Trump makes other politicians look good

If you haven’t yet softened somewhat on Indian politicians after seeing the daily antics of the miserable fool that the US President Donald Trump is, please do. For, we haven’t had such a moron as our leader in a long time. Thanks to the orange-haired buffoon who has come to tenant the White House at least for four years, our Lalu Yadavs and Rahul Gandhis look like geniuses. We do not think any other politician here in Indian or in any other democracy who self-incriminates himself habitually as easily as does Trump.

And don’t think any other head of government has shuffled his cabinet so many times in such a short period as has Trump. And do not think any other US President had packed his cabinet so brazenly with his cronies and courtiers as has Trump. His last Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was caught live on microphone calling his boss a ‘fu….g moron.’ After his summary dismissal while he was sitting on a toilet seat, he confirmed that indeed that is what he thought of him and that is how he had described him. A number of ranking Republican writers and columnists are so disgusted with the daily tomfoolery of the President that they have disassociated themselves from the party.

The latest storm that has hit the Trump presidency — and there have been countless since the day he was elected — concerned the porn star, Stormy Daniels. After denying for months that he had anything to do with the payment of $ 1,30,000 as hush money to ensure her silence ahead of the 2016 poll, Trump finally let it be known that indeed his lawyer had made the payment on his behalf. He was earlier quoted denying most vehemently a one-night stand within days of his third wife, Mellania, giving birth to their son. After raids on the offices and homes of his lawyer by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in which they seized computers and files, Trump had his latest lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, a former mayor of New York, disclose on his favourite television channel that Trump had reimbursed the lawyer the $ 1,30,000 paid to silence the porn star. There are other women lurking in the wings, revealing their flings with The Donald.

One of them has sued him for defamation in a New York court for denying the affair when she claims to have the evidence to prove the President wrong. But his personal peccadilloes pale into insignificance before the rank amateur way with which he conducts the affairs of the most powerful country in the world. He might appeal to his base going after China for its $375 billion surplus in trade with the US, or might endear himself to the working class trying to levy additional duties on the import of steel and aluminum but his wholly immature way of conducting business and his tendency to boast and take credit for things he might not be remotely connected with, give no reason to ordinary Americans to be proud of their President or of their fellow countrymen who put someone as unsavoury as a bumptious real estate wheeler-dealer into the White House.

A democratic system may not be perfect but the election of Trump to the most powerful post on the planet must be a continuing cause of concern. Maybe the American and other democracies need filters to vet the raw will of the people as expressed through the ballot box.