Donald Trump: Who's a Nice Guy?

 

I didn't actually want to write another blog post about DT so soon, but present events make it necessary. As we know, Trump's war against Iran has not gone according to plan, even though he does not admit it. Instead, he has followed the rule espoused by an old secondary school teacher of mine: "When in the wrong, attack!". Most offensive to most people, of course (i.e. all Roman Catholics), are Trump's denouncements of the first American Pope. DT has accused the pontiff of being "WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy" in a long Truth Social post. He later said to reporters he was "not a big fan". He has been scathing of Keir Starmer and NATO over what he sees as lack of support for his undeclared war with Iran, His insult to British and NATO casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused considerable (and justified!) resentment. Even the Royal British Legion, not known for taking a critical stance in political matters, issued a critical missive refuting Trump' remarks. 457 British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, yet, according to Trump:

"They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan ...and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines".

In my previous post, I said that Trump would turn on his domestic critics in the US, should the war go against him. I was wrong. He is moving against them now. As "The Hill" reported, his first targets were the Democrat Party:

“The Radical Left Democrats, a Party that has completely lost its way, are complaining bitterly about the very necessary and important attack, by the United States and Israel, on Iran,” Trump wrote in a Monday evening Truth Social post.
“What most people understand is that they are only complaining BECAUSE I DID IT and, if I didn’t do it, they would be screaming — Why didn’t ‘TRUMP’ attack Iran, he should do it, IMMEDIATELY? There’s nothing surprising about this!” the president added.

Even former supporters have received the lash of his tongue. The BBC says here:

"In launching his attack on four conservative commentators who have been critical of the joint US-Israeli war against Iran, Donald Trump wrote that they were "stupid people" and that "nobody cares about them"...The US president singled out two former popular Fox News evening-programme hosts, Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, and right-wing conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Candace Owens, for criticism".

US citizens who oppose the war should beware; DT's hostility is bound to get worse.

But no-one has noticed Trump's latest insult - this time to an American singer, long-venerated by fans of heavy metal, heavily disguised though it may be. He has been threatening Iran again. His war of choice has not gone his way, despite his blustering and absurd claims of victory. He has said:

"My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan - They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations," he writes on social media.
"We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran," he adds. Warning there will be "NO MORE MR NICE GUY" if talks fail, Trump says these bridges and power plants will "come down fast, they’ll come down easy".

Have you spotted the insult? The metal music reference was a clue. "No More Mr Nice Guy" is an old metal standard by that grand old stager, Alice Cooper. How he must feel being quoted by Trump is beyond imagination. Known to Rock history as "The Godfather of Shock Rock", Alice is 78 years old and unlikely to be fazed by any snide references by Donald Trump. As a lyrics writer myself, I wouldn't like one of my songs to be quoted by Trump. I do hope Alice replies, musically for preference.

Now, there has been a lot of speculation about Donald Trump's mental health. As Ariano Baio says in The Independent:

Ty Cobb, an attorney who served as White House counsel during President Donald Trump’s first term, once again raised alarm bells at the president’s cognitive decline, claiming it has “accelerated” and that Trump now shows signs of dementia. Cobb, who has repeatedly raised similar concerns about Trump, told MS NOW’s Ari Melber Thursday that Trump, 79, “is somebody who is just lost.”
“His vocabulary has shrunk, he’s resorted to profanity and threats, totally impulsive– suggestive of the absence of any frontal lobe controls,” Cobb said.

I am sure that is accurate, but. speaking personally, Trump remains an example of what can happen when the type of bloke that we in the UK would call "the pub loudmouth" is put in charge. This is the type, usually right-wing, usually racist, who stands at the bar and propounds all manner of evils that he could resolve at a stroke. I suppose a US version of the term would be "Barfly"? I am informed that DT is teetotal, but he's still the type. The pub loudmouth usually has a coterie of admirers who feed his ego and no criticism from any outsider is allowed. Does this not sound like Donald Trump, albeit on a smaller scale? And we can all see that Trump is failing to learn a lesson that the pub loudmouth never has to face - the fact that simple solutions lead to far more complex problems.

I am well aware that some people will criticise me for treating what is a highly serious matter with a degree of levity. No levity is intended about a conflict that Donald Trump wanted and which has led to the deaths of thousands of people. Wikipedia reports up to 3, 636 dead in Iran alone. By no means am I seeking to trivialise this war, but I hope that one thing is clear: it is absurd for Donald Trump to speak of "No More, Mr Nice Guy", when his actions before and during this war prove him to be nothing of the kind.

Alice Cooper - will he be a nice guy to Trump?

Donald Trump - His Legacy

 

Donald Trump, like the rest of us, is not getting any younger. As a not-so-venerable old age approaches him, perhaps we can come to an assessment of the man and his future legacy. In other words, how will we remember him?

I think we will remember him, putting it simply, as The Master of Disaster. Looking back over what he has done in his two terms as US President, there is ample evidence to support his claim to that title. Not that the disasters he has caused have affected him personally, of course. He retains supreme confidence in his abilities, as do a depressingly large number of people in the USA, and here. This is in spite of the fact that he has besmirched the office of President with a long list of unpleasant incidents, allegations and, putting it delicately, legal difficulties. Cosmopolitan has listed most of them:

1970s: Discrimination against Black renters

1980s: Sexual misconduct allegations begin

September 2005: Trump is caught on tape advocating “grabbing women by the pussy”

April 2016: Trump is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl 

October 2016: A journalist accuses Trump of assaulting her in Mar-a-Lago

21 June 2019: E Jean Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a department store 

And, of course, it does not stop there. Among others, there are the murky affairs of alleged Russian interference in he 2016 election campaign, the Hush money payment  to Stormy Daniels and the allegation that he incited the Capitol building riot of January 6, 2021, by his supporters. Now, Trump has pleaded not guilty in all these matters, and has, in some cases, been exonerated by the senate and/or the US Supreme Court, but this is hardly a record to be proud of. I would argue that this is a disaster of itself, and I can only wonder at how he has survived into his second presidential term.

But it does not end there. Into his second term, Trump has responded to populist demands in two ways. He has released all the rioters convicted after the Capitol riots, overturning the decision of the courts and showing contempt for the US Capitol police who faced that riot and the feelings of the relatives of the five policemen who lost their lives as a result of that riot - four by suicide. If no-one else, it was certainly a disaster for those relatives. It also calls into question Trump's respect for his country's democratic traditions by what can only be described as his condoning of anti-democratic political violence.

The second way Trump has pandered to the wishes of his admirers is by unleashing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in a hunt for illegal aliens. As we know, ICE agents have conducted themselves like an occupying army in their own country, using violent tactics when carrying out arrests and being confronted by protesters. ICE have done their work so enthusiastically, that they have even arrested US citizens - and shot two dead. I am sure that many US citizens would concur with my view that Trump has been a human relations disaster for the United States. I can only offer my support to all such sane Americans - especially since Trump has admirers here who would like to emulate his "achievements".

But, having caused disaster in the USA, Trump seems to have decided to impact internationally. He has made some surprisingly ineffective efforts to end the war in Ukraine. He has made statements that appeared to menace the independence of Greenland. There was his Boys' Own adventure into Venezuela, where, as we all know, US Special forces made an illegal entry into that country and arrested its president. He then imposed his terms upon Venezuela, justifying it by saying he was protecting the interests of the USA. 

This Venezuelan affair, I would argue, has led to Trump's biggest disaster yet. Because he, to his satisfaction, "succeeded" in dealing with an apparent Venezuela threat, he has jumped to the conclusion that he could carry out a similar short, sharp, operation against Iran. It's becoming clear that is not going to happen. Like a good PC war games player, Trump has listed all the "victories" of the US/Israeli action so far: the missile strikes, the Iranian missile sites destroyed, the liquidation of the Iranian leadership, etc.  

Alas for Trump the PC wargamer - the Iranian regime isn't playing by the same set of rules. Despite fearful punishment, the fighting arm of the Iranian government - the Revolutionary Guard - is still fighting. And, as we know, the Middle East is ablaze with missile strikes from both sides. Al Jazeera says:

"So far, Iran has launched strikes across nine countries in the region: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. An Iranian drone also struck a runway at a UK military base in Cyprus".

And, in just 14 days, thousands of people have been killed and injured. The worst casualties, of course, have been in Iran. According to Al-Jazeera , 1,444 Iranians have been killed and 18,551 injured - so far. For an up-to-date casualty list in all countries involved, click on THIS LINK. 

Now, as regular readers of this blog know, I absolutely detest the dictatorship in Iran. I shall shed no tears for any casualties they suffer, but widespread killing of civilians is not the way to change a government. If anything, the regime will be strengthened by the common suffering inflicted upon the Iranian population. Trump has shown himself to be be utterly insensitive on this matter to the point of stupidity. He previously encouraged the Iranian people to rise against their government and promised to send help. He didn't. Then, after this war began, he said:

"...to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere".

Nobody seems to have told him that houses are not bomb proof and cannot withstand direct hits from either bombs or missiles. The school building certainly didn't protect 168 children who were killed at the Minab elementary school. Mass casualties are not the best way to make friends and influence people. The new Ayatollah Khameni is hardly likely to want to negotiate with the people who killed his father. The economic war against America's allies will continue, perhaps leading to a worldwide recession. This war is already a human and economic disaster - and is set to get worse.

But back to the Donald himself. If the war goes to his satisfaction, he will become even more confident that he has a role to play on the world stage. Greenland, Mexico and Ukraine could well become targets for his imperial ambitions. World War Three could become a lot more likely to happen.

However, if, as is more likely, the war does not go his way, he will immediately start to find scapegoats. He will blame allies, especially the UK, for not supporting him properly. He might turn on the Iranians, blaming them for not seizing their chance to rid themselves of the Mullahs. He will blame everyone but himself, apologising for nothing and explaining nothing. The human(and humanitarian) disaster he has inflicted upon the world will mean nothing to him. But he won't stop there...

If Trump's war fails, I have no doubt that he will seek every kind of retribution against opponents and critics of the war in the United States itself. He will regard them as traitors and saboteurs, absolving himself of any blame, and be out for what he sees as justified revenge. And this will be nothing new. In September last year, Anthony Zurcher of the BBC In Depth wrote:

 

"Donald Trump swept back into the White House this year promising, among other things, retribution against his perceived enemies. Nine months later, the unprecedented scope of that pledge – or threat – is fully taking shape.
He has vocally encouraged his attorney general to target political opponents. He has suggested the government should revoke TV licences to bring a biased mainstream media to heel. He has targeted law firms he sees as adversaries, pulling government security clearances and contracts".

Reuters looked at this in detail, saying that Trump had 470 people who had upset him in his first stint as President, and afterwards, marked down for retribution. They commented:

"The Trump vengeance campaign fuses personal vendettas with a drive for cultural and political dominance, Reuters found. His administration has wielded executive power to punish perceived foes – firing prosecutors who investigated his bid to overturn the 2020 election, ordering punishments of media organizations seen as hostile, penalizing law firms tied to opponents, and sidelining civil servants who question his policies. Many of those actions face legal challenges".

All this was bad enough, but, should Trump fail over Iran, his campaign against those he perceives as being internal enemies will be much worse. He will bring his disaster home, and blame others for it.

To conclude, I know that some people will say that I have only scratched the surface of this topic. Perhaps, but I intended to show why I believe Trump to be eligible for the title of "The Master of Disaster", and I hope that I have succeeded.

Mind you, there could well be someone who is happy at Trump's (mis)adventure in the Middle East. Guess who...