Trump’s a bully
I READ with disbelief Stephen Day’s paeon of praise for Donald Trump (Cyprus Today, July 21). Unlike Mr Day, I wholeheartedly support those who protested at Donald Trump’s visit to the UK and satirised his visit with the Trump balloon.
Those who stood up to Trump were defending democratic rights, a free press, opposing blatant racism, and standing up to a thuggish oaf who is clearly unhinged, erratic and a disgrace as a president. Trump is a bully, a braggart, a misogynist (although perhaps it’s okay for Stephen that his “hero” talks of grabbling a woman’s pussy when he feels like it) and treats women leaders like Angela Merkel and Theresa May with barely-concealed contempt. He has mocked a disabled reporter; criticised Senator John McCain for being a prisoner of war in Vietnam and tortured when Trump used the pathetic, cowardly excuse of “bone spurs” to avoid national service; sneered at a gold star family because their son, who gave his life in service to the US, was a Muslim; gives a nod and wink to white supremacists in the US and Europe, is blatantly racist towards African-Americans, Mexicans, Hispanics and Muslims; talked of African nations as “shithole countries” and lies openly and brazenly from day to day (check the US press for the tallies they keep of Trump’s lies).
As for taking on Putin and Kim Jong-Un, both have left Trump swinging in the breeze as his much-vaunted “peace” talks have been shown to be so much hot air. Trump’s attempt to erase his pathetic crawling to Putin by suddenly tweeting that Russia wants the Democrats in power is utterly pathetic. And worldwide, leaders are washing their hands of an erratic, ignorant man as they work out new relationships where the US is bottom of the heap.
Let’s also not forget the heinous decision of Trump and co to separate parents seeking asylum from their kids and housing those children in steel cages with thin mattresses and only foil blankets for cover, with reports now emerging that some families will never be reunited after their separation.
It’s to the credit of the Labour Party leadership that they have made their distaste for Trump known and refused to grovel, like the pathetic Theresa May, to a wannabe dictator who couldn’t even treat the Queen with courtesy during his recent visit to the UK. We need leaders who lift us up, provide us with a vision of the future which includes respect for all, regardless of their race, religion or financial status. And that ain’t Trump!
Just to reassure Mr Day, the demonstrators in the UK received widespread support from Americans embarrassed by their country being turned into a laughing stock around the world by their dangerously unbalanced president.
To wind up, Trump’s continuing attacks on the free press included the following comment: “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what is happening.” Which sounds remarkably like George Orwell’s 1984: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”