Why do some British people not like Donald Trump? (nonfiction)
An essay about Donald Trump by Nate White.
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Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
- Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
- You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.
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External links
- Donald Trump @ Wikipedia
- Trump Secretly Mocks His Christian Supporters @ The Atlantic - Former aides say that in private, the president has spoken with cynicism and contempt about believers.
- Trump mocks reporter with disability @ YouTube
- A lengthy list of Trump’s disastrous business deals — compiled by his newest business partners @ L.A. Times
- Trump flies @ YouTube
- Trump saying dumb stuff @ YouTube
- Stormy Daniels's Detailed Description of Donald Trump's Penis Explains a Lot @ Esquire
- Just Donald Trump being an absolute idiot @ YouTube
- New Tape Shows Donald Trump And Jeffrey Epstein At Mar-A-Lago Party In 1992 @ YouTube
- Trump to Clinton: 'No, You're the Puppet' @ YouTube
- Why Trump's authoritarian language about 'vermin' matters @ Twitter (17 November 2023) @ NPR - "We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country," he told a New Hampshire crowd.
- As a psychologist, I diagnose Trump with “advanced dementia” in this article @ Twitter (26 January 2024) - Susan Milligan
- Daughters of foot doctor say he diagnosed Trump with bone spurs as ‘favor’ to Fred Trump @ CNN (26 December 2018)
- ‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy @ The Guardian (29 January 2021) - Post @ Twitter (16 April 2024)
- Trump’s hubris has brought about the downfall of his family’s business empire Sidney Blumenthal @ The Guardian - Sidney Blumenthal - Even the giant fortune Trump inherited from his father did not stop him from steering the family’s dynasty on to the rocks
- Post @ Twitter - Long 🧵 on Trump’s casino empire
- The Trump Files: The Shady Way Fred Trump Tried to Save His Son’s Casino @ Mother Jones - see Post @ Twitter (2 March 2024)
- Closer Look: An overview of Donald Trump @ Twitter (6 March 2024)
- Post @ Twitter () - @CaslerNoel has offered to testify under oath to his first-hand knowledge of @realDonaldTrump chopping/snorting Adderall, and the extensive cocaine use by both @IvankaTrump and @DonaldJTrumpJr.
- Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills @ USA Today
- Post @ Twitter (14 April 2024) - Since Adderall is trending, seemed like a good time to repost this interview where @caslernoel shared with me that trump has to wear diapers because all the stuff he snorted made him incontinent. / Be a shame if #DiaperDon trended again.
- Montage of 32 clips from Trump’s two speeches yesterday where he mispronounced words, got confused, mixed up names, forgot names, and babbled insane nonsense @ Twitter (3 March 2024)