For something like 200 years there’s been an inviolate understanding in the UK that the military is there for one purpose only: to protect the country against an armed adversary. It has no role to play in social and civilian matters; that’s the job of the law enforcement agencies.
But Trump does so love the military. He used it in several major cities recently to address the problems of crime and – heaven help us – homelessness. This must have, and certainly should have, worried a lot of Americans because the free use of military power in civilian matters is a mark of the true dictator. And now he wants to refuse licences to media outlets which disagree with him. This is truly chilling because a man who relies on the military to enforce his will, and who openly silences his detractors, is the very embodiment of Orwell’s Big Brother.
When Trump won the 2024 election I said on this blog that the man who had been little more than a laughable buffoon the first time around would become bolder the second time. And so he has, and his boldness is increasing as he shows his true muddy colours. It seems abundantly clear that America needs to divest itself of Donald Trump, but how to do that without an election, because any means which are not clearly democratic would run counter to the reason for doing it? I don’t know the answer to that, and I certainly don’t envy those better Americans who have to live with the worry of having Trump remain in office.
And of course, the real uncertainty hinges on what will happen when the next election comes around. Can we reasonably expect Trump to accept the end of his tenure gracefully? It’s going to be interesting, and I do hope that Europe manages to distance itself from American influence in the meantime.
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