I think it probably would - Trump is actually a very good persuader. I showed a clip of him speaking to a bunch of Indians who saw virtually nothing of him exc

I think it probably would - Trump is actually a very good persuader. I showed a clip of him speaking to a bunch of Indians who saw virtually nothing of him except whatever they read in TOI. (TOI and most other Indian English language papers can be thought of as being Indian branches of the cathedral, at least for this purpose.) They started by mocking him, yet they quickly quieted down and watched the video with rapt attention until the end. After watching this video they were very much against Trump cutting off the rest of the world to Make America Great Again. As in, they were using Trump's language and accepting his premises, in spite of knowing they were wrong. This is one of the great failings of democracy. People like Trump (or Obama, who had similar abilities) can blatantly lie or just say nothing meaningful, and people will relate to them and follow them.