During his stay in London, Donald Trump proved to be as much a misfit among British Royalty as he was with leaders of our other D-Day allies.
On this day, seventy-five years ago, Allied Troops invaded Normandy to eventually defeat the Nazis. Every year since then, the leaders of the free world gather to commemorate this day – to celebrate the fact that good and freedom won over evil and tyranny. We call it D-Day even though the D doesn’t really stand for anything.
It feels more somber than usual this year because Donald Trump stands for so many of the things we defeated 75 years ago. At that time, the United States and Britain planned the Normandy invasion together, and victory was a collective effort among allies.
Last year, William I. Hitchcock wrote,
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“Victory over the Germans in France that summer came only through close partnership with our British and Canadian allies who fought and died alongside American boys to defend freedom.â€
Trump represents how far some of us have strayed from the values that made the Normandy invasion possible. He doesn’t believe in alliances. He believes in America alone – not America first. He believes in an imperialistic, arrogant, bullying America that rules with an iron fist. He assumes the world will simply cower in fear and submit because in his mind, everyone except a handful of people is weak and stupid.
Rodrigo Duterte is one of the few people Trump ever praised in public. He compared himself to Hitler. Our relations with allies are severely strained, if not broken, under Trump. For all the ceremony that Trump reveled in during his state visit to Great Britain; it was obvious the relationship had changed.
Great Britain is in its own political turmoil at the hands of more of Trump’s friends, who also happen to be in Putin’s orbit. Trump stirred the pot before he landed in London when he called Megan Markle “nasty†and he insulted the city’s Mayor.
As if that wasn’t enough, Trump endorsed Boris Johnson to lead the Conservative Party, the day before meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May.
There were small tells the British monarchy wasn’t thrilled with Trump’s presence. The general public was far from subtle, as Jason Easley reported throughout Trump’s trip.
There was a Trump robot at Trafalgar Square, sitting on a golden throne, and uttering Trumpisms. like “fake news†and “stable genius†– which not only reflect Trump’s idiosyncrasies but also his authoritarian mindset.
That mindset shows in his disregard for the sovereignty and dignity of allies like Great Britain and neighbors like Mexico. But also as if his word matters on internal political matters more than a country’s citizens.
We see a president who probably does believe everybody loves him.
He probably believes reports about protests are “fake news†because he was shielded from knowing the level of contempt people have for him. He’s shielded from reality by a staff that lives in fear of his reaction.
Our president forces his staff to lie on cue. Maybe it’s about his calm demeanor – or about how he’s the best president in the history of time. Whatever the subject, the quality of your lie can make the difference between a promotion or being the topic of a “presidential†Twitter tantrum.
The totality of reporting on life at the White House paints the picture of a terrified staff creating alternative facts to suit Trump’s sensitivities.
His tyrannical inter-personal manner is only one frightening parallel with the evil thinking we defeated seventy-five years ago. A worse parallel is Trump’s worldview. It matches traits of Nazism in too many ways to ignore or normalize.
He’s a self-admitted “white nationalist†and his political alliances within and beyond our borders are with like-minded people. In the name of “speaking his mind†Trump is rude and petulant toward people and countries who share the values we fought for in World War II.
The post WW II world was imperfect – but a vast improvement over the world that saw two world wars in the first half of the 20th century.
The European Union established trade alliances on the basic premise that if countries are trading with each other, they won’t go to war with each other. Many EU countries were also part of NATO, which Trump erroneously reduces to a military fee for service alliance. Both organizations grew and several former Soviet satellite states joined.
At the risk of oversimplifying, Trump hates these organizations because Putin hates them. Putin hates them because they are an obstacle to the Soviet Union’s reincarnation.
Putin weaponized nationalism in Europe and America to weaken both and allow him to re-colonize former Soviet satellite states. Trump’s blatant antagonism toward countries that formed the D-Day alliance is disturbing enough. But this is about much more than whether we join the clubs.
The world Putin and Trump envision would take on the character of a world that saw two world wars in fifty years. It’s a world that saw genocide, torture, looting and barbarity. They envision a world of racial, religious and gender “supremacy.†The world order they envision would reflect the social order they want at the national level. In short, predominantly white countries would dominate, bully and exploit countries occupied by people of other races.
The very fact that Trump is enthusiastically helping in the effort to create that world makes him out of place at D-Day commemorations. He’s as out of place, as he was in 2018 and for the same reasons. As William I. Hitchcock wrote,
“President Trump has made it fashionable to deny the value of having allies, but D-Day reminds us that we are at our best when we stand together with our friends. On June 6, 1944, more British Commonwealth troops landed on the Normandy beaches than Americans. The commander of the ground forces that day was a Brit, General Bernard Montgomery, as were the commanders of the naval and air forces on that day.â€
Trump abandoned so many other things that made us better than we are now.
We treated refugees and people seeking asylum humanly. We had good government because politicians served the people – not themselves and their donors to the detriment of their constituents.
Bigotry remained a problem that we were working on. Even at the best of times, there was a lot of room for improvement. But Trump strives to turn the clock back on the progress we did make. Yet, we know that the past seventy-five years, while imperfect, brought more stability and more freedom than the world knew at any other time.
We also know it worked for people with open minds and hearts.
Yet, those who claim otherwise don’t know what they are wishing for. Trump is 71 years old. Freedom and democracy served him very well – in fact, better than most. It’s a cruel twist of fate that Trump is hell-bent on destroying the world that treated him so well.
Former contributor.
