Another week, another catalogue of embarrassments from Trump
Another week, another catalogue of presidential embarrassments.
It can be argued – pro and anti – that President Trump is good or bad, doing his best or out of his depth. Whatever it is – and historians of the future will have a high old time explaining the early 21st century, what is now becoming clear is that he is an utterly shallow person, incapable of understanding the issues that confront him.
This week’s example is his failure to realise that his populist, racist ramblings during and since his election campaign – for example about Mexicans, Muslims, and immigration policy generally – has encouraged and emboldened the worst elements of America’s extreme right, the KKK, white supremacists and neo-Nazis, to take to the streets with weapons, and to attack anyone who opposes them.
His initial response to the murder of an anti-fascist protester, namely to decry violence ‘on all sides’ was corrected after condemnation across the political spectrum, to name and blame the extremist right 48 hours later when his advisors persuaded him to do so. Whether, even now, he understands that he bears some responsibility for the rise of the extreme right is unclear.
Perhaps there is some small ray of light that his advisors can actually explain to him what a responsible president should say, and in this case, perhaps he even listened to them. I am not convinced, and it is now clearer than ever that the human race will survive this reality TV president only if he is soon removed from power.
And of course, there is the little matter of the exchange of macho insults and posturing between Trump and Kim Jong Un, two unworthy representatives of the race if ever there was. Perhaps they deserve each other, but the rest of us don’t. Yet again, it is to be hoped that those in Trump’s entourage have the guts to explain to him that focus, nuance and diplomacy are the only ways forward.
David Askins, Lightmoor
