Never mind the optics, Theresa May's US dash was mortifying

[Denzil_DC]

In normal times, you'd say everything went swimmingly. Sure, the American president seemed a tad unsure how to say the name of his guest – whom he greeted as Ter-raiser – slightly reinforcing the White House's earlier failure, in a briefing note, to spell the British prime minister’s name correctly, dropping the "h" and thereby suggesting Donald Trump was about to receive Teresa May, who made her name as a porn star.

But other than that, the PM would have been delighted. In the press conference that followed their Oval Office meeting, there were no bombshells: Trump managed to get through it without insulting an entire ethnic group, trashing a democratic norm or declaring war, any of which might have diverted attention from May's big moment. He was on best behaviour, diligently reading the script that had been written for him, attesting to the "deep bond" that connects Britain and the US. May received all the assurances she craved that her country's relationship with the US remains "special". Why, he even, briefly, took her hand.

However, these are not normal times. May and her team will be pleased with the optics and indeed some of the substance – artfully, May got Trump to confirm, on camera, that he is "100% behind Nato" – but the underlying truth is that this dash to Washington was mortifying.

...

He will have seen May as that most desperate of creatures: the housebuyer who rashly sold her old house before she had found a new one. Having tossed away Britain’s keys to the European single market, she will soon be homeless – and Trump knows it. For all the niceties – May’s shrewd deployment of a royal invitation for a state visit and her compliment to the president on his “stunning election victory”, flattery which saw Trump glow a brighter shade of orange – he will have seen May as a sucker who needs to make a deal. And he will look forward to naming his price.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/27/never-mind-the-optics-theresa-mays-us-dash-was-mortifying

[marybourg]

1. Stinging! nt

[Denzil_DC]

2. More from Marina Hyde

Trump's bullying behaviour has all bowing before him

It never got quite the coverage of his own radioactively malicious efforts, but Donald Trump was himself once the target of birther claims. Back in 2013, talkshow host Bill Maher challenged Trump to prove that he was not “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan”. If there is a moment at which literalism tips into psychological malady, Trump is believed to have reached it at some point during the Reagan administration, so he duly went and provided Maher with his birth certificate. There was also a $5m lawsuit (from Trump, of all quirks, as opposed to the orangutan species).

Some years on, the orangutan birtherism serves two useful purposes. The first is the point about literalism. We are always told by those in thrall to him that much of what Trump says is metaphor. The wall is a metaphor, Brexit financier Arron Banks explained to me. “It’s like the ark in the Bible – there wasn’t a literal ark! It’s an allegory.” The Muslim ban is a metaphor, suggested anti-democracy billionaire Peter Thiel shortly before he joined Trump’s transition team, praising voters who “take him seriously but not literally”.

Their compulsion to make excuses for Trump says much about how they handle misgivings, but others would do better to understand that pretty much everything the president does indicates that he represents the triumph of the literal. This is the guy who turned the traditional dick-measuring contest that is the Republican primary into an actual dick-measuring contest. “You know what they say about men with small hands,” said Marco Rubio, prompting Trump to pledge: “I guarantee you there’s no problem [with the size of my penis].” Do let’s ditch the idea that Trump is a poetically complex man who will govern in conceits. He is just conceited.

The second effect of the orangutan business is accidental – a reminder that Trumpology is primatology. During the presidential campaign, the Atlantic magazine asked eminent primatologist Jane Goodall to assess Trump, and the reply was clear. “In many ways the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals. In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks. The more vigorous and imaginative the display, the faster the individual is likely to rise in the hierarchy, and the longer he is likely to maintain that position.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/27/donald-trump-bullying-behaviour-leaders-mimicking-him