How America and the world is finally waking up to foul-mouthed bully Donald Trump
Donald Trump is driving the UK closer to the European Union as it begins to realise its power and potential
As America marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – otherwise known as the ‘Semi-quincentennial’ or the ‘Big Two-Five-Oh’ – how will history record the second term of Donald J Trump’s presidency?
A line from playwright Alan Bennett’s The History Boys seems apt, based on the rhetoric and chaos emanating from the White House: “History is just one f***ing thing after another.” ‘Operation Epic Fury’ – the US name for its attacks on Iran – has been more like ‘Operation Epic F***-Up’.
Such words may offend some readers, but this seems to be the new language of international diplomacy, in Trump’s mind at least. In a social media post of unrestrained anger on Easter Sunday, the President, addressing the Iranian regime, wrote: “Open the F***in' Strait, you crazy b******s, or you'll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
READ MORE: Iran War shows why we can't trust Reform UK to make 'big, important, once-in-a-generation decisions'
‘A whole civilisation will die’
Appearing to threaten to commit war crimes, Trump also warned he might direct the US military to attack Iran so violently that it would “bring them back to the stone ages where they belong”. Then, on Tuesday, he added: “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.”
The subsequent ceasefire deal has lifted the threat, for now at least, but we should still ask whether Trump was talking about killing the entire population of Iran, more than 90 million people, who a month earlier were offered the opportunity to be free from their tyrannical rulers and promised hope for the future.
History may remember Trump’s Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, most for his alarming rhetoric about “no stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmires, no democracy building, no politically correct wars” and his pledge to “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralise, hunt and kill the enemies of our country”.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, using the protection of Trump, is running amok. Europe, including Britain, should be speaking out against the Israeli Knesset’s decision to effectively establish the death penalty for Muslims only, the continuing attacks on settlers in the West Bank, and the destruction of Lebanon.
A powerful democratic wingman
In January, before the current crisis, Thomas Friedman wrote a remarkable opinion piece published in the New York Times, headlined: “Trump’s politics are not America first. They’re me first.”
In words of real clarity, he launched a defence of America’s long-standing alliance with Europe and its membership of Nato.
“Let me put it in terms Trump should understand: If America were a company, you would say that a generation of American workers, executives and investors built the most successful, profitable and impactful corporation in the history of the world – the Atlantic/Nato alliance forged out of the ashes of World War II,” Friedman wrote.
“With a relatively tiny investment in post-war Europe, known as the Marshall Plan, we created a healthy trading partner that helped make both America and Europe richer than ever; we helped to transform Europe from a continent known for nationalist, ethnic and religious wars into the biggest centre of free markets, free people and the rule of law in the world – giving ourselves a powerful democratic wingman to help stabilise the world and contain Russia for the last three-quarters of a century.”
Russia and China, he added, had “dreamed that one day something would happen where America would lose its allies and Nato would be fractured... then one day their dreams came true. The American people elected a man who, no matter what he tells us, is taking us to a future not of ‘America first’, but of ‘America alone’ and ‘Me first.’”
Papal rebuke to ‘those who wage war’
Easter is usually a time when we celebrate ideas of peace, hope, renewal and a new life, rather than attempt to use God to defend a war of choice as some in the Trump administration have done. In his Palm Sunday address, Pope Leo said pointedly that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war”.
For those who wish to see the European Union become bigger and better, Nato strengthened, and the international rules-based order restored, this weekend could see a positive development, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban facing defeat by opposition leader Peter Magyar in national elections. A fan of Trump and Putin, Orban is a classic populist, authoritarian, media manipulator, and Ukraine opponent. The removal of this thorn in the side of the EU would represent a significant victory for Brussels.
The EU is slowly waking up to the power and potential of its role in the world, and the benefit of building alliances with new ‘coalitions of the willing’, including Canada, Asia and Australasia. And Trump is driving the UK closer to the EU.
The US President appears oblivious to this, remaining immersed in himself and his own concerns, with Ukraine and Gaza ignored. As Friedman said, China and Russia can’t believe their luck.
Republicans must act
Despite Trump’s obsession with tough-guy leaders, his Republican party must ensure the US stays within Nato. The Senate has the power to make this happen. The Grand Old Party needs to escape from its self-imposed irrelevance, return the “checks and balances” on presidential power, and help America out of the mess it now finds itself in.
The last 15 months of Trump feel more like 15 years, but there are signs that the real world is weary of crisis and chaos, and is now responding. Our fragile planet cannot be run from the White House.
An end to the Iran War will not, however, erase Earth’s perilous condition, whether viewed from the ground or the Artemis II spacecraft as it returns from its mission around the Moon.
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