Last week, Trump appeared
to crown himself King
of the USA. Perhaps it was a joke, although I’m not really sure that he does
jokes, seemingly being prone to a degree of confusion between a joke and an
insult. It has occurred to me previously
that he might rather fancy the idea of a hereditary presidency, and that’s all
a king is, really; so it’s more likely that he’s simply planting the idea so
that it doesn’t come as a surprise later. We know that he strongly believes
that ability is down to genes, and that he has what he calls ‘good genes’, which
he apparently inherited
from his uncle. Inheriting genes from his uncle might, of course, tell us
something not previously known about the intimate relationships of his family
members, but it’s more likely that we lesser mortals simply don’t have the
capacity to understand the science of inheritance the way that Trump does. His
genes clearly give him a level of understanding beyond the ken of other mortals,
to say nothing of an entitlement to rule.
In any event, his
belief in his own ability is unshakeable, as is the belief that anything he
says becomes truth simply by issuing from his mouth. And once he’s said
something and it has appeared in the media, he can legitimately say that he’s
read reports about whatever it is, thereby reinforcing its truthiness, and
attribute it to the media, who are only (and always) ‘fake’ if they dare to
correct him. It is into that parallel universe which Sir Starmer is planning to
venture next week, assuming that the meeting goes ahead and doesn’t get
cancelled because Trump takes offence in advance at what Sir Starmer has said
he’s going to raise, or at his refusal to pardon and release
a random selection of people about whom Trump has heard reports in the
meantime, abolish
VAT, and cut
taxes on US billionaires.
There have, historically,
been other meetings where the two parties have gone in with rather different
expectations as to the nature of the discussion, but not many with the sort of
gulf which is opening out at present. Sir Starmer rather simplistically thinks
he is going there to explain the European perspective to Trump and plead with him
to maintain existing long standing alliances. It’s based on the naïve belief
that the so-called ‘special relationship’ ever meant anything to the US, rather
than simply being part of a UK attempt to big itself up; Trump is simply being
more honest about the true US view on that issue. Trump, on the other hand,
probably thinks that Sir Starmer is going to the US to receive his orders with
the expectation that he will faithfully execute them on his return.
The people I feel
sorry for are the staffers on both sides, tasked with writing some sort of
joint communiqué which presents a complete non-meeting of two minds (well, one and a half) as though it
were a hugely consequential agreement on matters of great importance. Which Trump will probably refute within days.
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