If dead people could turn in their graves – sadly, they can’t, on account of being dead – doubtless Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill would be on a heavy spin cycle this morning. Donald Trump has single-handedly abandoned America’s role as leader of the western world to, as the blogger activist and blogger Yuri Kasyanov put it, side with “with the global evil”. In pausing US military aid to Ukraine, Trump has given the firmest indication yet that far from being the strong man he yearns to be seen as, he is in fact weak, gullible, malleable and traitorous.
In case you didn’t already know – in which case, where have you been? – the 47th president of the USA, USA, USA is in thrall to a fascist dictator, a former KGB thug called Vladimir Putin and is guilty of appeasement, far worse than that attempted by the then British prime minister Neville Chamberlain who in the late 1930s was trying to avert war. Trump has taken sides and not with the good guys. It is hard to imagine a greater betrayal by a so-called ally of the west.
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Meanwhile, what do we do in the UK? Do we either cut of meaningful relations with America and tell Trump to fuck off or ramp up efforts to bring about meaningful peace in Ukraine? The former, literally being the nuclear option since we lease our nuclear deterrent from the USA, sounds rather obvious until you realise the implications, militarily and economically. As ever, the people who would suffer most in the event we turn away from America would be those who can least afford to be made worse off. God knows after 14 years of disastrous Conservative rule things are bad enough.
The Trussell Trust, which I volunteer for (did I mention I volunteer at a food bank?), states that 9.3 million people, including three million children, face hunger and hardship in the here and now. An economic crisis hastened by a rift with the USA, which is a massive international partner of Britain, must surely be avoided. Calm heads must prevail. Knee jerking of all kinds must be avoided.
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If you think things couldn’t get any worse across the pond, then think again. Trump has appointed Linda McMahon as his secretary of education. McMahon? That name rings a bell. Wasn’t Trump himself close to someone called McMahon in not very dim and distant past? He was. Former World Wrestling Entertainment supremo Vince McMahon. In fact, Trump even took part in several wrestling events, though thankfully not in trunks and wrestling boots.
Mrs McMahon could hardly be less qualified to be secretary of education. She even lied about a bachelor’s degree in education she said she had from East Carolina University in 1969 when the degree was actually in French. You would think appointing her to run education in the USA would be akin to awarding me a degree in quantum mechanics but given that actually she has been brought in not to expand education but to abolish the department altogether, maybe the appointment is not so daft after all.
Given the decision of the electorate to re-elect Trump last year, you’d have thought the last thing Americans need is even less education.
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Meanwhile, Trump has imposed a range of tariffs, extra taxes basically, on Canada, Mexico and China, as part of his America first stance. This will inevitably impact on their economies, but it was also increase prices on certain items, like petrol (Gas, as our American cousins call it). impacting Americans, many of whom seem to think there can be no implications on the things they buy. What a shock that will when they find their disposable incomes shrinking, but I suppose if Trump tells them all it will Make America Great Again, falling into poverty will be worth it. However, there was good news for at least one country when it comes to sanctions.
Trump is now drawing up plans to easing the sanctions that are currently in place with Russia. Well, Putin and his fascist dictatorship has certainly earned the easing of sanctions by murdering political opponents, including abroad (and here in the UK) and continuing its illegal war on Ukraine. What better signal can Trump give to Putin that he disapproves of a war criminal by making life much easier for him? You couldn’t make it up.
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We can’t say we didn’t see any of this coming. While Trump is an inveterate liar, pretty well everything he has done so far has been in line with his election ‘promises’. The economic tariffs, the sell-out of Ukraine, the tearing down of government institutions, the undermining of NATO – all these things and many more were always coming down the line. While it’s shocking to see the collapse of the USA in plain sight, paradoxically it’s not a shock that Trump has overseen it.
