Donald Trump: The Rodrigo Duterte Of America

Certainly, we thought, despite the entertaining reality show aspects of his campaign, the good people of the Philippines would not vote for someone who would routinely denigrate women, lash out at the Pope in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, or hire hit men to kill thousands.
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While sitting around the full debate prep room in Manila with my friend, one of the most intelligent, experienced and qualified presidential candidates the Philippines has ever seen -- Interior Secretary Mar Roxas -- most scoffed at the possibility that Mayor Rodrigo Duterte could win.

Certainly, we thought, despite the entertaining reality show aspects of his campaign, the good people of the Philippines would not vote for someone who would routinely denigrate women, lash out at the Pope in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, hire hit men to kill thousands of suspected drug dealers on the streets of his town without any due process and even joke about wanting to join in on the rape of a beautiful foreign journalist who was murdered in his town.

Yet on May 9, 2016, the man called "The Filipino Trump", Rodrigo Duterte, destroyed Secretary Roxas and three other candidates to easily win the presidency of the Philippines.

"Glorious promises delivered with supreme confidence will always trump logic and rationality."

As a political communication strategist who had worked on many campaigns around the world, the astounding support of someone actually considered "insane" by the elite in Manila and elsewhere, was not that hard to understand. Mayor Duterte was "strong", he made politics simple, he made "change" simple and he made promises that everyone, no matter their economic status or their level of education, could understand and be moved by.

Rodrigo Duterte promised, and still promises, to make the Philippines great again. With powerful conviction he promised his people that he would end crime in six months, would provide great jobs for everyone and would stand up to all the foreign countries that were bringing The Philippines down.

Mar, and the other candidates couldn't make those direct and simple promises. They believed them to be impossible and tried to explain that the simple and tantalizing solutions offered by Duterte were not legal, not plausible and would never work.

The Filipino people did not care. They had found someone who was "strong", defied "the system", disdained political correctness, shot from the hip with enormous candor, had conviction, would not back down, played by his own rules and made promises with such a seductive level of confidence, it was inconceivable that their lives would not improve . . . if only this one man became the leader of their country.

Watching Yale Law School superstar Hillary Clinton and her team try to battle "The American Duterte" reminds me of almost every meeting and strategy session we had in Manila and that totally helpless feeling of seeing someone considered significantly "less qualified" completely outfox and out campaign the best and the brightest in a country of 100 million. Rodrigo Duterte clearly didn't understand the issues, or much care, but he understood something far, far more important in politics. He understood the people and what they wanted and that glorious promises delivered with supreme confidence will always trump logic and rationality.

Donald Trump understands the people and what they want and is an even more gifted communicator and salesman than President Duterte.

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