No. 122 - Special Relationship? Trump's the 'Special'. Boris is just the 'Relationship'.

Dear James,

According to the FT, Donald Trump vented ‘apoplectic’ fury at Boris when the two leaders spoke last week about Huawei and the 5G issues. If that does not tell you about the new relationship, I don’t know what does. Would Donald do the same with Kim Jong Un or Xi Jinping? Would he direct such invective at any other leader of a big nation? Unlikely. So it tells us something about how Donald sees Boris. And the rest of us. We have a new version of the Special Relationship. It is that the USA is Special and that we are just the other side of ‘the relationship’. Not a good sign for the future trade negotiations? 

But to give him his due, Donald was under some pressure last week. He had been impeached by the House of Representatives. The Palestinians had rejected his ‘Deal of the Century’ and Boris had split with him on the digital services tax, not to mention the Iran nuclear deal. Poor Boris. At the moment Donald is the only friend he’s got in the world as far as the ‘big players’ are concerned. Who needs enemies when …?

Yesterday though, after the formal ending of his impeachment trial, Donald let rip with his ‘total acquittal’ claim. His rambling, hour long speech, claimed that he had done nothing wrong. How could an egotistical, self-justifyijng, self-pitying narcissist like Donald ever admit to doing anything wrong? Impeachment was “a phony, rotten deal” thought up by “very evil and sick people.” The Democrats were as “vicious as hell.” It’s one of the maxims of the Populist song book. Think up a good phrase, e.g ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’ or ‘that July 25th telephone call was perfect’, say it once, repeat it ad infinitum and people will believe it. In The Senate yesterday, think of the Reichstag in February 1933.  Yesterday the appalling sight of 52 Republicans worshipping their president sent shivers down my spine. The same old 1930s adulation covering the underlying fear of their master. For Mr Trump is certainly the new master of the Republican Party. They had been warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’”

The American Constitution has suffered a grievous blow this week. Mitt Romney was the only Republican Senator to speak for impeachment. He said, “The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a ‘high crime and misdemeanour,’” His answer was, “Yes, he did.” Today he is being continuously attacked on Fox News. Revenge is part of the game with Populists. Lt. Col. Vindman, the National Security Council adviser who testified against Trump during hearings, is being forced out of the White House. We will no doubt see similar over here. Watch out BBC. Watch out Baroness Hale. Watch out Mr Bercow.

The former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch whose parents fled the Soviet Union before she was born, wrote in the Washington Post yesterday, “I have seen dictatorships around the world, where blind obedience is the norm and truth-tellers are threatened with punishment or death. We must not allow the United States to become a country where standing up to our government is a dangerous act.” Ex-Ambassador Yovanovich ended her piece with the following words. "These are turbulent times, perhaps the most challenging that I have witnessed. But... like my parents before me, I remain optimistic about our future. The events of the past year, while deeply disturbing, show that even though our institutions and our fellow citizens are being challenged in ways that few of us ever expected, we will endure, we will persist and we will prevail."

Of course, James, you can claim that we shouldn’t take Donald at face value. You could accuse me of overreacting or being over emotional.  But Donald Trump is clearly unhinged, emotionally damaged and damaging and most of all, he is dangerous. We have all been warned.

So good luck with that ‘special relationship’ James. Oh, and those trade negotiations too!

Kind regards,

BH - Your Concerned Constituent