Had It in Holland Park

Europe is a foe

I finally understood Donnie Trump when he said “Europe is a foe.”   At first I thought; “who are our allies, then?”   Then I realised that for our President, there are no allies: everyone is a foe.  And that is as true of Americans as anybody else.

It’s not that he is racist: it is just that he think that Blacks, Hispanics and Asians are foes, whether from America or some other shore.   It is not that he is a bigot: he thinks that Muslims and Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus are foes, both at home and abroad.   Far from being the President of all of us, Trump thinks that most Americans are foes, especially if they come from the Democratic or Libertarian party. 

For Trump, anyone who does not let you do whatever it is you want to do, is a foe.   He thinks that the emoluments clause, which prevent him profiting personally by being the President of the United States, is a foe: something to be gotten around. He views contractors who have done work for him as foes, which is why he frequently won’t pay them. He thinks that climate change scientist and conservationists are foes, because they say he shouldn’t be doing what he is doing.

In short, anyone who opposes him in any way, is a foe.

This is not an unusual stance for a billionaire: they are used to getting their own way.

(Jeffrey Epstein, Teddy Kennedy, Tiger Woods, Bernie Madoff)

For Trump, getting his own way permeates his every thought and predicts his tactics.  If you cross him, he will ridicule you, belittle you, go all out on an ad hominem attack.   He is like a Saul Alinsky wet dream: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

It is also why he gets on best with dictators Putin, Xi, Kim and Mohammad bin Salman.  They think the way he does.   Dictators know that everyone is a foe.   (They also can call his bluff, which is why he is so circumspect in their presence.)

Trump sees the world as a zero sum game: you can win or you can lose, there is no middle ground.  Win-win scenarios are for wimps….and foes.