to end job protections for many government employees, who could be replaced with political appointees. Don’t you think these ideas are dangerous for the US democracy?

For people to say that this is Trump’s plan for his presidency is not a fact. I don’t know if he’s read it. I don’t know if he’s read parts of it. I’m sure he’s heard at least the opposition to a piece here, a piece there. But I will tell you this: I have and I can tell you this, there is a lot of deliberately biased summary because it’s a 922 page document. And one thing is very important: It’s 922 pages of proposals. It’s things that the government can do. 

Über Project 2025

Das Project 2025 ist ein 922 Seiten dickes Dokument der “Heritage Foundation”, ein konservativer Think Tank. Darin wird unter anderem beschrieben, wie der Präsident weitreichende Befugnisse über das Justizministerium erhalten könnte, wie Beamte politisch auf Linie gebracht werden können oder wie der Zugang zu Abtreibungen eingeschränkt werden könnte. Viele der Autor:innen sind ehemalige Mitarbeiter von Donald Trump.

From a European perspective, it is hard not to be scared of another Trump term. He threatened to leave NATO, to stop military aid for Ukraine and to withdraw soldiers from Europe. In his first term, he left the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Why shouldn’t I be afraid of another Trump presidency?

Well, I think at the end of the day, you know, Trump knows that we need allies. Trump knows that we need trading partners. With regards to NATO’s, I think it’s more a matter of the separation between rhetoric and policy. And because Trump is not the most articulate individual, especially since he doesn’t write anything down, things might come out in very harsh terms, you know. I’m not necessarily in a position to say that he won’t drop out of NATO, but I don’t know that a president of the United States has the ability to simply tear up a treaty on a whim. I’m certain there would be other branches of government, at least the Senate involved in making that decision.

It seems like Kamala Harris might be a much more trustworthy partner.

Neither one of them is giving us any details and they’re not laying out any policies. Basically what you’re getting is platitudes. Trump’s platitudes are rough. Trump’s platitudes might raise doubt. Common platitudes make you feel more secure and make you more relaxed. You know, there’s only so much detail you can offer on the campaign trail and there’s only so much detail you should offer on the campaign trail. So I guess it becomes more a matter of affect. Of course, people are afraid of Trump. People are always afraid of Trump. He’s a rough guy. But at the end of the day, there’s no substance to what either one of them is saying. None. 

In 2020, Trump denied his loss in the presidential election, on January 6th he was willing to let a bunch of his supporters storm the capitol to stop the certification of election results. How can Trump be president again after that?

2020 was not the first time we’ve had election denialism in this country. It was probably the biggest example of it. But you go back to 2016, there was the whole hashtag, ,not my president’. When Trump won in 2016, there was this rash of anti Trumpism. On Inauguration Day in Washington, DC, when Trump was being inaugurated, there were mobs going through the streets of Washington, D.C., vandalizing, breaking windows, setting cars on fire. Let’s take a step further back in time to the year 2000. The Florida election between George Bush and Al Gore was highly contested, hotly contested. And again, this was mostly on the Democrat side of the fence that were rioting, protesting an election, denying, yelling, screaming, behaving in very uncivil ways. And once the Supreme Court made their decision , still to this day, 24 years later, there are people who will say that George Bush stole that election. So election denialism is nothing new in the United States. We’ve just experienced the most recent round.

Die Präsidentschaftswahl 2000: Bush vs. Gore

Bei der Präsidentschaftswahl 2000 war der Abstand zwischen dem Republikaner George W. Bush und dem Demokraten Al Gore im entscheidenden Bundesstaat Florida äußerst knapp – so knapp, dass Gore Bush schon gratuliert hatte, die Glückwünsche dann aber wieder zurücknahm. Es kommt zur Nachzählung, auch bei den Wahlzetteln gibt es Probleme. Der oberste Gerichtshof in Florida entscheidet zugunsten von Al Gore, doch der Supreme Court grätscht dazwischen: Bei den Nachzählungen sei es nicht einheitlich zugegangen und nun sei es zu spät für eine neue Auszählung. Fünf Wochen nach der Wahl wird damit George W. Bush zum Sieger der Präsidentschaftswahl.

But January 6 was by far more violent and dangerous. It took Donald Trump 187 minutes for him to call on his supporters to go home.

So I can agree with you on the first point that this was to the best of my knowledge of history. This was the most violent incident of election denialism that we’ve ever had. As far as the details of Trump’s contribution to that day. I will say that we’re about to enter another round of vetting that activity and hearing more testimony and more witnesses about that. I will say that when you might recall that there was an impeachment based on his inciting the January 6th incident. And the Senate did not convict him. The Senate made its decision in that case and they did not find him liable to the extent that they were going to remove him from office. And so we’ll see what this next round of legal activity brings out, because obviously there’s going to be new evidence presented. Let’s see it. 

“There is division among people where they allow
the division to occur”

Milo Morris

The US is polarized. Donald Trump talks down on political opponents, threatens to use the military against “enemies within”. Why should he be the right person to overcome this division?

It’s not Donald Trump’s job to overcome the division. It is the job of the American people. The American people are the ones that are divided from each other. At the end of the night, Donald Trump goes to bed in Mar a Lago and sleeps all night long or tweets all night long. And Kamala Harris goes to bed wherever the vice president lives or wherever she happens to be. And they sleep fine. Those two are never going to be friends. Those two will probably never even be working together in government. But the point of the matter is, when we’re talking about people, we’re talking about the American voter, We’re talking about the “”We the people” that starts out the Declaration of Independence. There is division among people where they allow the division to occur.

Speaking of now, is there anything that could make him lose your support for Donald Trump?

I would have to say that no at this point. As of today. I don’t know how I’m going to feel after the day after the incitement trial has been, the incitement is a very difficult thing to prove. So there’s a very large burden on the prosecution in this case. But, you know, there’s a lot about Trump that we supporters have accepted over the years regarding his personality. His actions are in a dif”ferent, I would say in a different category. And those have to be evaluated one by one basis. 

Milo, thank you for this conversation.

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