The notched cogs of the world clock have just moved, the hour hand has suddenly moved forward. Donald Trump has betrayed us, and nothing will ever be the same again, as I wrote in a previous article ( Click ). Brought back to the field of literature, we would say, quoting a French playwright Pierre Corneille1 : “Rome is no longer in Rome!” ( Rome n’est plus dans Rome !)
I’m not unaware that talking about art and literature today concerning the current tenant of the White House is a bit like reciting Arthur Rimbaud2 or Emerson3 in a Midwestern brothel.
But why deal with such a subject and such a character in WUKALI, a French-language magazine devoted to culture and art, some would say? But why? For the very reason that his quintessence defines him. Rabelais4 said: “Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul”, and here we are! The treachery of clerics5 is not our cup of tea!
Manhattan billionaire Donald J. Trump, the casino loser whose name we must call him6 , has first betrayed Americans themselves. For a time, his infantile nationalism appealed to what we call, for want of a better term, the American middle class. Immigration or the high cost of living, his propaganda targets, as always it’s the other guy’s fault (we know this refrain in Europe too). The same old racist recipes too, those of George L Rockwell7 or the Proud Boys8, a model for Trump and Steve Bannon, his mentor today, the same old complicity with the European heirs of fascism and the far right.
Since his return to the White House, Trump has been scapegoating others, all the others, which makes for a vast sheepfold ! His narcissism is pathological and neurotic. To the inflation and vulnerability of American society, he responds with all-out protectionism, and the first to be impacted are the USA’s own allies and its immediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico, but also Denmark with its Greenland. The whole world is in its sights. What’s more, he plays down both form and content in his speeches for anything that isn’t “Trumpian”, and anyone who opposes or disagrees will be crushed. The unfortunate Volodymyr Zelensky thus suffered Donald Trump’s angry wrath in front of the world’s cameras, an unacceptable humiliation! Keep me away from my friends. As for my enemies, I’ll take care of them! said Voltaire9 !
The assault on the Capitol in January 2021 (a failed coup attempt) had already set the political scene. Through mafia-style manipulation and pressure (for want of a better word…) on what remained of the Republican Party’s elected officials and the judiciary, Trump escaped like a white dove. In the same way, the attack from which he escaped unscathed made him even more popular, he was re-elected and is now at the helm. On his first day back in the White House, Trump issued an executive order granting amnesty and immediate release to the Capitol Hill rioters convicted by the courts – a blight on the rule of law!
As for international relations, to hear him tell it, all countries are united against the USA, which is nothing but a cash cow! In France, where we have a taste for words and language, we’d say: “la ficelle est grosse!” to which Goebbels10 would reply: “the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed!”
Trump appears to be a head of state under the influence, using Putin’s dialectic in his speeches – and, to cap it all, without finesse! Trump’s outrageous (and the term is insufficient) abandonment of Ukraine is a stain on American diplomacy and international relations. Trump has buried the American promise in the sensitive field of foreign policy and diplomacy. He has broken trust with his Allies and given NATO the coup de grâce. He hasn’t even taken the necessary oratory precautions! He is jeopardizing world security. What about his allies in Europe, the Baltic States threatened by Russian tanks, and tomorrow Taiwan and Korea? Europeans know they can no longer count on the Americans.
Long before he took office and during the American debates on TV channels (except Fox News), commentators, psychiatrists and even close members of his family took to the screens one after the other to denounce his dangerousness as a psychopath. A sort of “rich man’s son” syndrome, the son of a billionaire, a black sheep among his own kind, the last of the class, uneducated, a coward in the face of military obligations and suffering the contempt of those he dominated from the height of his dollars, financially speaking, bankrupt too and a bad manager, what’s more an elevator manhood all in all, little rabbit against subtle fox…! ! It would be interesting to know what his lexical register is and how many words he has at his disposal. For Stalin11, power and influence meant “how many divisions”, for him “how many millions of dollars”, a “dealer’s” policy after all!
More serious, obviously, are the apparently documented suggestions of his coziness with the Russians, dating back to his first trip to Moscow in 1987, when he was apparently approached by the KGB. Could it be that the Kremlin’s gold, Russian vodka and caviar, and the incandescently charming lolitas and devouchkas12 to be found in Moscow’s grand hotels had turned his head? At a time when talk of Perestroika was beginning to emerge in a Russia ravaged by decades of moribund Communism and riddled with corruption, the idea of building a Trump Tower in Moscow germinated in the mind of this wealthy American heir, flattered to be received like a king in the land of the Tsars. Subsequently, Moscow was always generous in covering the debts of this atypical heir whose father had made his fortune in New York real estate.
Universal suffrage and our democracies lack the long view, but for totalitarian countries like Russia and China, it’s an essential element of their strategies. For the Russians, Trump has long represented a rising influence, an open potential, a character who needs to be steered into the heart of American politics. There’s no doubt he’d fit right in with any number of spy films. In fact, Hollywood is currently working on several film scripts.
Putin is a conquering imperialist and a revisionist, as Emmanuel Macron recently explained. The same goes for Donald Trump, who also rewrites history. A number of very funny videos are currently circulating on American social networks, the fruit of AI. They show Donald Trump kissing Putin’s foot as an Eastern tyrant, the same Trump dressed as Stalin and dancing a pas de deux with his beloved Vladimir, or playing the balalaika with Kim Jong Un. There’s also another version in which Trump gets excited about Elon Musk’s bare feet.
And where do free men, Democrats and Republicans stand in all this?
During the U.S. presidential campaign in November 2024, a few days before the election, MSNBC journalist Nicolle Wallace, a former George Bush aide, urged Bush to speak out to block Trump. Silence!
Clinton, Obama, Biden, Harris… where are they, what are they not saying today? The only one fighting, a jurist of excellence and experience, is Senator Adam Schiff13, or in another register Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Party, shaken by its electoral defeat, is inconsistent. It has just two years before the midterms (presidential mid-term elections) to get its act together, and new leaders will have to emerge between now and then (Josh Shapiro14 , Andrew Cuomo15 ?).
Can the USA wobble like this?
The Democratic Party is nowhere to be seen. As for the last mohicans of the Republican Party, those old hands of politics such as Senator Lindsey Graham16 , they have turned tail and pledged their allegiance. In a country sensitive to the language of the Bible, that’s the lentils! Are we to believe that they feel threatened for their own safety, for their lives? It’s not unthinkable! Just recently, during the presidential elections, Trump directly threatened Michelle Obama and her husband!
Who, then (except in fantasy), could have asked the question about American democracy just a few years ago? It’s old hat in diplomatic circles to discuss foresight and international crisis situations. But we can’t help but be very worried about the future of American society and democracy. A country whose social protection is in its infancy compared with Europe. The USA, a country that, let’s not forget, has been through a civil war, a fractured country whose wounds have never healed. What’s more, it’s a country where the number of weapons held by Americans is simply staggering, posing a real danger, a real threat to democracy, its representatives and its institutions!
In this respect, Trump has never, ever opposed the NRA, the powerful association of gun manufacturers, sellers and owners! According to the Small Arms Survey, there are 393 million privately-owned guns in the U.S., many of them weapons of war!
Americans alone can take back the reins of their destiny. Every day brings its share of worries, and the United States’ vote at the UN to join Putin’s Russia, Xi Jinping’s China and that delightful North Korea in opposing Ukraine is cause for concern. We’ve come a long way from the rantings of a television buffoon who, as usual, distracted the public with his vulgar outrageousness! Dr. Strangelove has taken up residence in the Oval Room of the White House, and his antics are provoking the world.
Trump’s decision to cease military aid to the Ukraine was the ultimate betrayal.
Are there any senior American officers, members of the CIA or the NSA capable of making themselves heard? Such a sensitive question can be repeated in the same way for Moscow! What limits still need to be crossed?
Can Trump change?
It’s an unanswerable question! Donald Trump is a man under the influence, which is an understatement for someone who presents himself to his electorate as someone who can overturn the establishment. It’s worth pointing out that his rhetoric is the same as that used in Europe (France-Italy-Germany-Great Britain) by representatives of far-right politics, not to mention Le Pen in France, for example! Ultra-conservative circles have made Trump their champion.
However, beneath his matamore-like exterior, the man is fragile: his lack of culture, his lack of density, his ignorance of international geo-politics (the last straw!) are his greatest weaknesses. He is a submissive hypnotized by power, galvanized by the reality TV that has propelled him to the forefront of the political and media scene.
And yet there are flaws in the character, for he is a temperamental person! Talking to Trump is not the same as drinking coffee from the Sèvres porcelain cups at the Quai d’Orsay! With him, we’ve left the realm of diplomacy for that of psychoanalysis, or rather, psychopathology! To analyze his reactions is to consider dealing with someone suffering from bi-polarity, and woe betide anyone who wants to settle a conflict by opposing him head-on!
Of all foreign heads of state or government, Emmanuel Macron is the only one to have found the right tone with him: respectful, warm but firm. In fact, he has regular conversations with him as an equal.
Trump pretends to be unaware of his deficiencies and powerlessness (remember Covid). In the playground of the big boys, he wants to shine and act tough! He wants to be an Oriental despot, and demands servile submission from his interlocutors, a sickly sexual arousal!
So, with Donald Trump, we’re no longer on the verge of a reversal on his part, and anything is possible, especially if the social and political situation in the United States deteriorates. For the first time, we’re beginning to see a downward trend in his popularity, albeit in the low single digits… To be continued!
Notes
1 Pierre Corneille, dramaturge français (1606-1684). Il a écrit de nombreuses pièces du théâtre classique français, dont Sertorius où ce trouve ce vers: Rome n’est plus dans Rome !
2 Arthur Rimbaud, poète français (1854-1891), auteur du Bateau ivre et des Illuminations
3 Ralph Waldo Emerson, poète américain (1803-1882)
4 François Rabelais, écrivain humaniste français de la Renaissance (1483-1553). Auteur de Pantagruel et de Gargantua
5 La trahison des clercs, titre d’un livre de Julien Benda publié en 1927, re-publié depuis chez Grasset, Collection Les Cahiers rouges
6 Puisqu’il faut l’appeler par son nom, citation tirée de la fable de Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), Les animaux malades de la Peste
7 George L Rockwell, homme politique américain, chef du parti nazi (1918-1967)
8 Proud Boys, organisation américaine d’extrême-droite, néo-fasciste, prônant le suprémacisme blanc
9 Voltaire (1694-1778) écrivain et philosophe français des Lumières, notre conscience
10 Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) proche d’Hitler, responsable de la propagande nazie
11 Joseph Staline (1878-1953), succède à Lénine à la tête de l’URSS
12 Devouchka, Девушка, signifie jeune-fille/ jeune-femme en russe
13 Adam Schiff. né en 1960, Sénateur démocrate de l’état de Californie
14 Josh Shapiro, né en 1973, membre du parti démocrate, Gouverneur de la Pennsylvanie
15 Andrew Cuomo, né en 1957, ancien secrétaire d’état, ancien gouverneur de l’État de New York
16 Lindsay Graham, né en 1955, membre du Parti républicain, sénateur de la Caroline du Sud au Congrès des États-Unis
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