On days like these, it is easy to understand why so many of us choose to switch the news off, to not watch/read/listen to it at all or actively avoid it. On days like these when the most powerful man on Earth releases from prison some 1500 actual traitors, then he abandons efforts to contain never mind reverse the fact of climate change, he demands America joins Liechtenstein in not being a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and, lest we forget, watches as his key ally Elon Musk performs an actual Nazi salute, not once, but twice. It’s enough to drive a man and a woman to hide themselves away, switch on some comforting music and pour out a glass of something strong. I just went to bed, early and sober.
Donald Trump’s inauguration turned out to be every bit as bad as I feared it might be. A bloated, overlong and wholly decadent ceremony, led by an angry, embittered and all-powerful president making his usual divisive speech, assisted at all times but a series of religious nutjobs and loons, not least the absurd Franklin Graham who declared it was God who saved Trump from an assassin’s bullet. What kept my attention for so long, I have no idea. It was anything but enjoyable.
Trump signed numerous executive orders covering everything from closing the US border to forcing government employees to stop working from home and return to the office with immediate effect. The only thing you can say about it is this: Trump said he would do all these things before the election and now he is back in the White House he is carrying them out. He may be a liar and convicted felon, but no one can say they didn’t realise this was all coming down the line. And when poorer Americans lose their affordable healthcare, which given Trump and Musk’s desire to pare the state to the bone is an absolute certainty, they can at least suffer in the knowledge that they actually voted to do away with it.
As ever, I have read the usual comments by some smug Britons, along the lines of, “It could never happen here” and “How thick are those Americans?” Well, hang on: it already has. In 2016, we were persuaded by the same type of people as Trump that Britain should vote against its own interests by voting to leave Europe. Indeed, from 2010 we elected four consecutive Conservative governments who collectively all but broke Britain. In the 2024 general election, 38% of the electorate voted for hard right (Tory) or far right (Reform UK Ltd) parties, far more than voted Labour (although some 46% voted voted for Labour and Lib Dems, so we didn’t completely lose our minds). And who knows what will happen in the coming years?
Actual fascist and Bond villain, the ketamine addled Elon Musk, indicates he may intervene in democracy around the world, particularly in the UK where he has threatened to donate £100 million to Nigel Farage’s far right Reform UK Ltd company, which masquerades as a political party. I do not underestimate the British electorate in their ability to smell a rat – although too many of us didn’t spot Farage – and perhaps I should not fear what would be an attempt to steal our politics and our government, but did you see the tech bros at the top table at Trump’s inauguration? Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook (known to Trump as Tim Apple) and Sundar Pichai were all there, brown-nosing, seemingly in awe of the convicted criminal who now leads the western world. With our own media heavily slanted to the political right, your average punter, like me, will likely be bombarded with even more misinformation in the coming years. When Donald Trump says free speech, you know, don’t you, that he means the exact opposite?
Today, the sun shines and I am taking a break from Trump and the continuing shit show Americans wanted and voted for. One thing for sure is this doesn’t end well, one way or another, both for Americans and everyone else. For now, I am metaphorically looking for some sand in which to bury my head until it all goes away.
It’s not the end of the world as we know it, but if we are not careful it’s the beginning of the end of the world. Happy days? If we avoid reality, then yes. Maybe that’s what I need to do, then?
