As the sounds of breakages keep coming from the White House china shop, my reactions are as mixed as they have been since the new owner took possession last January.
Published: 12 January 2025
Say what you like about him, Donald Trump takes spring cleaning very seriously.
He wants everything to sparkle and shine.
However, if you’re a student of the Law of Unintended Consequences it’s hard not to quiver when he gets the duster out.
But I had been genuinely terrified of the disintegrating Joe Biden being replaced by the weak, empty-headed, woke Kamala Harris.
I was haunted by images of President Xi having her for a light breakfast.
Still, it’s difficult sometimes not to be alarmed about Trump’s tactics.
So far — despite worries about his narcissism and enriching of himself and his circle — I’m staying hopeful.
Trump may have a weird bromance with Putin, but he has no taste for sending young people to their death and wants the Nobel Peace Prize.
And he’s done a great job bullying Europe to stop living off the bank of Mum and Dad and clean up its own back yard.
Ireland has been particularly guilty.
About 75 per cent of transatlantic cables go to or near it, but it has limited itself to blathering about neutrality while covertly relying on the RAF and Nato: it has spent less on defence than any other European country.
A malign enemy could ruin Ireland’s economy and wreak havoc on Europe and American communications and trade.
But Trump’s threats are a blast of reality.
Ireland, said former Irish Defence Forces Chief of Staff Mark Mellett in Dublin on Monday at a debate on neutrality organised by the West Cork History Festival — which likes honest discussions about contentious issues — “must stop ‘free-riding’ on security gifted by others, spend significantly more on defence and co-operate with other states to secure key undersea Atlantic cables”.
It has a long way to go, but despite pressure from crazy far-left politicians, the Irish government is beginning the painful process of facing up to its military weakness and beginning to spend on self-defence.
Trump has also done the West a favour by leading the charge against EDI — Equality, Diversity and Inclusion — which has poisoned race and male-female relationships and damaged a whole generation of children by telling them they were trans when in fact half of them were autistic and many were gay, lesbian, bisexual or just confused.
The day I was told about a primary school in a rural area of Northern Ireland where teachers were giving ‘positive affirmation’ to some deluded kid who identified as a cat, I feared this mind virus was en route to destroying the West.
Medicalising normal teenage angst with puberty blockers and hormones and unnecessary surgery has ruined the lives of many gullible young people.
However the Trump bludgeon is proving so persuasive with corporate leaders that the tide is turning.
Business is grasping that rainbows and drag queens are going out of fashion and that a person’s sexual preferences should not be centre stage.
Even progressive Ireland’s employers are at last getting the message.
So thank you, Mr President.
Clean on, but please try not to break the irreplaceable heirlooms.
