MY VERY GREAT FRIEND, I DON’T KNOW HIM AT ALL, A VERY BAD MAN INDEED: The alleged President of the USA has slagged off Keir Starmer. As do we all. But the Churchill reference invites a similar transatlantic comparison.
Trump, if he had a brain, or advisors with a witty turn of phrase, might have made more of this quip. “They have replaced Churchill with a poodle, and not just on the banknotes” is a great line that the Americans completely missed.
Unfortunately, just like Starmer, President Trump is a far cry from his illustrious predecessors. Pot, kettle. Even the rightfully maligned fool George Dubya Bush looks statesmanlike by comparison.
It takes one to know one, and it’s just possible that Trump has inadvertently reversed into a truth. He is no Dubya though, and he is struggling to maintain the illusion of being in control. Maybe with the actual truth hot on his tail, he is running as fast as he can to provide further distractions.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a President in possession of poor fortune must be in want of a war.
Except that this apparent misfortune is all of his own doing. He could have held office and done little beyond wearing a silly hat and shouting “MAGA! MAGA!” at every opportunity. He would have gone down in history as, if not a great President, then at least as no worse than Dubya. Instead, he decided to make stupid laws and bomb people. And here we are.
This is possibly Starmer’s Churchill moment. He could rise up, bringing the country with him, and stand alone against the fascist might in the west. We can dream that, once again, England will be a bulwark against the enemy.
And the fictional EU army can roll into town at the last minute to save the day.