January 15, 2018

Nothing to see here

located:	USA, Haiti
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

When cops in American TV shows want to get onlookers away from a crime scene or an accident, they normally say: 'OK, show's over folks, nothing to see here, move along.' The point being, of course, that there is absolutely everything to see here.

When Donald Trump doesn't want anyone to notice something negative about him, he is incapable of concealing it. Far from being a mercurial magician: a master of misdirection who can make you look at his lapel or his hairline while he masterfully slips your card up his sleeve, he has, throughout his career, told everyone not to look at his sleeves during this next trick.

This was evident during the early days of the Russia probe when, after firing then FBI-Director James Comey, he announced to the entire world that the next director or special counsel should not go through his finances – strongly indicating that he was guilty of some kind of financial impropriety.

Last weekend, during a meeting to discuss immigration reform with his lawyers and senators from across party lines, he allegedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and all African nations as 'shithole countries.' Why, he asked, couldn't the US receive more immigrants from Norway instead of these shithole countries?

Then, yesterday, to deflect an international backlash in which religious leaders (including some loyal Trump Evangelicals), international leaders, the UN and others, he announced that he is not a racist, and that in fact, he is the least racist person around. Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

I've read Michael Wolff's book, Fire and Fury, which was released two weeks ago amid international interest. It's fictionalised non-fiction; imagined meetings based on later interviews – so not to be taken as absolute truth, rather an approximation of the truth. In it, however, emerges a portrait of a man of almost pathological incompetence and narcissism. Rather than being an out-and-out extremist of alt right tendencies, it seems Donald Trump simply says what's on his mind, and refuses to acknowledge he is either wrong or misinformed – a pair of traits that inevitably, lead him to say and do idiotic, racist things. It's not that he has a racist ideology; he is simply bigoted and cannot overcome this tendency. It is less political, and more emotional and psychological.

Maybe. This portrait however would ignore Trump's long history of racism and race-baiting. Here is a definitive list of his racist antics from The New York Times.

It is a problem which has real impact; the programme to secure the existence of insecure immigrants in America is under threat, as is US relations around the world – all simply because this man cannot control himself.