Donald Trump’s success or failure as the next US president will largely depend on his ability to keep his independence from the “shadow government” and elite structures that shaped the policies of previous administrations, former presidential candidate Ron Paul told RT.
Trump, 70, enters the US presidency a political virgin, whose policies will be shaped by advice offered by his political cabinet.
“Unfortunately, there has been several neoconservatives that are getting closer to Trump. And if gets his advice from them then I do not think that is a good sign,” Paul told the host of RT’s Crosstalk show Peter Lavelle.
The retired Congressman said that people voted for Trump because he stood against the deep corruption in the establishment, that was further exposed during the campaign by WikiLeaks, and because of his disapproval of meddling in the wider Middle East.
“During the campaign, he did talk a little bit about backing off and being less confrontational to Russia and I like that. He criticized some the wars in the Middle East at the same time. He believes we should accelerate the war against ISIS and terrorism,” Paul noted.
Trump’s ability to honor his campaign rhetoric will depend on the role of the so-called “shadow government,” and the president’s ideals to stick to his beliefs.“We look at the president, we look at what he said, we look at what he might do when you look at his advisors,” Paul said.
“But quite frankly there is an outside source which we refer to as the 'deep state' or the 'shadow government'. There is a lot of influence by people which are actually more powerful than our government itself, our president,” the congressman said.
“Yes, Trump is his own guy, more so than most of those who have ever been in before. We hope he can maintain an independence and go in the right direction. But I fear the fact that there is so much that can be done secretly, out of control of our apparent government and out of the view of so many citizens,” he added.
Paul said will be hard for Trump to follow through on his NATO policies. During the campaign Trump suggested that the US disengage from the alliance completely because some of its members are not living up to various financial obligations.
But overall Paul thinks Trump will defend the US position in the world.
“He does not like to get pushed around so if it looks like we’re getting pushed around in the world his reflexes will be rather quick and they are not going to be wishy-washy, and that should concern people as well,” Paul said.