Us politics

Tuesday

Rob Crilly

Donald Trump’s inner dictator starts to stir

It is of course nonsense to describe Donald Trump as a fascist or a dictator, as his opponents like to do. And yet… well, he does sometimes rather invite it.  There was his inaugural address in which he dusted off the ‘America first doctrine’ – as used by the isolationist, anti-Semitic group that urged the US to appease Nazi Germany. Then there is his interventionist strong-arming of companies to keep jobs in America. And on Saturday he stood at the CIA headquarters, in front of a wall commemorating the organisation’s fallen heroes, and boasted of the number of times he has appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Now comes a proclamation declaring the

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Who are ‘the people’ in these new political times?

During the massive, impressive Women’s March in London on Saturday, in which thousands of noisy women, men and children stuck it to Trump, the organisers tweeted the following: ‘We are the people.’ Wait — it’s okay to say ‘the people’ again? Since Trump’s victory in November, and even more so after the Brexit Revolt in June, anyone who used the phrase ‘the people’ risked being branded a useful idiot of hard-right demagoguery. ‘Do you know who else spoke of “the people”?’, left-liberals would inquire, accusingly. ‘THE NAZIS.’ Brexiteers and Trumpeters ‘roar that they represent “the people”,’ said Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer, as part of ‘their endeavour to silence any

Monday

Ross Clark

Forget ‘peace and love’. Protest language has turned violent

So Madonna says she doesn’t really want to blow up the White House. Her remarks at Saturday’s women’s march — ‘Yes, I’m angry, yes, I am outraged, Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House’ – have, she says, been ‘taken wildly out of context’. She has missed the point. No-one remotely thought that she would personally mix the Semtex, or offer any help to someone else to do so. But she was using inflammatory language which she ought to know somebody, somewhere will take seriously. If an unhinged loner in the backwoods of Virginia heads to Washington with a pick-up full of explosives she

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

The hypocrisy of the ‘Free Melania’ feminists

I like to prance around showing off in hats and shouting at men as much as the next broad but – apart from the fact that I can get it at home – there were several reasons why I chose not to join a whole batch of my bitches on the Women’s March this weekend. Firstly, I was sure it would be full of ‘Strong Women‘, a phrase I hate at the best of times – and feel should only be used if the lady in question can tear a telephone directory in half with her bare hands – and which seemed especially inappropriate to describe a bunch of overgrown Violet

Rob Crilly

Welcome to the era of ‘alternative facts’

Now we have confirmation. The official language of Donald Trump’s White House really is doublespeak. This is how absurd the row over crowd numbers at the inauguration has become. It started with an extraordinary speech delivered by Trump at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where he appeared to speak off the cuff for about 15 minutes during his first national security speech. He railed against the media – ‘among the most dishonest human beings on earth’ – boasted about his appearances on the cover of Time magazine, and displayed his thin skin by exaggerating the size of his inauguration audience – ‘it looked like a million, million and a half people’. Nonsense,

Saturday

Violet Hudson

In defence of Melania Trump

We all love Michelle Obama. Of course we do. For the last eight years she has been ‘mom in chief’ of America – and the world. She has personified grace, courtesy, warmth, humour and, not incidentally, shown us what a good marriage looks like. Tirelessly supportive of her husband, but successful in her own right, she has become a symbol of what a modern woman can be. She rose from a working-class background to attend Princeton and Harvard. She overcame racism and sexism to become a hugely successful lawyer. As First Lady, she was endlessly elegant and engaged, working to promote healthy eating, educational opportunity and women’s rights. It has

Rob Crilly

Only the right kind of women are invited to march against Donald Trump

The Women’s March on Washington is going to be big. Officials say 1,800 buses have been registered to park in the city today. The subway will open at 5 a.m. (it usually starts running at 7 a.m. at weekends) to accommodate the numbers. In all, 250,000 people are expected to join the rally to show their disapproval of Donald Trump, dwarfing the numbers that attended his inauguration and parade a day earlier. It is fitting that women are taking the lead. Trump’s misogynist language and disregard for half the population has been one of the most shocking parts of his aggressive campaign. So it is a shame that the march

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What does President Trump do to Brexit?

With Theresa May expected to head to Washington next week to see President Trump, I have a look at what the Trump presidency might mean for Brexit in my Sun column this morning. Despite his protectionist rhetoric, on full show again yesterday, Donald Trump is keen on a US / UK trade agreement. He has told people that he would like to get personally involved in negotiating the deal. I understand that his transition team has done more work on it than they have for any other agreement. Squaring the circle between Trump’s protectionist rhetoric and his enthusiasm for a US / UK deal isn’t as hard as it first looks.

Friday

Matt Purple

Could Trump be the progressive leader Obama never managed to be?

Washington, D.C. is a police state even in good times. Unique in the land of the free, only there do you find officers casually toting assault rifles outside of Union Station as though Amtrak has just staged a coup within, or vast swaths of road abruptly shut down because the secretary of agriculture has decided he wants a deep tissue massage on the other side of town. And during presidential inaugurations, the tight security becomes Orwellian. Even without the deluge of visitors that Barack Obama attracted in 2009 (only to discover that being witnesses to history meant watching it on a Jumbotron two miles away), there will still be enough

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Trump’s trade war could cause global economic carnage

The most striking thing about Donald Trump’s inaugural address was how little it tried to reach out to those who had not voted for him. On election night, Trump made a deliberate effort to strike a graceful note. He said that America owed Hillary Clinton a ‘major debt of gratitude for her service to our country’.  To those who hadn’t voted for him, he said, ‘I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help’. But today, after thanking the Obamas for their help in the transition, his message was aimed squarely at his base. He talked about an ‘American carnage’ that he was going to stop and repeatedly pledged to

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Donald Trump: the most radical US president for centuries

He could be the greatest disaster ever to befall America. He could go down as the man that Made America Great Again. What’s certain is that Donald Trump is the most radical US president for centuries. Trump’s inaugural speech was predictable — in the sense that we have heard Trump say it all before. In terms of rhetorical brilliance, Obama outdid him dramatically at Andrews Air Base 45 minutes later.  Nonetheless Trump was mind-blowing in the sense that the new president of the United States, a billionaire eccentric, was standing in front of Capitol Hill and attacking ‘the establishment’ for having ripped off the American people. ‘Capital has reaped the rewards

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Trump has just created a vacancy for a world leader in free trade. Step forward, Theresa May

Rather than seek to inspire or unite a country, Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a long vindictive swipe at his enemies mixed with a whinge about free trade and how America has been the loser from it. Nothing about only fearing fear itself, nothing about asking what you can do for your country rather than vice versa. Instead, a story about “carnage” caused by that big bad world. It has gotten a little too scary for America, so it’s time to retreat. “For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry,” he said. “We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

There was nothing peaceful about Washington’s anti-Trump protests

Washington, D.C. I just witnessed an anti-Donald Trump protest, and it was nasty. About an hour ago, I looked out the window on the corner of 13th and Massachusetts Avenue and saw a crowd of roughly 300 people  — most of them dressed in black and wearing bandanas and hoods — moving quickly through the street. There were loud chants of ‘Fuck Donald Trump’. I walked out onto 13th Massachusetts Avenue and followed the noise down 13th towards Franklin Square. Suddenly it was chaos. There were some loud bangs. People and policemen were running in all directions. I could see lots of smoke which turned out to be tear gas.

Steerpike Steerpike

BBC’s Michelle Obama gaffe

Although Donald Trump has suggested that he is unhappy with the BBC’s coverage of him, it’s the corporation’s reporting of Michelle Obama at today’s inauguration ceremony that has landed the BBC in trouble. As Katty Kay, the BBC reporter, led the coverage on the news channel, she offered a running commentary of the movements of various White House figures. However, when a black woman left the building, she felt the need to clarify to viewers that this woman was not in fact Michelle Obama: ‘That is not Michelle Obama, just somebody coming out and checking everything is ready I imagine.’ Still, on the bright-side, Mr S suspects Michelle will be too preoccupied

Steerpike Steerpike

Friday caption contest: Trump’s inauguration – smile!

As Donald Trump is sworn in today as the 45th US president, not everyone at the ceremony appears thrilled to be there. In fact, both Hillary Clinton and the departing first lady — Michelle Obama — look as though they would like to be anywhere but the White House: Mr S welcomes your caption suggestions on this historic day.

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Trump! How did this happen?

It happened because you banned super-size sodas. And smoking in parks. And offensive ideas on campus. Because you branded people who oppose gay marriage ‘homophobic’, and people unsure about immigration ‘racist’. Because you treated owning a gun and never having eaten quinoa as signifiers of fascism. Because you thought correcting people’s attitudes was more important than finding them jobs. Because you turned ‘white man’ from a description into an insult. Because you used slurs like ‘denier’ and ‘dangerous’ against anyone who doesn’t share your eco-pieties. Because you treated dissent as hate speech and criticism of Obama as extremism. Because you talked more about gender-neutral toilets than about home repossessions. Because

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Meet the real deplorables – and no, it’s not Farage and his champagne populists

Washington, D.C. Nigel Farage’s 2016 celebration of Nigel Farage’s 2016 is a party that might never stop. And it is a jolly affair. Yesterday, at the Hay-Adams Hotel, in Washington, DC, Nigel and his pals — let’s call them the champagne populists — had a US election bash. Nigel stood up to do his usual routine about how this year would be remembered in a hundred years as the glorious moment when nation state democracy reasserted itself, and everybody cheered.  The champagne populists raised lots of glasses to themselves and talked about how they got Donald J Trump elected to the White House. Meanwhile, the American voters who actually elected Donald

Mark McGinness

What would Alistair Cooke have made of Trump’s inauguration?

Margaret Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor, Quintin Hailsham, himself half-American, once observed that the US system of government was ‘an elective monarchy with a king who rules . . . but does not reign’. The British system was ‘a republic with a hereditary life president who . . . reigns but does not rule’. And so, perhaps, it is unsurprising that the ceremony marking the beginning of the American king’s rule is more coronation than induction. Who better than an Englishman to view this peculiarly American spectacle and pomp? Until his death in 2004, Alistair Cooke, the veteran reporter and legendary voice of the long-running radio broadcast, Letter From America, had followed every

Rob Crilly

Washington’s lobbyists are starting to panic

Things are changing in Washington… and not just at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Political newbies watched the fireworks at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday night. Elderly women prepared for their first inauguration. One family had brought their daughter to Washington to witness the moment that Donald Trump was sworn in.   And Washington regulars – the politicos, party hacks and think tankers who are here all year round – are feeling unsettled. In part this is the natural response to a change of party at the top. But it is also the result of Trump’s extraordinary style of politics, which is sowing fear among lobbyists who must try to navigate his impetuous manner and Twitter rants.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

No, Donald Trump isn’t a ‘massive, magnificent gift’ for Britain

There are certain traditional ceremonies without which the inauguration of a new American president cannot take place. Chief among them, at least on this side of the atlantic, is the opportunity such a moment provides for pondering anew the health and well-being of the ‘special relationship’. A remarkable amount of tripe must be talked on these occasions. You will recall how Bill Clinton’s supposedly-unhappy time at Oxford prejudiced him against this country and you will recall, of course, that Barack Obama’s Kenyan heritage left him temperamentally ill-disposed towards this sceptr’d isle. Obama, of course, confirmed this by removing the now famous Churchill bust from the Oval Office, an act of unpardonable