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This was written during Trump's previous period as POTUS, and I think it sums up, eloquently, just what it is that Brits ( and presumably other nationalities) dislike about him. It is worth a read.
Nate White
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
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.
#Donald Trump
ronib
Casdon Trump doesn’t need to dismantle democracy to stay in power though does he? He has a very secure position at the moment and he cannot be ousted by democratic challenges. He is the choice of his people.
He is the choice of around 55% if the voting population, that leaves an awful lot of people not supporting him.
foxie48
Following your argument, Ronib the British people should have respected those who put Hitler in power, those who supported Pol Pot, and those who followed Chairman Mao. Fortunately we live in a country where we have certain freedoms.
With regard to foreigners denigrating us, wasn't it Musk who used the Munich Security Meeting to attack the whole of Europe just a few days ago? It is perfectly acceptable for anyone to say what they like about Trump provided they don't break any laws. Didn't Trump say that Ukraine caused the war and that the Palestinians should vacate Gaza so he could turn it into a holiday resort? You really expect people to say nothing about his behaviour out of respect for those who voted for him? Really?
Oh how I agree 👏👏👏
Arto1s
I live in the US. After 4 years of Biden’s incompetence I am happy to say I voted for Trump and that he won.
In which state?? Do you have daughters?
ronib
Casdon Trump doesn’t need to dismantle democracy to stay in power though does he? He has a very secure position at the moment and he cannot be ousted by democratic challenges. He is the choice of his people.
There are a number of ways of ending a dictatorship or potential dictatorship which threatens a democracy ronib, as surely you are aware, but if not I suggest a check through the history books, as examples abound.
Cossy I live in England and my friends and family don’t care too much for Starmer. Wes Streeting is about to make thousands of NHS workers redundant. We don’t bang on about it.
So some stats from Mr Google
www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-approval-rating-holds-steady-44-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-02-25/
nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-approval-rating-polls-inflation.html
amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/20/politics/cnn-poll-trump-approval
Cannot find anything any way near 75% approval, buts it’s interesting having a Trump supporter on here.
ronib
Cossy I live in England and my friends and family don’t care too much for Starmer. Wes Streeting is about to make thousands of NHS workers redundant. We don’t bang on about it.
That’s perfectly fine, and one can support whoever one chooses. I’m well aware how unpopular Starmer and his party have become in the last 8 months.
The issue with Trump and his cronies is that he leads one of the most powerful countries on our planet, is a loose cannon and what he does over the pond does have an impact on other countries.
I wasn’t a Trump supporter to begin with- in fact not bothered either way. Cossy He is so not my president. America chose him and it’s for that country to take the consequences of their decision. It might be okay, let’s hope it is.
ronib
Cossy I live in England and my friends and family don’t care too much for Starmer. Wes Streeting is about to make thousands of NHS workers redundant. We don’t bang on about it.
No one (imo) wants to see mass job losses in the UK, however the NHS across many many years has become top heavy with expensive managerial staff.
I’m not aware of any front facing or clinical staff job losses?
The CS experienced many job cuts under the Tories.
ronib
I wasn’t a Trump supporter to begin with- in fact not bothered either way. Cossy He is so not my president. America chose him and it’s for that country to take the consequences of their decision. It might be okay, let’s hope it is.
Sorry I did not mean you, I’ve not seen you actively supporting Trump.
I meant Artois, a Trump supporter living in the USA.
There are cuts just being passed on the US's already failing Medicaid system.
We have every reason to want to keep a close eye on Trump, because as cossy says "what he does over the pond does have an impact on other countries"
ronib
Casdon Trump doesn’t need to dismantle democracy to stay in power though does he? He has a very secure position at the moment and he cannot be ousted by democratic challenges. He is the choice of his people.
Trump doesn’t need to dismantle democracy to stay in power though does he?
I think he does, which is why he's set about doing just that.
Democracy has levers to prevent the over-reach of executive power - that's why he's dismantling them because he won't succeed with his 'plan A' unless he does.
The 'will of the people' isn't enough - he's got to remove any opposition that might legally challenge him because he does not have 100% backing. Disable that opposition - and job done.
It's all quite simply really.
Dickens some thought provoking words.
What is democracy then if the legally elected president/leader is blocked from enacting the substance of legislation on which he stood? Why shouldn’t Trump try to circumvent the opposition?
Just asking don’t really care ….
I can't speak for democracy in the US which does have a system of checks and balances to prevent power being wielded by one individual. People do seem to have voted for the ending of those checks and balances, which is like turkeys voting for Christmas to me.
In the UK we have a constitultional monarchy, which means the Head of State cannot take a politcal stance. We have the House of Lords, which also much as I deplore it, provides some checking of legislation.
We also have representative democracy, which means the person you vote for should (but doesn't always) act in the interest of the whole constituency, regardless of who voted for them. This means they may be seen to act against what you see as your own individual interest.
If you don't like your MP you just have to suck it up until you can vote them out, communicate your own views to them even if there is little chance it might change anything, or just accept your community has voted for them and therefore others may have a different viewpoint from your own.
Of course it isn't a perfect system, but better than Russia or North Korea for sure.
dickens This is why I believe that this is a political coup which could proceed to being a revolution unless it is halted by those checks and policies which Trump and Musk are in the process of dismantling.
ronib
Dickens some thought provoking words.
What is democracy then if the legally elected president/leader is blocked from enacting the substance of legislation on which he stood? Why shouldn’t Trump try to circumvent the opposition?
Just asking don’t really care ….
The short answer is that if the substance of his proposed legislation rests on destroying the very democracy that got him elected in the first place, then others have a legal and constitutional right to challenge him.
Consider this:
The Electoral College allows someone to become President by having the right combination of states, even without a majority of the popular vote.^
Most recently, this occurred in 2016.
Total votes for candidates cast by voters across the United States
Trump = 61,201,031 votes47.0%
Clinton = 62,523,126 votes48.0%
Clinton won the popular vote - but Trump was elected.
This time round, Trump won the popular vote - in excess of 76.9 million votes, against Harris' 74.4 million (these numbers might be revised slighly, but they give the general drift).
But, here's the thing ronib - do you just ride rough-shod over the double-digit millions who didn't vote for you in order to enact the substance of the legislation in a democracy... and expect them not to challenge you when you're dismantling the very system that might prevent them from ever having a voice again?
... we're not talking about a couple of hundred or couple of thousands of voters, we're talking about millions and millions of them. Logically, what would you expect them to do - just roll over?
If the situation were reversed - if a Democrat were POTUS attempting to do what Trump is doing, do you think Republicans would stand for it?
What I don’t understand ronib is your assertion that in the USA, once elected the government can effectively do what they like and change democracy to suit their agenda, and the electorate have no say - while at the same time, you criticise the UK government constantly for far less radical actions which are within the UK’s democratic process. You’re running with the hares and the hounds.
Casdon Starmer has an overwhelming majority here. I reserve the right to criticise a government which been rebuilding my local hospital since 2010 and pushed forward to 2032. That’s small time stuff? Even though every promise was made to us in the election campaign.
Exactly what is it that Trump has up his sleeve which goes beyond the simple lies of our Labour government? How different are they?
Dickens
ronib
Casdon Trump doesn’t need to dismantle democracy to stay in power though does he? He has a very secure position at the moment and he cannot be ousted by democratic challenges. He is the choice of his people.
Trump doesn’t need to dismantle democracy to stay in power though does he?
I think he does, which is why he's set about doing just that.
Democracy has levers to prevent the over-reach of executive power - that's why he's dismantling them because he won't succeed with his 'plan A' unless he does.
The 'will of the people' isn't enough - he's got to remove any opposition that might legally challenge him because he does not have 100% backing. Disable that opposition - and job done.
It's all quite simply really.
Thank you Dickens for putting it simply and clearly: this is why we care, this s why we write about it, this is why we share, for democracy is something precious that we take for granted at out peril. Thats as regards the internal situation in the USA.
However, they fully intend the effects of this dismantling of democracy to spread further, this is clear, sending out "envoys" to the EU or individual countries to try and criticise our democracies and our leaders in speeches and through other forms of manipulation.
One thing still holds true. Trump and his supporters and fans have, over everything else, the insatiable need to be right. No matter what twisting of the facts it takes. No matter how many people are hurt. No matter how many people die.
You can present them with all the facts and reasonable discussions in the world and it will not matter. It is little use to debate with them because no matter what reasonable viewpoint you have, no matter the amount of factual information you have, they can not process it.
They return with whataboutism, get over it's and opinions vs facts.
ronib
Casdon Starmer has an overwhelming majority here. I reserve the right to criticise a government which been rebuilding my local hospital since 2010 and pushed forward to 2032. That’s small time stuff? Even though every promise was made to us in the election campaign.
Exactly what is it that Trump has up his sleeve which goes beyond the simple lies of our Labour government? How different are they?
I’m not saying you shouldn’t criticise the UK government ronib. What I’m saying is you should stop criticising other people for criticising the US government when you are doing exactly the same about ours. You can’t have it both ways.
Arto1s
76% of the American people support DOGE. It is a wonderful endeavour. Everything he has proposed so far is met with overwhelming approval by the public. The numbers don’t lie. All the protests so far have been proven to be funded and organised by “professional” protestors.
I think that by now you will have realised the numbers DO lie! Or at least what numbers were written down were wrong! If you don’t know this please revisit the numbers and compare what WAS there to what is now amended.
This is apart from the fact that much of that has been stopped by Judges or people recalled because DOGE didn’t have a clue they were essential workers. Got any family who have been fired…No? Where are all the fired workers going to suddenly get jobs? Many will have to sign up for Scial Security losing any benefit DOGe got for firing them!
Also shuttering things like USAID has badly affected people’s livelihoods in the US ( farmers losing contracts to send grain abroad, etc etc etc… JUST THINK and do some research before you say things like that. Also his promise on the Economy shrinking prices from the minute he was elected… if you really think that will happen…!?? He is NASTY, unprincipled and have fun eulogising him whist you can, cos it won’t last!
ronib
Dickens some thought provoking words.
What is democracy then if the legally elected president/leader is blocked from enacting the substance of legislation on which he stood? Why shouldn’t Trump try to circumvent the opposition?
Just asking don’t really care ….
This question has been answered, but there is also the point that the ability of the POTUS to directly take action without involving Congess is meant to be used in extreme and urgent emergency - such as, say, if they were unable to meet and discuss and pass legislation because they all had been struck down with food poisoning (or had left less than a quorum) after eating the same subsidised canteen meal, or had all been blown up in one explosion, as Guy Fawkes had planned in the UK for the entire government when he was part of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and everyone in them.
For normal operation, the US is proud of its system of checks and balances to prevent any one maverick section of government from exerting power for their own benefit, without due consultation. I don't know where the balance to all Trump's unilateral pronouncements is hiding, but sooner or later it will come out to bite him on the bum - unless he can change the constitution to get rid of the checks and balances. That is why he and Musk are searching the data for anything that can be interpreted as fraud or any other crime that can be used to discredit single or multiple members of previous administrations. Even if they can't produce concrete evidence that can be inspected and confirmed by real forensic auditing accountants and arrests, trials and convictions made, the amount of mud stirred up to cloud the water will destroy all trust. They should pinpoint offenders and charge named people with defrauding specific government departments of income, with clear evidence to prove it, instead of making nebulous and unproveable blanket claims about how many millions/billions of discrepancies they have found. That they have not taken the legal and verifiable route indicates that either they are themselves acting fraudulently and can't justify their findings, or they are incompetent and not fit to be at the head of government.
👏👏
Eloquently put Elegran.
They should pinpoint offenders and charge named people with defrauding specific government departments of income, with clear evidence to prove it, instead of making nebulous and unproveable blanket claims about how many millions/billions of discrepancies they have found. That they have not taken the legal and verifiable route indicates that either they are themselves acting fraudulently and can't justify their findings, or they are incompetent and not fit to be at the head of government.
👏👏👏
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