By Philip Yeung
The end of an empire—Trump is God's gift to America as it tumbles from greatness into the gutter
Trump is a leader like no other. He is vulgar and self-centered. He lies, but he does not hide. That is because, with his short fuse, Trump always shows his true colors. All it takes is a few tantrums.
A week is a long time in Trump politics. His Monday self says one thing. His Tuesday self says another. His Wednesday self says something else. And when Friday arrives, people say Thank-God-It-Is-Friday. But by the weekend, he has whipped up another storm.
That is why no one wants to negotiate with Trump. Flip-flopping from day to day and from hour to hour, he is half-mad and wholly mercurial.
Trump's appeal to his followers comes down to this: giving them a spicy extremism to sink their teeth into, like a cult leader. As a shameless racist, he is fearless in mouthing his hatred. He can make racism or sexism politically palatable because he dares to break the taboo from the highest office.
Ironically, his swear words make him a relatable politician. America has never produced a president so flawed and utterly unpresidential in speech and action.
Foul-mouthed like a back-alley gangster, with the callousness to match, he is only at home in thug speak. He insults Jesus by calling himself a Christian. And yet he commands the undying loyalty of knee-jerk evangelical Christians by the millions.
Trump, finger-wagging, threatens to wipe the Iranian civilization off the map and bomb it back to the Stone Age, unless Iran caves in to his demands within 48 hours.
But ultimatums are meaningless with Trump. Too many fire-and-fury deadlines have come and gone. With the chokehold of the Strait of Hormuz as its trump card (pun intended), Iran is not flinching.
His cruelty is bred in his bones, killing 170 schoolgirls with Tomahawk missiles without mercy or remorse. And yet, only months ago, Trump wanted the Nobel Peace Prize for himself. With no more incentive to play peacemaker, he is now thumbing his warmonger nose at the world. Iran and Venezuela are his payback. Is Cuba next?
After dropping over 5000 bombs on Iran in just over five weeks, Trump finally drops the bombshell: He freely admits he is out "to take the oil, and keep the oil", as he did in Venezuela. He wants to sit on the world's largest oil reserves as the spoils of victory in both predatory adventures. It's liquid gold and pure greed.
In his latest ultimatum, he wants Iran's unconditional surrender, on pain of having its civilian infrastructure, including power plants, chemical plants and bridges blown to bits.
To his credit, the UN Secretary General Guterres musters the courage to warn him in no uncertain terms that by making good on his threats, Trump would be committing war crimes, and held liable as a war criminal, an honor he would share with his co-criminal Netanyahu.
From potential Nobel Peace Prize winner to prospective convicted war criminal----that is quite a roller-coaster ride even for Trump.
But Trump is unworried. No international court would have enough spine to charge and convict a sitting US president of crimes against humanity. Any judge who issues the arrest warrant would face instant American sanctions.
Trump knows that he carries a bigger stick than the ICC. Besides, pissing off America may spell the end of the international criminal justice system, if not the UN itself.
But Trump has another ace up his sleeve. His legal team can simply claim "insanity" as a defense, and who can challenge the validity of the clinical evidence, given his erratic and deranged behavior?
Just imagine: the US will soon celebrate its 250th birthday with a madman or convicted war criminal occupying the White House.
It took two and a half centuries of political genius plus historical and geopolitical intersections to build the mightiest empire---only to be undone by one man within one-year, reigning king-like, with Congress and the Supreme Court in his back pocket.
Trump, the attention junkie, could hog more headlines as a war criminal than Obama ever could with his Nobel Peace Prize. Washington lives for scandals.
Trump is here for real. He has torn down the East Wing to build a ballroom at a cost of US$400 million, when his people can't afford healthcare, daycare, food on the table or gas at the pump.
He forgets he is just a tenant. But with over 1000 days left in his tenancy, surviving Trump is a matter of existential urgency for the planet. And the golden rule is: never tango with the devil.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | Two gone, more to follow
Comment