Trump - it's up to Americans

The world knows what Trump is - vindictive, narcissistic, belligerent, nasty, intent on breaking up the world order whatever the impact internationally and expanding US territory eg Greenland in spite of international law… the list is endless.

But, first and foremost Americans know what he is. From Alaska to Florida, irrespective of political views, the people of America can be in no doubt what the President is as a person - how deeply flawed and thoroughly tainted he is. No-one really needs the Epstein files, with or without the massive, cover-up redaction of his name in them, to understand just what he is.

Americans should have known this when he was first elected in 2016. They almost certainly knew it in 2024. But there will be no scintilla of doubt in 2028.

Trump has not (yet!) announced he might seek to defy legal and moral grounds and seek to run for President again in 2028 - he has floated the idea a few times and recent vibes from the US suggest he is preparing the way for this with greater intent. But, even if he doesn’t, Trump has only one thing in mind - that the Trump legacy, the Trump view of the world i.e. his view, will continue to rule America into the future come what may.

J D Vance is the most likely successor - a man equally as detestable as Trump and, some believe, potentially even worse and more extreme. But there are a string of incredibly nasty Trump replacements in line.

We might not even get to an election 2028 or a replacement anyway. Trump utterly denied reality when losing to Biden in 2020, sparking the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol, and there is a real threat he could suspend a 2028 election, perhaps on ‘national crisis’ grounds, and stay in power. This is not an empty threat - everything about his record so far underlines how capable he is of attempting this. We should get a preview on his approach after the November 2026 mid-term elections when, it is expected, he and the Republican Party could lose substantial political ground, possibly even the House or/or Senate.

The real issue is, if the 2028 election does go ahead, how will the American public vote? Is it possible that knowing what Trump in all his inglorious colors is and everything he represents that Americans could vote this monster back into power? And, importantly, what should the UK, Europe and the rest of the world  think of Americans if they do?

All my life I have viewed Americans in general terms as ‘friends’, as people I can trust. I have met so many in the UK, in America and across the world and always thought them without any question as basically ‘on our side’. I am steeped in American cultural tradition - movies, music, TV, books. I have shared holiday trips with bunches of Americans and we have always got on well and looked at the world in mainly the same of ways. Whatever the issues of the day, we were ‘allies’ in our global view. Our nations fought together in World Wars and the societal links between the two countries are enormous.

But in 2028, with Trump or his hench-person, returned, Americans will have openly voted in again a man/regime bent on destroying old allied relationships and whose policies actively seek to damage the UK’s status and economy, even promoting the causes of nations who would wish the UK harm. With all this, how should the people of the UK view Americans then? People who will have freely chosen to back the President’s intent to hurt us. And no just us, of course, but Europe collectively and on an individual nation basis too.

We may not hate ordinary Russians as they have no choice in their leader or what their nation does on their so called behalf, but we are historically wary of any dealings with them. Likewise the Chinese. But, for the USA, their people will have actively decided their preferred path. It will not be all Americans obviously, the split in public opinion and political views is as marked there as it now is in the UK itself, but ostensibly a majority, or an amount which wins in the American electoral system, will have been pro-Trump.

So many people I know already look at America and view Americans a lot differently than they did even two years ago. If they elect Trump or his ilk in 2028 that will deepen.

Yet there is a further sting in the tail for us in the UK. Americans know what Trump is, but we know what a certain Nigel Farage is too. Everything Trump is as a person and politician Farage is or could be. We are already fully aware what this Clacton Caliban is about yet as Leader of Reform his party is currently ahead in the polls and possibly he could be our next Prime Minister.

Like the American public, the UK will in time have a choice too. A vote for Farage is the same as an American vote for Trump - for disorder, for the rich, for increased racial hatred, for intolerance and division and for doing what Trump wants.

We live in dangerous times. What will Americans... and the British... decide to do?