Monday 30th January
In the face of a bully, just exactly how does one respond? Turn the other cheek and you will be slapped just as hard on the other side of you face. Try to bully him back and you risk everything just escalating into an even bigger fight; besides he has the biggest army, the most weapons, the craziest generals. Walk away smiling and refuse to listen to his brutal remarks anymore – that won’t stop him; do you really think he cares if you’re listening. Try to persuade as many friends as possible to join you in arguing him down and he will call you all liars, part of the conspiracy he was elected to destroy.
There really is nothing you can do, except refuse to be bullied even if that means he hates you. Trade deal or no trade deal you cannot reason with a megalomomaniac. Mrs May might have to smile and call his election (where he came second) a ‘stunning’ victory, she will in her pursuit of a new trading partner have to put up with awkward questions, she may have to refuse to condemn his love of and possible use of torture, and she may have to defend the indefensible in public while loathing him in private – but we don’t have to. We MUST stand up and fight. This was how Nazi Germany started. And incidentally about the same time after another fateful World Financial crash too.
Donald Trump is a bully. An egotistical and dangerous bully. At the moment he looks pretty confident as his hand-picked team (most of whom are not actually vetted and approved by Congress yet) close in and try to re-assure him that he is right. Most Republicans would rather have a bad Republican President than a good Democrat, but as we will find here in Britain too, opposition more often comes from within. And remember that none of his Executive Orders has really come into force yet. There is confusion as to the legality of much of it, some may be softened or actually rejected by Congress and the Senate if not by the judiciary.
The biggest danger is that he will try to pick a fight with Iran, or rather his best buddy Israel will. And then we will see whether Putin is his other best friend or not. Let us hope that wiser heads stop him.
In the mean-time we must protest. We must let our voices be heard, especially we must not turn our backs on Europe just because we are scared of offending him. And let us not forget ridicule. Here is a man who takes himself far too seriously, can you imagine almost anyone else calling his buildings Trump Tower? Comedians may strangely become our best weapons in this new War of words. It may be a long struggle but he must not be allowed to win.