Meet the Anglophile who could soon be Trump’s man in Brussels
This week, Dr Ted Malloch faces an Apprentice-style grilling at Trump Towers in New York to see if he will be hired as Donald Trump’s US ambassador to the EU. Like the President-Elect, he is in tune with the peaceful revolution of 2016 and argues that the liberal elite in Europe need to wake up to the new reality.
“Davos-man is dead,” he declares. “Read the obituary. It is framed in the US election and all that Trump represents. The post-Berlin Wall globalisation consensus is over. Going around telling the locals that they are racists for opposing migration does not help. They are not racists, they are nationalists – and the reality is that just like homeowners they want to feel and see the benefits of home ownership or being a national. Building the country is now Trump’s political and economic imperative.”
Malloch understands that voters have lost patience with the so-called benefits of globalisation and it is now the turn of European politicians to catch up with that truth.
“No longer do we need to have ultimate allegiance paid to corrupt international organisations,” he says, “and think that globalisation or its attendant trade deals will solve all our ills. It has disenfranchised extensive swaths of our populations. Those groups have seen their median incomes fall in the last decade and a half and their costs rise, while disproportionally suffering from under and non-employment. Thanks to blue-collar populism, these working people have now spoken and they have found a voice in Trump. His administration and what it will build is more about hope and change than rage.”
But Malloch will be no populist bull in a Brussels china shop. The former Oxford professor and current member of the Institute of Economic Affairs’ academic advisory council is an experienced diplomat, having served on many international bodies. During the Cold War, he served at an ambassadorial level in Geneva as deputy to the executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. He speaks German and French and is a Europhile complete with a Scottish surname and Roosevelt family ties. Immediately after the US election, Malloch was invited to Brussels to address the distinguished EU Montesquieu Forum.
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“For all the turmoil, turbulence, and sheer reality-show melodrama of the 2016 US presidential campaign,” he told them, “the actual results deepen long-standing trends in the electorate rather than shatter them. You may think the Trump election is a so-called black swan event or as one commentator called it a ‘white lash’. It is not. Rather it is part and parcel of a much larger global pendulum swing towards populism and nationalism after decades of elitist globalism. These trends are perceived as problematic for governance, partisanship and democracy. But in fact they spell a different consequence, one that promises market-based solutions, more inclusive capitalism and greater participation and reassertion of national sovereignty.”
In conclusion, talking to the Brussels elite, he reassured them that it was not all bad news. “Yes, Trump’s success will embolden populist anti-establishment parties across Europe and around the world. Face it: this is the new reality but it is not necessarily injurious to democracy or Montesquieu’s original notions of a commercially based Republic. In fact, it could under the best circumstances and with the right personnel enhance both.”
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Throughout the US election, Malloch was very close to Trump and was a key adviser. His insider’s view of the campaign, Hired (WND Books), with an afterword by Nigel Farage, is published this week. This insight makes him the perfect lightning rod for EU politicians to get a real understanding of where the Trump administration is coming from.
“Make no mistake, Trump and his ilk are not anti-trade,” he insists, “and most certainly, as entrepreneurs and most importantly builders, firmly believe in market-based fairly played capitalism. They just don’t want or see the results of a long-term system rigged to benefit only the few, the well connected, the super-elites, who game the system or force their one-world globalism on the rest of us.”
There should be no fear either of him going native in the corridors of Brussels and taking a position against the UK. “In the UK, Brexiteers can take heart from the victory of another anti-establishment figure. His political sympathies for Brexit could lead him to prioritise a trade agreement with the UK once the country leaves the EU. It will also ensure a stronger US-UK Special Relationship.”
Let’s hope that Malloch’s interview in Trump Towers goes well and he hears the legendary Trump phrase “You’re hired!”