Trump’s the big pub bore who owns the bar...
( ) and sadly there’s no place else to drink )
IT is the coldest New Year in New York since John F Kennedy was President, and few New Yorkers are warmed by the words or actions of the current incumbent of the White House in response. Tweeting from his Florida home where the 70F temperatures contrast starkly with the minus 15C wind chill of Central Park, Donald Trump said: ‘In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!’
The US President who withdrew from the Paris Accord does not know the difference between weather and climate change. This time the man who has railed against the news coverage of CNN, ABC and even the BBC had to be corrected by the normally innocuous Weather Channel.
New Yorkers are more chilled by the President than the weather.
In the White Horse Bar in Hudson Street, Soho – which was Dylan Thomas’s local where it is reputed he had his last drink – mention of the President is greeted like a reminder of an overdue tax bill, a dentist appointment or an unfortunate personal ailment.
‘You get through the day just trying to forget he is President,’ one local said. ‘Then, once you have, he reminds you with some stupid tweet. He’s embarrassing us all.’
THERE is a sense not so much of anger as of lowlevel anxiety. It is like the feeling when a child or sibling gets in tow with someone completely inappropriate. Nothing can be done about it, you know it won’t last, but New Yorkers fear what damage can be done along the way.
George W Bush’s presidency was marked by his fight against what he called the ‘Axis of Evil’ – Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
The only stability for Donald Trump’s presidency is provided by what is called the ‘Axis of Adults’. It includes his chief of staff General John Kelly, his Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and – for now at least – his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. Their job is to protect the President from himself, although they seem to have little joy in separating him from his iPhone.
The journey Mr Tillerson has gone on tells you something about just how far Trump’s presidency has sunk in just under a year. When his appointment was first mooted, Mr Tillerson was regarded as an inexperienced Right-winger whose ties to Russia made him a liability. Now he is seen as a model of diplomacy and rectitude.
He has denied calling the President a ‘moron’ to his face – but refuses to comment on whether he did use the term, but with a variation of the ‘f’ word in front of it.
Rumour has it he is on the way out – once he has served a full 12 months, so he won’t have to pay any capital gains tax on the $100 million he received when he sold his holding in Exxon, of which he was chief executive when he was appointed.
If he does resign or is sacked, it will destabilise further an administration that seems to get by only day to day.
PRESIDENT Trump doesn’t have advisers, he has adult carers. The nightly news in New York is remarkable. A list of the President’s statements of the day is followed by an explanation of why each one is wrong.
No, despite saying so, Donald Trump has not signed more laws than any other President since Harry Truman. No, his approval ratings are not as high as Barack Obama’s, nor anything like it. No, he has not been cleared of collusion with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
It is as though his administration tries to get on with government, hoping he won’t notice. Meanwhile, having failed to do anything that day, President Trump makes something up to try to look busy and popular.
After the Christmas break, he tweeted about getting down to hard work – then promptly headed off towards the golf course.
Unhappy at being spotted, he didn’t stop going to play golf. Instead, a large white van – thought to belong to the local sheriff – suddenly appeared to block TV cameras from taking pictures of the President at play.
He remains an oppressive embarrassment – a colossal pub bore, only with the exception that he owns the bar, and there is nowhere else to drink.
The American constitution was, of course, designed to protect the nation in a circumstance like this when the people elect a rogue president.
But the damage he is doing to the institutions that make up the constitution could be profound.
He has appointed a record number of judges – some of whom appear to have qualified more for their Right-wing views than their prowess at the law.
Having sacked one FBI director, the President now routinely attacks the Bureau as they investigate his relations with Russia and Vladimir Putin’s alleged interference in the Presidential election.
New Yorkers are rightly proud of their city and each other. But this is one New Yorker of whom they are ashamed.
The weather in the city will improve in the next few weeks. Sadly the climate won’t – until Donald J Trump is gone.
NORTH Korea remains the most crucial issue in Donald Trump’s in-tray, but he seems able to make little progress.
Without the help of Chinese President Xi Jinping, he seems stuck – and he didn’t improve the situation this week when he attacked China for continuing to supply the North Koreans with oil.
The Chinese are the only ones who could effectively deal with Kim Jong-un, but at what price? Rumours in New York are that they are willing to take out the North Korean dictator but would want control of Taiwan in return. Worth watching.