President Donald Trump

 President Donald Trump.

We are now over a month into 2025 and the new President of the United States is already creating havoc. We thought we'd seen it all before, all of that blustering, barking, bellowing and judgmental nonsense about nothing in particular. But some leopards never change their spots and Donald Trump is no exception to the rule. Essentially, Trump is one of those comical, now almost unintelligible, preposterous and outrageously foolish characters who could only have stepped out of the pages of Private Eye magazine.

In his last tenure as President, Trump threatened to build walls to protect America from invading Mexicans who were trying to enter the United States without his permission. So what does Trump do next? Through a process of arrogant alienation and wretched irrationality, Trump tells Mexico to get lost and stay where they are. How dare Mexico cross their borders and therefore seriously jeopardise the economic stability of Trump's proud America? Then he gets all hot and bothered about Covid 19, warning the rest of the world that things could get considerably worse unless they drink domestic bleach and stop panicking.  

There are moments of lucidity such as the insistence on world peace which is something most of us have been seeking ever since the beginning of time. The current if temporary ceasefire in the Middle East between Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel has everything to do with him and he alone. Trump was always pro Israel and advocated the relocation of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Shrewd and admirable thinking, you may believe and you'd be right.

But the last time Trump was in power at the White House, Trump fell out with the entire world media over issues that he felt the media were simply not taking seriously enough. There were the heated confrontations with Fox News, an American news channel so stubbornly opposed to every decision Trump may have made that eventually the President started picking arguments with Fox and hurling spiteful accusations about their annoying political agenda, of which he so violently disapproved. 

Then of course there were the conspiracy theories, the sense that everybody was bullying him and ganging up against him, making facetious remarks about the colour of his hair perhaps. Then Trump gets increasingly agitated about his so called colleagues and sacks one or two for not listening to him. And then there's the rest of the world including Russia and Ukraine. Trump obviously tells Putin what he thinks of him and promptly tells us in the same breath, quite openly. 

To add insult to injury, Trump, meeting her late and much beloved Her Majesty the Queen, smashes royal protocol to smithereens with the kind of behaviour so embarrassing and disgustingly reprehensible that you wonder if Her Majesty told Trump, quite categorically, to pack his bags, get back onto a plane and go home. The incident is one that barely seems credible in hindsight but it did happen. 

Then the President of the United States in a complete breach of royal protocol, inspecting the Guard of Honour and the Coldstream Guards, discreetly moves in front of Her Majesty. Trump walks very sedately along a row of soldiers, shaking their hands vigorously. Then, the Queen follows quite properly and serenely as she'd always done so in the past. But Trump, in a moment of complete madness, shuffles up alongside Her Majesty, delicately steps in the way of the Queen of England and thinks his conduct utterly becoming. The Queen plants a withering and furious stare at Trump in the President's direction and everything gets socially awkward. 

Trump of course thinks this is the way the English have always done things at royal gatherings. You discreetly push the Queen to one side and think that your overweening vanity takes precedence to everything else. Trump was the most important dignitary on show and the Queen was just a courteous monarch with good, old fashioned manners. But then the disgraceful Trump allowed his vast ego to get in the way of everything and thought the Queen was somehow beneath him although he'd probably deny as such. 

Now though Trump is back in office as President yet again and flexing his political muscles, shouting the odds and posturing yet again. This time he's got the needle to neighbouring Canada and most of the globe if pushed to comment. The whole business of imposing trade tariffs has become so divisive to all concerned and triggered Trump to such a large extent that even Canada have now got it in the neck. Canada has become public enemy number one and yesterday we witnessed restrictions, even bans on the sale of Canadian whisky and alcohol. Suddenly, Trump is on the warpath and nothing can stop this one man force of nature determined to tell the rest of the world what to do and how to do it. 

Pouring salt onto another world, Trump, standing at an airport, blasts a bullet at the EU(the European Union) a destructive broadside at Europe, implying that they're an atrocity, a mindless nuisance and totally ineffectual. In another ludicrous swipe at the UK, he thinks they may be more of an hindrance than anything else, a waste of time and space. But he will give Sir Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, should be given the benefit of the doubt. Besides, America and the UK have always been loyal allies, the best of buddy buddies and diplomatic relations have to remain in place. 

So this is where we are with our new President of the United States. One day, America will choose a skilled negotiator, a tactful and sensible leader of the Free World, a hugely intellectual mind and a man capable of leading his country to noble glories. The fact is Donald Trump is clearly not that man or maybe he is and we've underestimated him. Trump is almost 80, the speech is not nearly as fluent as it used to be and there's an obvious fragility about him that is much more noticeable than before. But America, you'll always be our friends and we do indeed salute you.