We have all been Trumped on.

I’ve missed commenting on this idiot because I was offline for a while.  I could not (and still cannot), comprehend how people could vote for this egotistical prat or his clownish sidekicks like JD Vance, Kennedy and Musk (OK, no one voted for Musk, we all got him anyway), but they did, so case closed.  Now come the repercussions.

Unfortunately Trump is bombarding us with examples of his utter disregard for everyone but himself and his Russian paymasters, so only a few examples are below.  You will all know them, so just consider this rant as cathartic for me.

Case 1:  Yeah, right.  The Palestinians are really going to give up (with no payment or even substitute land!!) their homeland just so that Trump and his cronies can then build holiday resorts and golf courses on it.  While you are at it, Trump, why don’t you ask some of your more hard-up supporters in somewhere like Kentucky or other parts of the rust belt to just walk away from their homes so that grossly rich immigrants from another country can make them into a playground for their equally rich foreign mates?  How would they like it?  Would they even stand for it?  More likely, they would fight back, and then Donald and his mates could brand them as terrorists.  Or perhaps since giving land to the already rich is his idea, Trump himself would like to donate all his property to the wonderful cause of making Musk, Bezos or some other rich person even richer at his expense?

Is Trump such a self-centred, deluded, uneducated, twat that he neither knows the history of Palestine, nor is he capable of even the most basic of human empathy with the people who had built lives there?

Case 2:  11^th Feb.  WTF?  The president of the United States thinks that banning paper drinks straws is a sufficiently important issue that he has to get involved?  ‘Nuff said.  Draw your own conclusions about the deranged mind that thinks this is of importance.

Case 3:  Ukraine.  Where do we even start on this issue?  On Tuesday 18^th Feb, Trump stated that Ukraine had started the war!  Can his memory possibly be that bad?  Does he have no one to tell him the truth?  Or is it possible that he is just arse licking, and repeating what his paymasters want him to say?  This link is from back in 2017, but does show that Trump has numerous links to Putin:  All of Donald Trump’s Ties to Russia and Putin, in 7 Charts - POLITICO Magazine.  Just how deranged do you have to be to even pretend to believe something like that and then repeat it in public? 

Since then, he has spouted all sorts of lies, like the one about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, being a dictator.  No Donny, a dictator is someone who stages rigged elections (like your mate Putin), or one who locks up and murders any opposition (like your mate Putin), or who or who changes the law via their frightened, lacky, pseudo government to stay in power (like your mate Putin).  How much have the Russians promised to pay for services rendered?  Trump appears, like some sort of Putinised lacky, to have done everything he can to appease the Russians, bar bending over with his trousers down, (mind you, we don’t know what he and Putin will do/ have done in their private meetings).  I’m sure that those who voted to make America great again are truly impressed at this show of stupidity and submission.  Yes, the US is truly showing global leadership on this one! 

Since that accusation of course, we have been through the whole ‘gimme your mineral resources’ thing.  Now I know Trump is a business man, so perhaps this was simply a bargaining position?  Many years ago, I read the autobiography of Akio Morita (one of the founders of Sony).  In it he wrote of a sales trip to America when Sony was trying to break into that market.  This was at the time of transistor radios, (anyone out there old enough to remember them?).  A potential buyer asked for two quotes, one was for a quantity that Sony could then produce, the other was hugely greater than that, and would have put the fledgling Sony into huge debt to quickly enlarge its production.  Akio did not fall for this ruse, having done his research on this client.  He knew that the client had previously done something similar with another company, who were foolish enough to go for the huge order, seeing it as their entry point to the big time.  The client had then cancelled the huge order at the last moment, the fledgling company went bankrupt, and was bought out of receivership by guess who?  In essence, the client got both the goods and the company at a knockdown price.  It looks to me like Trump is doing something similar, using Ukraine’s predicament as a lever for a business deal.  It is a great deal less subtle though, and also much more cynical and reprehensible given that he appears to be withholding supplies from am invaded country to force through this deal.  Appeasing aggressive, murderous regimes doesn’t seem to be a problem so long as there is personal profit in it. 

A number of things puzzle me about this.  Firstly, countries do not own mineral rights in other states, businesses do.  Why then is Trump using government resources, policies and actions like this?  He makes out that this is great for the US, where in reality, the only benefit it is likely to go to the shareholders of the companies who get the mineral rights.  Do you think that Donny might perhaps be one of those shareholders, or am I merely being cynical?

Next, what has happened to the military and security apparatus in the States?  Have they no power or say over the rubbish that he spouts?  It sounds to me like the US military may be due for drastic cuts if Donny gets his way.  Musk has even been saying that the US should leave NATO!  Similarly, the US firms that have been supplying Ukraine must have been operating full order books as a result.  Since Trump has now suspended all military aid to Ukraine (3^rd March), there are certainly going to cutbacks in these manufacturing industries.  Surely these cuts are likely to hit Trump’s own supporters.  Or perhaps now that he is in power, he no longer cares about their financial wellbeing and consequent support.  A similar argument could also be applied to those in government jobs.  Many of them must have voted for Trump too.

Trump’s behaviour towards President Zelenskyy at that press conference on Friday 28^th Feb was nothing short of appalling.  Zelenskyy has been criticised for not wearing a suit a disrespectful thing apparently); yet he never wears one, not even when meeting royalty.  Why should Donny and his arrogant cronies demand how anyone dresses?  He has also been criticised for saying that peace with Russia is a long way away (apparently this is disrespectful to the US because it assumes that US support will continue).  Yet is it not more rude for the US president to openly lie, calling Zelenskyy a dictator, and wrongly accusing him of starting the war?  If Zelenskyy then tried to point out these errors, even during a press conference, how is that rude?  Had he been silent he would only have appeared complicit in the obvious lies of Trump.  Given the circumstances, I personally think Zelenskyy was fairly restrained.  What should he have done?  Bent down at Donny’s feet and thanked him for his lies?

There is so much about Trump’s behaviour, policies and stream of rants that should cause criticism to be shouted from the rooftops by every democratic person on this planet, and undoubtedly this is a subject that I will return to. For example, what kind of message does this send to countries like China about their aggression towards Taiwan, or to north Korea.  If Trump applauds aggression and invasion in Ukraine, what would be his and the US’s reaction to aggression in these other areas.  Far from making the world a safer place, I believe he has destabilised it and made it a much more dangerous place.  Then there is his attitude to climate change.  That too does not fill me with hope for the future of mankind.

 For the meantime, lets just hope that democracy can survive the next four years, and that the damage that Donny wreaks on the world does not cause too many deaths.  His withdrawal of US aid to developing countries alone will have massive consequences.

See this link for Berni Saunders reaction to Trump's joint session speech:  FULL: Bernie Sanders official response to Trump joint session speech - YouTube

If you are truly ashamed of Trump's lack of support for Ukraine, you can show your support by donating directly to their war effort here:  https://u24.gov.ua/       I have checked that this is a legitimate site with the Ukrainian Consulate in Edinburgh.