I’d send Trump to the naughty step
It looks as if people like me, who believe in open borders, women’s rights, global partnerships and a fairer, more equal world for all, are going to have our work cut out for the next four years.
President Trump’s damaging, isolationist, racist, sexist, Islamophobic, backward policies are set to spiral America back to the dark ages.
Which is far from the kind of America this world needs, one that will benefit future generations.
How ironic that a man who found fame on reality TV should be so out of touch with reality.
That inaugural speech – a sickening battlecry of nationalism, protectionism and division – showed him up for the megalomaniac he is.
His First Lady Melania may have been inspired by Jackie Kennedy’s inauguration outfit, but the man beside her couldn’t be more different from JFK, whose 1961 inauguration speech talked of “liberty, human rights, freedom, good deeds, united nations, science and exploration”.
In contrast, The Donald trumpeted about protecting America’s borders “from the ravages of other countries, making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs”.
I’m no economist, but it’s common sense that a country that shuts itself off from the rest of the world, damaging its neighbours with skyhigh tariffs, will have to pay later for any short-term gains now.
It’s likely to start an economic arms race, with country after country slapping on tit-for-tat tariffs, forcing prices ever higher and leaving America’s workers wondering why the nice fat pay packets Trump promised don’t seem to be buying much. That way, disaster and global depression lie.
Does “what’s in it for me?” sound like a philosophy likely to improve the lot of the average American?
This world is a fast moving one and the internet has changed for ever the way young view it. The Millennial generation increasingly see themselves as citizens of the world.
They care deeply about the things Trump rubbishes – human rights, equality, fairness and the environment. And they want those values applied not just to their family, friends or country, but to everyone.
And that attitude is so much more grown up than the Twitter tantrums of the child-man in the White House.
Which might explain why my motherly instinct goes into overdrive when I see Trump showing off.
I want to sit him down on my knee, like I would my own son if I caught him being mean and unreasonable, and say: “Now, you have to start acting like a big boy. I know you like building blocks, but you can’t build a wall every time you fall out with someone.
“You’ve got to be kind, caring and charitable, and try to get on with people, because that’s what makes the world a happier place, and isn’t that what we want?
“And Donald, I know you don’t like to hear the truth, but you mustn’t make up stuff like ‘alternative truths and post truths’.
“That is called lying, it’s very naughty and you’ll get a time out if I hear you use that language again.
“Finally Donald, when you grow into a really big boy, you will need to be inspired by great people. I know you like all things American, so I won’t suggest Gandhi or Mother Teresa.
“What about JFK who said, ‘My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man’.
“Donald, if you try harder to be as good as him, I promise I’ll let you have a play date with your best friend Piers.”
I did miss my friend Coleen Nolan this week. While I was dressed to the nines and partying with the Loose Women at the National Television Awards, poor Coleen was still in the devil’s playground known as the Celebrity Big Brother house.
But at least that means she’s still in with a chance of winning.