OTTAWA -- U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is so erratic he's like "an insane uncle" whose actions are impossible to predict, says Van Jones, a former adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama.
In an exclusive interview with Evan Solomon, host of CTV's Question Period, Jones said it's hard to describe just how unpredictable Trump has been - even for Trump's own advisers. He made the remarks when asked what the U.S. president-elect would do about the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has said he will rip up if he can't get concessions on the 22-year-old pact.
"If you had an insane uncle, who had taken over your house, and did five things in a row that didn't make any sense ... whatever he does, it won't make a lot of sense from where you’re sitting right now," Jones said.
"I've had the opportunity to be sitting next to his campaign surrogates on national television where … at the break they said Donald Trump is going to do XYZ, and then Trump comes out and does P, D, Q and 7. And his own surrogates are taken off balance in the middle of the news cycle. So I have no idea what he's going to do, nor do you. Nor does he.
Jones famously coined the term "whitelash" in the moments following Trump's election. He says Trump's appointments prove his assessment was accurate. The U.S. president-elect plans to put Lieut.-Gen. Mike Flynn, who once said fear of Muslims is rational, in charge of national security. Flynn has also said the Muslim faith is the root of Islamist militancy, the New York Times reported, and did a speaking engagement paid by the Kremlin-backed Russia Today.
Trump has also named Steve Bannon his chief strategist. Bannon was the executive chairman of Breitbart News, which critics say under Bannon’s leadership has served as a platform for white supremacists.
"When you’re talking about people who have ties to the so-called alt-right, which is basically just like a 21st century rebranding for neo-Nazis, for white supremacists, for white nationalists, that's the part I was talking about," Jones said.
"Certainly all of Trump's voters are not a part of that, and frankly many of Trump's voters were turned off by that hatred and voted in spite of it, not because of it. But you still can't deny that there is a very, very toxic strain of bigotry that is escalating in the Trump phenomenon."
Jones pointed to recent incidents in the U.S. that raised concerns about the impact of Trump’s leadership.
"The way he is conducting himself has created a wave in our country of swastikas everywhere, white power graffiti, inward graffiti, all across the country. You have high schools and elementary schools where young people are yelling build that wall at minority children, and he's created this massive sense of discomfort for racial minorities," he said.
Jones says Trump hasn't done enough to distance himself from white nationalists.
"Frankly he's done more retweeting of those groups and winking and nodding at those groups than he's ever denounced them," he said.
