The carnival of the blowhards (and other animals)

I can’t comment on the meeting between Trump, Vance and Zelensky last week, because I can no longer bring myself to listen to Trump’s whiney voice. However, the reaction from Trump supporters and more than a few neutral observers was that Zelensky screwed up by failing to prepare himself in the art of handling the orange monster.

As far as I’m concerned, that has to be bullshit. Zelensky has more than enough experience in handling foreign leaders. He has succeeded in enlisting most of them into the cause of Ukraine, which is why I’m inclined to believe that he was ambushed. In other words, Trump and Vance were set on a course of action and waiting for an opportunity to pursue it.

Why, you might ask, would Trump jeopardise his much-touted minerals deal by behaving like a silverback gorilla threatened by an interloper? Because, perhaps, such deals only have value as propaganda rather than substance. One deal goes away, another takes its place. And for Trump, politics is all about presentation. And how the media loves the scowls, the smirks and the elbow shoves!

The same could be said for many of his acolytes – especially the males. Musk, Stephen Miller, Vance and especially one veteran Trumpian stormtrooper: Sebastian Gorka.

This chap, who also featured in Trump One, made a memorable appearance recently in the BBC’s current affairs flagship, Newsnight. I have no abiding memory of what he was talking about – Ukraine I suspect – only of his performance as an interviewee. When it was over – a masterclass in arrogance, bullying and all-round nastiness – one of the other guests on the show described Gorka as a “blowhard”.

An interesting word, blowhard. Bombastic, bullying, boastful, bullshit-laden. A pretty good description of his boss, but with none of Trump’s creepy charm.

Speaking of stormtroopers, what’s interesting about the whole DOGE business is that Musk’s teenage psychos appear to have been told to target federal institutions on the basis of the direct impact of their destruction: jobs cut, short term cost savings that ignore long-term consequences, such as the next pandemic or the unprecedented climate-driven hurricane surge disasters.

Many of those institutions were set up to benefit America, and yet by cooperation with other national organisations, NGOs and even the much-maligned UN, they benefit not only America but the whole world. Maybe the current numbskulls in charge don’t believe in soft power.

Another interesting aspect of Trump’s wrecking ball tactics is that he and his cronies no longer seem to disguise their admiration for Putin. It’s almost as though he feels that his electoral victory entitles him to say what he thinks and act accordingly. Where a covert connection with Putin during his last presidency might have been enough to see him impeached, he has no qualms in echoing the Russian president’s arguments today.

I pay no attention to theories about Trump being under some sort of blackmail threat from Putin. But if it turned out to be so, the details will probably come out within the next year or so, as will any other deadly secret that’s likely to destroy his credibility and possibly his presidency. The reason for that would be the number of enemies he’s currently gaining within the federal government. Bodies buried can be exhumed. What if he starts slashing at the CIA and FBI? How many renegade ex-employees might dish some long-stashed dirt on the president that has thus far remained locked in a safe somewhere?

How long also before his motley crew, who between them seem to harbour a collection of chips the size of mountains on their shoulders, begin to melt down in a quagmire of infighting?

These days I veer between waiting for Trump’s inevitable downfall without too much regard to its form, to lying in bed speculating about who or what will land the fatal blow: a deep throat in the car park, a military prepared to act after one outrageous violation of the constitution too many, mass protest over the consequences of an economic collapse or even sufficient members of congress prepared to ignore the president’s threats to launch a successful impeachment.

Ironically, extraordinary measures to dispose of a rogue administration might just produce more cracks in the US political system than are likely appear as a result of Trump’s actions.

Anyway, to end with a piece of meaningless cant, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Just as long as what makes America stronger doesn’t make everyone else weaker, which seems to be the intent of the current rabble.