Us politics

Thursday

Freddy Gray

The ties that bind

It seems a fitting end to an ill-fated premiership. As Theresa May prepares to leave No. 10, a major quarrel erupts between her government and its most powerful ally, the United States of America. Leaked diplomatic cables show Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador in Washington, calling President Donald Trump ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘uniquely dysfunctional’. The funny thing is, the words in his memo are just as applicable to Theresa May’s leadership. Within days, Sir Kim resigns. But every diplomatic crisis is a political opportunity, as President Donald Trump well understands. He even spelled this out in one of his Twitter rants. ‘The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is

Wednesday

James Barr

Kim Darroch and the myth of the special relationship

Like a priest standing before the bronze gates of a temple, the British ambassador to Washington serves as the guardian of one of the great modern myths: the idea, conceived by Winston Churchill, that a special relationship exists between the UK and the US. The impression that British ambassadors can wield disproportionate influence in Washington is a legend successive British governments have been keen to burnish – so much so that it has arguably become the central pillar of UK foreign policy since 1945. But the reality – as Donald Trump’s spectacular defenestration of Sir Kim Darroch shows – is rather different. Perhaps only one ambassador has really ever lived up

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why won’t Brexiteers stand up to Donald Trump?

There’s a new way of testing if someone is genuinely committed to the ideal of national sovereignty. Let’s call it the Darroch Test. Will you stand up to any foreign leader who arrogantly presumes the right to tell Britain who its ambassadors overseas should be? Or will you cave in to that foreign leader and effectively let him or her dictate the make-up of Britain’s diplomatic corps? That’s the Darroch Test. That’s the new national sovereignty test. And, sadly, many Brexiteers, the people who are meant to be standing up for the sovereign rights of the British nation against foreign oligarchies and bureaucratic bullies, have failed it. Yes, this concerns

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Sir Kim Darroch failed to recognise Trump’s communicative genius

When I last talked to Sir Kim Darroch, he was a slim young private secretary, so it was a long time ago; but I can categorically state that President Trump is wrong to call him ‘wacky and a very stupid guy’. His particular sort of mandarin ‘Rolls-Royce mind’ intelligence does, however, amount to a form of stupidity when confronted with Mr Trump. Intellects like Sir Kim’s are slower than those of ordinary mortals to spot Trump’s communicative genius. They cannot see that it keeps him ahead of the game. It is really remarkable that a 73-year-old man can be such a master of forms of social media which did not

Tuesday

Steerpike

Trump takes another pop at ‘wacky’ Kim Darroch

Donald Trump is at it again. Only a few hours after his Twitter outburst last night, the president has taken another pop at the UK’s ambassador in Washington. This time, Trump called Sir Kim Darroch ‘wacky’, ’very stupid’ and a ‘pompous fool’. Trump didn’t stop there though, picking up where he left off yesterday by slating May’s Brexit negotiations – and, of course, recounting how the Prime Minister made a mistake by turning down his Brexit advice. Here is what Trump had to say: Mr S particularly enjoyed the sign off on this latest Trump Twitter blast: It’s good to see that the special relationship is alive and well…

Thursday

The Spectator

Ignoring Iran

Crises in the Gulf and Conservative leadership elections come around with unnerving regularity. It is not unknown for both to coincide — that happened in 1990, when Margaret Thatcher was overthrown in the lead-up to the first Gulf War. On that occasion, drama on the domestic front did not smother Britain’s response to the international crisis — unlike now. It is bizarre to have a US president threatening to ‘obliterate’ Iran while our Foreign Secretary hardly bothers to respond, preferring to pose with fish and chips and Irn Bru on the campaign trail. Jeremy Hunt did intervene briefly a fortnight ago, when he described Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to accept that

Gerard Baker

Chasing the dragon

It will be all smiles when Donald Trump meets President Xi Jinping this week in Osaka at the annual meeting of the G20: a show of comity for the cameras and financial markets. The two are midway through one of the biggest trade wars that the world has seen in recent years, with the US imposing tariffs on $250 billion of imports from China and Beijing retaliating in kind. It’s possible that some sort of truce will be reached, as it was when the two men met late last year. The next stage of escalation — additional tariffs, or worse — may be postponed again. Don’t be misled. The tariff

Thursday

Daniel DePetris

Biden vs Trump could be nastier than Clinton vs Trump

America’s last presidential election campaign won’t be easily forgotten. From leaked Access Hollywood tapes and spurious insults between the two contenders to incessant chants of “lock her up!”, Clinton vs Trump was something Americans simply hadn’t experienced before. It was ugly. But the 2016 election may turn out to be a walk in the park compared to the 2020 election—particularly if Joe Biden is the Democratic presidential nominee.   Of all the Democrats running for president today, Trump clearly sees Biden as the biggest threat to a second term. Nobody thinks for a moment that Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren or Beto O’Rourke can pick up white, non-college educated, working-class voters in the Midwest

John R. MacArthur

A rotten party

 New York For leftist anti-Trumpers like me, the Mueller report was initially a godsend, though not for the more obvious reasons. I belong to a rarified group that hates liberal moaning about Russian ‘interference’ in the 2016 election: we ridicule the claim that Vladimir Putin and his henchmen stole the presidency from Hillary Clinton because we know that Clinton herself and neo-liberal Clintonism were the real causes of her demise. I often tell outraged Democrats to calm down and stop watching Russiagate obsessives such as Rachel Maddow on TV. Trump, I insist, won the electoral college thanks to 80,000 or so angry former Democrats in three states — many thrown

Tuesday

James Kirkup

Donald Trump has done Britain a favour with his NHS grab

“Everything with a trade deal is on the table…so NHS or anything else, a lot more than that”. That was Donald Trump talking about a possible UK-US trade deal after Britain leaves the EU’s common trade policy. Cue political drama, headlines and Conservative leadership contenders trying to work out what to say when someone asks them if they would be willing to include NHS procurement in any future trade talks. (Not for the first time, Matt Hancock was first off the blocks, tweeting to rule it out.) There will doubtless be a great deal of good analysis of what this comment means for the Tory leadership race: does it harm

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump provides another masterclass in comic statesmanship

Donald Trump adds to the jollity of nations, and his press conferences are hugely entertaining. He drops massive news bombs, laughs, and whisks himself away. I defy anyone not to be entertained. In terms of epic oddness, his encounter with May today one was a notch or two down from last year’s at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country residence. Still, he provided another masterclass in comic statesmanship. Trump bends the world to his idea of reality, and it’s hilarious. He was able to repeat – once again – his conviction that he arrived in Turnberry, his golf course in Scotland, the day before the EU referendum. He didn’t. I was

Steerpike Steerpike

Trump on Gove: ‘I don’t know Michael’

Over the weekend, Donald Trump endorsed Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. Boris ‘would do a very good job’, Trump said. At today’s press conference, Jeremy Hunt was also backed by Trump. But one person who didn’t quite make it was Michael Gove. When asked about the Tory leadership contest, Trump had this to say: ‘So I know Boris. I like him – I’ve liked him for a very long time. I think he would do a very good job. I know Jeremy – I think he would do a very good job. I don’t know Michael. Would he do a good job, Jeremy? Tell me.’ Michael Gove would be forgiven for

Steerpike Steerpike

Donald Trump: Why I snubbed Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has made much of snubbing Donald Trump by refusing to attend a state dinner in his honour, but was it really Trump who got the cold shoulder? At a press conference this afternoon, Trump has just claimed that Corbyn wanted to meet Trump, but that it was he who turned down the Labour leader. Here is what Trump said: ‘I don’t know Jeremy Corbyn, never met him, never spoke to him. He wanted to meet today or tomorrow and I decided I would not do that. I think that he is, from where I come from, something of a negative force…so I’ve decided not to meet’. Mr S.

Monday

Daniel DePetris

It’s only a matter of time before Trump turns on Boris

The last time president Donald Trump flew to London, pandemonium ensued. A visit that was supposed to be ordinary turned out to be extraordinary. Thousands of Londoners protested the president’s arrival, launching a big baby Trump balloon into the air (which predictably captured the thin-skinned president’s attention). Trump took to the pages of the Sun and trashed Theresa May’s negotiating ability, explaining that the PM didn’t listen to his advice on how to get the best Brexit terms for the UK. To top it all off, Trump went on to laud Boris Johnson as someone who would “make a great prime minister”—a remark that came at a particularly acrimonious time in May’s tenure with

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The real reason some Brits don’t like Trump

Why do certain Brits hate Donald Trump so much? Duh, it’s obvious why we hate him, they’ll say. It’s because he’s a migrant-bashing, country-bombing, far-right-enabling nightmare of a president who threatens to plunge the world into a 1930s-style politics of hate. It’s the duty of every decent Brit to hate this dangerous orange oaf, they insist, as they prep their placards and dust down their pussy hats for tomorrow’s anti-Trump ‘carnival’ in central London.  Okay. But President Obama mistreated migrants, too. Footage of Border Patrol agents firing tear-gas canisters at migrants at the Mexico-America border last November made headlines around the world and was incessantly tweeted by Trump-phobes as proof

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Donald Trump should not stoop to Sadiq Khan’s level 

In July last year, when Trump last visited Britain, I wrote a post saying ‘Admit it, Donald Trump is right about Sadiq Khan.’ The two men had just had one of their already numerous Twitter spats and it seemed a point worth making.  Trump just landed in London again this morning. Sure enough, the Trump vs Khan outrage ritual is underway. Yesterday Khan tweeted: As Trump landed, he snapped back:  If the President only realised how unimportant the role of London Mayor really is — American mayors such as de Blasio have far more clout — he might be less inclined to rise to Khan’s bait. But it’s just the

Tuesday

Daniel DePetris

Trump is in trouble with the voters who won him the White House

President Donald Trump likes to talk. He’s a typical New York blowhard in many ways—obnoxious, loud, self-confident (probably too confident), and not very self-aware. His favourite topic of discussion is the 2016 presidential election and how he shocked the planet by pulling perhaps the biggest upset in modern American political history.   That victory, however, rested on thin reeds. Trump actually received more than 2.5 million fewer votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, yet won the election thanks to the Electoral College. He was victorious in all the right places, breaking through the Democratic party’s so-called blue-wall in the Midwest by turning out his rural base and winning over traditional, blue-collar voters

Friday

Dan Hitchens

Alabama’s abortion ban is a moment of hope

Alabama’s near-total abortion ban, signed into law on Wednesday by governor Kay Ivey, is a real moment of hope. The principle on which it grounds itself is simple enough; as Ivey put it: ‘Every life is precious.’ In those four words lies a remedy for the hatreds that divide humanity. True, pro-lifers have their own doubts over the bill: is it too tactical, by conceding very narrow medical exemptions? Is it not tactical enough, because it will be overturned in the courts and meanwhile alienate the middle ground? But whatever the merits of these criticisms, the Alabama ban is still a landmark. A body of legislators in the world’s superpower has affirmed that

Thursday

Stephen Daisley

Rashida Tlaib’s comments about Palestine are blatantly misleading

Rashida Tlaib is a victim, and not just any victim – she’s a righteous one. The freshman Democrat from Michigan’s 13th district was born in Detroit to parents from the West Bank, making her the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress. She was one of the set of radicals I warned about ahead of last November’s midterm elections and she hasn’t disappointed. My concern then was that her campaign had suggested she was a supporter of the two-state solution during the Democrat primary, but she then openly identified with the Israel-eliminating one-state solution after clinching the nomination. Since then her colleague Ilhan Omar (MN-05) has done most of the heavy-lifting in

Wednesday

Daniel DePetris

The United States Senate is dying

Picture a forum where some of America’s most prominent men and women assemble in a healthy, civilised way to discuss and hash out the country’s major issues for the good of the people. This forum, theoretically, was supposed to be the United States Senate, a group of distinguished legislators who would introduce reason into the national debate. George Washington himself called the Senate a ‘saucer,’ a cooling agent to the scalding legislation that came out of the House of Representatives. My how far the Senate has fallen. In the past, being a US senator was a point of pride. You were an elite member of an elite club working in an elite