Power, destruction and lies

Donald Trump and the truth about his first two years as President

Donald Trump has been in office two years this week. Writer at Large, Neil Mackay, investigates how the US President has changed the world ... and it’s not a pretty picture

DONALD J Trump is about to mark the second anniversary of his inauguration as the 45th President of America – the halfway stage of his first term. In just 24 months, he has positioned himself as the de facto leader of an international populist movement that stretches from the Philippines to Brazil via Hungary, Turkey, India, Bolivia, Italy, and Poland

– a movement that claims to fight for ordinary people against conniving elites.

As with nearly everything when it comes to Trump, it’s all a lie. He’s about as unelitist as a Kardashian. Trump is a tycoon born into huge inherited wealth and his policies look after the super-rich rather than the average worker. But with Trump, as with many populist movements inspired by him, it’s appearance that matters, not reality.

It may sound deranged (that’s the world we live in now) but Trump is an inspirational figure. The new authoritarian leader of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, Brexiteers, the hard Hungarian right, evangelicals, alt-right conspiracists – they have all been either invigorated or inspired by the tone set by Trump. His anti-immigration stance, his attacks on political correctness, his sexism – it’s all set the agenda for a world drifting away from progressive values.

While what he’s doing within America is unique to America, his influence is global and he’s changing the world in frightening ways. Here’s how: