The Trump Effect

Not so easy to like.*

A recent study points to the amount of work actually done by this Maga. And there has been a lot. Like it or not, his dialling finger has been popping remorselessly while the jumping beans of nations dance to Mariachi tunes from south of the border.

As a chef, there was nothing worse for Fogy than seeing someone pop their fingers into a carefully prepared dish, believing they had the right to do so. All they did was add risk to a delicate blend of herbs and spices — contamination. In the same way, this finger-prodding fool is contaminating the well-seasoned affairs of other nations, convinced it is his right to lead a misled people.

These dishes, disputes, and beliefs are not Donald’s to bully into change. Their layers of complexity are beyond the simplistic leadership he practices.

The Cold War and its aftermath brought Europe to this point. An American dictator cannot dictate the fate of a system centuries older than his own nation — WWII was the last great outcome of such dictates.

The Middle East has endured emperors who, for better or worse, earned their empires. Yet the disputes remain. Asia too has suffered — from America’s crusades against communism to its post-9/11 meddling in Islamism. Why should Cambodia or Thailand surrender rights when Vietnam and Afghanistan escaped?

And south of the border, South America is still recovering from the finger-prodding of past American leaders. Brazil still heals from the regimes of yesterday, yet is told to abandon its own path to appease a bully who would rule the world.

Yes, he has done much. He has disrupted a planet that had managed, however imperfectly, to trade and ally by choice — now forced to follow the dictates of a self-centred egomaniac. His dialling, writing, and ruling have left confusion, not order.

Change was needed. But there are ways to achieve it — ways that honour the will of the people, not the whim of a failed businessman who now wields the power to bully every senseless desire into reality.

The Romans left law, language, and leisure. The British left culture and language. Other empires left legacies that made nations great. But the Hollywood nation, with its ill-kept promises, leaves a bitter taste.

Is this working-hard hooligan the real deal — or just another Hollywood false dawn?

Time will tell. If the planet doesn’t collapse first.

Cheers.

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