I’ll join Don rallies if I’m fit enough
THE past few weeks have been a bit difficult for me personally and as part of my ongoing battle against cancer I am back on chemotherapy. This has given me considerable time for reflection on some of the things that really matter.
People have been asking me whether I would join demonstrations that are inevitable when Donald Trump lands on our shores. I have read a lot of opinion pieces saying we should respect the office and how important our links are with the United States.
Believe me, I have a deep appreciation of the value of those links because without them we would never have got the Slane Distillery project off the ground.
However, there are much bigger issues at play. Let me pose the question – how much respect has Trump shown the Irish nation by his failure to appoint an ambassador?
I would also have to pose the question, if he didn’t own the Doonbeg Golf Resort would he bother to visit us? Doonbeg I might add is rumoured to be financed by large amounts of Russian cash.
This visit is all about Trump and his real estate interests and a lot less about the ties between our two countries.
Writing this takes me back. I was a student at Harvard when journalist Bob Woodward’s investigations on the Watergate scandal led to the downfall of President Nixon.
Now with his damning critique of the Trump White House imminent, one has to ask is this the beginning of the end for the tycoon?
In Woodward’s book, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is quoted as describing Trump as “an idiot who’s gone off the rails”. Kelly may have issued a denial but I believe Woodward.
On balance then, would I join the inevitable demonstrations against Trump?
If I am well enough I will because not for one moment do I feel this disrespects the United States.
It is Trump that besmirches the office of the Presidency. The sooner they get rid of him the better.