“A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage.” This is not a commentary on Donald Trump’s singular approach to global diplomacy (of which more later), though it might well have been.
It was actually how the White House communications chief, Steven Cheung, described an incident yesterday when Trump visited a Ford car factory in Michigan and a heckler called him a “paedophile protector”.
Trump’s response to the heckler, who was calling him out over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, was to apparently shout “F*** you” back, before walking off, nonchalantly giving his verbal assailant the middle finger. Mr Cheung called Trump’s action “an appropriate and unambiguous response”. (The “lunatic” to whom Mr Cheung referred was the heckler, not the President, in case you were confused.)
Rarely has Trump been accused of ambiguity, but of course, this was the opposite of appropriate. It was a coarse reaction and utterly un-Presidential in nature. It was also perfectly in character. This is just how Trump rolls, and, to a certain extent, is what makes him popular with his bedrock support among the American electorate. Of this incident, Nick Sortor, the outspoken conservative commentator who has 1.3m followers on X, posted: “THAT’S the President Trump I know and love.”
The worker who was outed as the heckler was suspended by Ford, while the legend of Trump is burnished further. And so another reason for liberals to despair about the unseemly behaviour of the US President comes and goes. But then Trump, metaphorically speaking, gives Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, the middle finger. How do we feel about that? Yes, it’s a much more complicated matter.
The western world’s reaction to the unfolding tragedy in Iran, and the murderous crackdown by the authorities on pro-democracy protestors, has been unequivocal in its support of the resistance, but will not have sent shockwaves through the Tehran government. The statement from the European Union included this less-than-combative sentiment: “We urge Iranian authorities to adhere to Iran’s international obligations and fully uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.” Other world leaders – including our own Sir Keir – were similarly firm but essentially reasonable in tone.
Not so Trump. He made a personal, upper-case exhortation to the Iranian protestors on his Truth Social feed: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!… HELP IS ON ITS WAY”. Later, he followed this up in an interview by saying America will “take very strong action” if, as is believed likely, Iran begins to execute protestors.
Using trademark Trumpian rhetoric, he said: “We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen. If they want to have protests, that’s one thing, but when they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging, well, we’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not going to work out good.”
Unambiguous, yes. Yet there will be many among us who think it’s appropriate, too. It may not be in the customary language of a statesman, but it is more effective for that. And this is a situation which calls for strong action, not measured words.
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Many of us are surprised that there hasn’t been more widespread and voluble revulsion at the situation in Iran. There have been few mass gatherings on the streets of European cities, little protest outside Iranian embassies, and world leaders have been relatively careful in their response.
Yet we are told that thousands of protestors have already been killed by agents of the Iranian regime. Where, for instance, is the anger and solidarity from fellow students in the UK? The contrast with the outpouring of support for the beleaguered Palestinian people may be of little consequence, but is nevertheless hard to avoid.
So into this apparent vacuum tumbles Trump’s intemperate, inelegant and bellicose words. And some of us might find ourselves in the unfamiliar and even uncomfortable position of saying: thank goodness for that.
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