“Chained to a madman”– Europe and Donald Trump

Goya’s depiction of a prisoner

Greetings and many thanks to all who have signed up. Just to say, if you upgrade to a paid subscription, you will have access to all articles, archives, podcasts, and debates in the comment section. You will also allow me to carry on working, and that means a lot! The cost works out at £1.15 ($1.40) a week, and there’s a free trial.

Today, I want to look at the crisis Trump is bringing to Europe, and why all the voices saying that he won’t be that bad are, I am afraid, likely to be wrong.

---

In normal times, we would be able to dismiss as tittle-tattle the reports from the US that Elon Musk will have an office of his own in the White House. We would be equally free to give a little shudder at the saccharine news that Trump’s family calls Musk “the first buddy” and move on.

But our times are anything but normal, and they’re about to get more abnormal still.

The US is meant to be our strongest ally. But Musk, Trump’s “first buddy,” has spent the run up to the inauguration accusing the British Prime Minister of being “deeply complicit in mass rapes in exchange for votes.” (For the record, and on the frankly optimistic assumption that the truth still matters, Starmer as Director of Public Prosecutions intervened to ensure that paedophiles were prosecuted.)

Musk went on to support Tommy Robinson, a far-right thug with multiple convictions. He then moved on to the equally extreme Alternative for Germany, even though the United States is meant to be Germany’s ally too, and allies do not normally offer succour to native fanatics.

Yet Trump does not order his buddy to apologise. He agrees with him and issues threats of his own against Canada and Denmark.

As a result, we have just witnessed a spectacle none of Starmer’s predecessors could have imagined: the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom having to defend himself against allegations that he is the protector of rapists coming from the heart of power of our closest ally.

Socrates said that living with the male libido was like being “chained to a madman”. You can say much the same about Europe and Donald Trump. Nowhere are the chains more securely locked than here in the UK.

As is so typical of this Labour government, Sir Keir Starmer is clinging to the status quo. He is determined to stay as close to Trump as possible. For once his habitual caution is understandable.