Trump is a hostile, dangerous power
The Observer offers a crisp take on Trump’s suitability for a state visit to the UK.
Donald Trump is not a fit and proper person to hold the office of president of the United States. That is a view widely held in the US and among America’s European allies, by politicians and diplomats in government and by rank-and-file voters repelled by his gross egoism, narcissism and what Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has rightly termed his “stupefying ignorance”. It is a view we wholeheartedly share and have repeatedly expressed, before and after Trump’s narrow election victory last November.
Trump is an habitual liar, as evidenced again in last week’s sworn congressional testimony by his sacked FBI director, James Comey. Trump is a bully, as Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, among many others, can testify from personal experience. And Trump is a coward. When put on the spot, as over his authorisation of a disastrous special forces raid in Yemen in January or his bogus claim that Britain’s GCHQ bugged him, his craven instinct was to shift blame to others.
It’s funny, I was just saying all those things in response to his tweet calling Comey a coward – he’s a liar, a bully, and a coward. He’s terrible just as a basic human being, let alone as a head of state.
Plainly, Trump is no friend to Britain. On the contrary, he is a menace. His divisive policies, his authoritarian tendencies, his disrespect for the US constitution, his ignorance and fear of the world, his mendaciousness and grubby personal instincts amount to a clear and present danger to British interests.
Trump – not the US – is a hostile, dangerous power. May, or her successor, should recognise the threat he poses and rescind his invitation to make a state visit to Britain this autumn. Contrary to what the two-faced Johnson says, there is every reason to block this visit. The prospect of this loathsome man being afforded the full honours of the British state is quite simply disgusting. It is an affront to the British people and British values. It could cause lasting damage to the Anglo-American relationship. Assuming he is not impeached first, oafish Trump must be told: you are not welcome here.
Rat shan’t visit party.
Kim Jong-Trump.
I get the impression that non-adulation to Trump is as kryptonite to Superman. What we Brits need to do (and you decent Americans can have this one on us) is to promise faithfully that we will not protest if he visits, that he will witness nothing but love and adulation. But we’ll have our fingers crossed to invalidate the promise and when he comes, protest the fuck at him everywhere he goes.
I reckon three days of this will weaken him beyond the point of no return. We’ll send back what’s left , it’d make a lovely doormat for somebody…..or wall-mounted like a hunting trophy.
He is likely to have egg on his face if he comes expecting no protests, its also likely they wont be fresh eggs either.
I’d say they ought to plan at least two 700 meter walks per day, with no golf carts available. If he can’t keep up, no ice cream.
I find it interesting that even Boris Johnson regards him with such disgust.
Well, appalling as BoJo is, he’s kind of just the normal run of appalling – selfish, venal, ambitious and pushy. He’s not stupid, nor would he think making PM is the same as being elected absolute monarch. He’s bright enough to work within the constitutional process. He’s created a buffoon persona but that’s not the real him. He actually does understand how the world works – even if his main interest is in how he can use that knowledge to further his own ambitions.
He’s so dangerous because he’s actually clever – quite possibly one of the cleverest of the current crop of no-hopers – which is why he’s not been landed with the PM-ship yet. After all, if he was a stupid man he could easily have ended up as PM in the chaos immediately after Brexit – he was in the crosshairs after Cameron resigned. He’s carefully kept himself well out of the firing line at a time when being the PM is a poisoned chalice. Watch out for him when the Brexit process is over, or nearly so, and he can step into role as “new blood” or a “saviour”.
Trump is an entirely new form of appalling. In fact, I think we need a new superlative for it. He has no intelligence, no self-control, no understanding – even no real cunning. He certainly hasn’t got the nous to use the political process for his own ends. Instead he tries to bull his way through by brute force. It’s no wonder that someone like BoJo who is, in his own way, quite a smooth operator, would despise him.