I hope that our political elites have had the scales finally fall from their eyes about that monster incarnate Trump. Until yesterday they would have us buy into the convenient myth, peddled by that other narcissist Boris Johnson, that Trump is merely trying to shock us into the new global reality. That we mustn’t pay too much to what he says but what he does. And they will have us believe, it’s just Trump being Trump. They will do that with a sly and knowing grin.
Well, Trump being Trump is catnip to every murdering dictator, every thug who tramples on the weak and the poor, every sociopath who will crush free speech. In Iran they will be plotting the next round of terror. In Beijing they will be thinking it might be time to invade Taiwan and in the Kremlin they will be making plans to liberate Poland and Estonia. For starters. The West has to be united and strong.
In 1509 Erasmus gave us some wise advice,
‘The less talent they have , the more pride, vanity and arrogance they have. All these fools , however will find other fools who applaud them’.
So what will our apologists, Johnson, Farage, Truss and those dark forces of the right who infest the internet? The people of Britain and Europe have taken the people of Ukraine not just to their hearts, but to their homes. No sane politician thinks for one moment that Putin is not the aggressor. That is what makes the United Nations vote by the Trump administration so obscene. And to watch Starmer push his head so far up the President’s backside that you needed a team of sniffer dogs to remove it was a national embarrassment.
There are a number of things that send the bees in Trump’s bonnet buzzing with fury. Firstly, Zelensky refused to give him any dirt on Biden’s son Hunter. It would have been insane if he did as Biden was supplying advice and weapons to protect Ukraine from the Russian onslaught. Secondly, Trump demands not just respect but obedience mixed with flattery laid on with a trowel. Lastly, as a megalomaniac, who has convinced himself that he is the master of the deal, he has to convince himself that he has won. Lastly week I had lunch with an old friend who was Permanent Secretary at defence in the nineties. I asked him what advice he would give a British Prime Minister when dealing with the President. The answer was simple. ‘Don’t ask him for anything because he has to be seen to win’.
The rare minerals ‘agreement’ is really a bit of a huckster’s con trick. These minerals are not in working mines but in fields. No infrastructure. Nothing. No means of digging the stuff out of the ground, let alone processing it for years. It is unlikely that a single dollar will come to the USA in Trump’s Presidency.
So the role of Zelenskyy yesterday, was to shower him with praise and look lovingly into his eyes. And with a bit of luck he might have been patted on the head. But Zelenskyy is understandably an emotional war time leader. He sees the flower of Ukrainian youth, tortured and killed. When he returns to Ukraine he will bury the dead and try and give hope to the living.
What happened in the Oval Office yesterday was shameful. I suspect that it was a set up. JD Vance is a deeply unpleasant little shitweasel. Neither him nor any of this ghastly administration are worthy to lick Zelenskyy’s boots. It was designed to unsettle NATO and it succeeded.
What is encouraging that unsettling as it was it is a wake up call to Europe and has united us. They know that some sort of deal has to be done or else a lot of us will have to learn Russian.
Over the next few hours Zelenskyy will be given genuine love over here. But it will be tough love. He will be told that he is going to have to eat a bit of Trump shit and learn how to play the game. If it saves his country I have no doubt that he will do precisely that.
But not all of Europe is united. Hungary is going to have to be watched very carefully indeed.
As for a Trade deal with us, it’s for the birds. Starmer should not hold his breath.