 "Donald Trump: LOUTUS in charge")
POTUS is the shorthand the Secret Service employs to describe its chief client. It’s the acronym for President of the United States. With Donald Trump’s against-all-odds victory, the 151-year-old organisation could well change that abbreviation to LOUTUS, short for Lout of the United States. That, in effect, describes the nature of the man the majority of the American people have chosen to govern them. This would not have mattered had their choice not impacted global politics. But now, the world’s most powerful nation is in the hands of a man who represents the lowest common denominator in public life. Which is to say, the majority of the American people have ended up endorsing the crudest kind of misogyny, racism, communalism, nationalism and protectionism. The commentators call this a vote of the disaffected. But the message the world is getting from this mandate is that American values have acquired another dimension; here are rewards to be reaped from indulging in overtly uncouth behaviour: to sexually harass women, abuse foreigners, Muslims and pretty much anyone who does not conform to an approved alt-right vision of an American citizens, to lie and indulge in questionable business practices. If this is how disaffected Americans think, then the world should be seriously worried about disaffected Russians, French, Dutch, British and even Chinese and Indians.
Too much has been written about Trump’s shock therapy approach to the political discourse over the past one and a half years to bear repeating. Within the dismayed international liberal media, the destructive import of Trump’s unlikely accession to the White House is still being assessed. The stock markets have already expressed their opinion in unequivocal terms. But long before November 8, it was ISIS that understood the implications of a Trump victory better than anybody else. On its well-maintained website, ISIS leaders had said they were praying to Allah for his victory. No, this was not because they had spotted a kindred spirit (which he is in many ways, had he ever cared to apply his mind to the question). To them, Trump is the “perfect enemy”, with his call for a blanket ban on Muslims. As ISIS’ brutal leaders see it, the equation is simple: Trump victory + heightened vilification campaign against Muslims = more alienated Muslims as potential recruits to their bizarre cause of reviving the Caliphate. They predicted in no uncertain terms the imminent destruction of America from a Trump presidency. Clearly, ISIS has better vision than the feckless white, poorly educated baby boomers Americans who form the core of Trump’s support base
The sign-off riff after Trump’s victory speech was the Rolling Stones’ 1969 hit You Can’t Always Get What You Want. In a world that is becoming ever more divisive, that may be a good point for Mr Trump to imbibe when he moves into 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2017.
Too much has been written about Trump’s shock therapy approach to the political discourse over the past one and a half years to bear repeating. Within the dismayed international liberal media, the destructive import of Trump’s unlikely accession to the White House is still being assessed. The stock markets have already expressed their opinion in unequivocal terms. But long before November 8, it was ISIS that understood the implications of a Trump victory better than anybody else. On its well-maintained website, ISIS leaders had said they were praying to Allah for his victory. No, this was not because they had spotted a kindred spirit (which he is in many ways, had he ever cared to apply his mind to the question). To them, Trump is the “perfect enemy”, with his call for a blanket ban on Muslims. As ISIS’ brutal leaders see it, the equation is simple: Trump victory + heightened vilification campaign against Muslims = more alienated Muslims as potential recruits to their bizarre cause of reviving the Caliphate. They predicted in no uncertain terms the imminent destruction of America from a Trump presidency. Clearly, ISIS has better vision than the feckless white, poorly educated baby boomers Americans who form the core of Trump’s support base
The sign-off riff after Trump’s victory speech was the Rolling Stones’ 1969 hit You Can’t Always Get What You Want. In a world that is becoming ever more divisive, that may be a good point for Mr Trump to imbibe when he moves into 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2017.