Cheerio Trump… and don’t come back!

The Donald is gone, but not forgotten – worse luck

Someone said to me the other day: “You’ll see, in a few months time the nightmare of the past four years will all be forgotten.” A nice thought, but I somehow doubt that the almighty mess which he oversaw will disappear quite so quickly into the mists of time. There can be very few “politicians” who, on leaving office have been so vehemently castigated by both his enemies and by many of his former colleagues in the Republican party.

Not only is he seen as the worst president in the entire history of the USA, by the likes of opponents Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the entire editorial board of CNN, he has also been roundly rubbished by former allies such as Arnie Schwarzenegger, Mitch McConnell and Fox News.

The whole Trump presidency was extraordinary. I could never see the attraction myself, but I have a close relative, living n the USA who was a complete devotee. At least he was just before and soon after the Donald came to power. I haven’t asked him what he made of his obvious incompetence in dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic, or worse, those disgraceful scenes in and around the Capitol building, but I reckon he was so entranced by the whole Trump circus, he would have dreamt up some sort of excuse for it.

I found parallels between Trump worship and the veneration of certain political figures, past and present, on the local scene. Some years back I had a guy on our payrole who absolutely worshipped Dom Mintoff. He carried a photograph of the man around with him in his wallet – and during his lunch break he would produce a rather battered cassette recorder and play and replay the former Labour leader’s speeches. Another

of my work colleagues, one I should say, of limited intellectual capacity, held the late former minister Lorry Sant in an almost religious state of devotion. I had to go to this employee’s home once and there, in pride of place, over the sofa in his living room was a large photo of the then minister for public works.

He even asked me what I thought about the gent on display. I recall that I replied honestly that I didn’t know enough about Mr Sant to comment. He accepted this, but added: “Sur Lou, for me he is my god. My wife, she go to church, Jien… I go to the kazin.” A bit extreme maybe, but no more so than the devotion lavished on that old rogue Trump by his present-day devotees.

And not all his supporters are white trailer-trash. I am ashamed to say that one of my own relatives is totally besotted with the Donald and all that he stands for. Yes, my relative is a citizen of the USA, but he is definitely not white trash. He is a university educated IT professional with an otherwise decent brain. His explanation for his Trump-love is that the man is a strong debunker of the status quo who has a decent handle on the main problems afflicting his country. Bunkum! I say.

I’m afraid I see the recently departed 45th president as a dishonest, pig-ignorant, loud mouthed narcissist with the intellect of a degenerate pugilist and the manners of a wart hog. But then… what do I know?