Politics Notebook | On the real Donald, a giddy Elon and a naked Melania

AMERICAN voters should have believed Donald Trump rather than dismissing his madness as “just rhetoric" and “just his style".

His appointments and statements since his runaway victory clarify that he is exactly who he said he was.

As David Remnick writes in The New Yorker: “Many Americans failed to grasp fully his character, the dimensions of his malevolence. They couldn't absorb what a threat he posed to international alliances and domestic institutions, how contemptuous he was of the truth, science, the press, and so many of his fellow citizens. Surely, his most extreme rhetoric was an act. Surely he would ‘grow into the office’.”

Trump is set to be the most powerful president in modern American history, with him and his party dominating the senate and the house of representatives, and a supreme court packed with his loyalists. There are no brakes.

What is happening now in America should help South Africans appreciate that we are a constitutional democracy: The constitution is the highest authority, not the president or parliament. The constitutional court can undo any legislation or action by the executive or parliament if it goes against the constitution.

The most glaring appointments Trump has announced in recent days are the alleged sex pest, drug user and extreme radical Matt Gaetz as attorney-general; the apologist for Vladimir Putin and other dictators Tulsi Gabbard – who has no experience in the field – as director of national intelligence (DNI); and the Fox News television personality Pete Hegseth as secretary of defence.

The Atlantic wrote yesterday about Gabbard: “To make Tulsi Gabbard the DNI, however, is not merely handing a bouquet to a political gadfly. Her appointment would threaten the security of the United States.”

Trump thus wants to ensure he controls the department of justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the military with an iron fist. He has already promised to take revenge on those who prosecuted him and to pardon all the rioters who are in prison because of the 2021 Capitol attack.

Another appointment with broad implications could be that of Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. He is ideologically aligned with the extremists in Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition and has gone on record saying that “there’s no such thing as a Palestinian” – it is merely “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel”. He does not recognise the West Bank as Palestinian land and supports the expansion of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

Is there still a John McCain in the GOP?

All of Trump's nominations must first be approved by the senate. If three or more Republican senators disagree, the appointment is rejected. We’ll now have to see if there are senators with integrity and courage left, like John McCain back in the day, who will dare to oppose Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson has already indicated he will support Gaetz’s appointment: “He's a reformer in his mind and heart, and I think that he'll bring a lot to the table on that.”

Maria Ressa, the Filipino journalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize, told The Guardian this week what happened in her country when Pres. Rodrigo Duterte took control of all three branches of government: “It took six months after he took office for our institutions to crumble.” (She was jailed over her criticism of Duterte.)

The Musky man

Ironically, the appointment of an immigrant and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, as the crusader to cut red tape and government spending, is nowhere near as controversial as, for example, Gaetz’s nomination.

If Musk doesn’t go too wild and uncontrolled – he says he wants to cut government spending by a third – it could be good for America and an example for other countries on how to use state revenue optimally and combat wastefulness.

South Africa tried something similar when the former CEO of Exxaro, Sipho Nkosi, was appointed two years ago by Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa to cut red tape in government. Nothing came of it. But Musk is a man of action.

The problem, though, is that Musk “bought” his appointment by using his personal social media platform, Twitter/X, as Trump’s foremost propaganda mouthpiece. 

I would put a lot of money on the table for a bet that the bromance between Musk and Trump will dramatically implode within a year. Musk may be unstable, a political idiot and an opportunist, but he is an absolutely brilliant entrepreneur, innovator and disruptor.

There is nothing brilliant about Trump – um, perhaps his ability to pull the wool over most of his fellow countrymen's eyes. If Trump makes enough blunders, especially if it affects the economy, Elon will turn on him. He has nothing to lose.

Since he bought Twitter/X, but especially during Trump’s election campaign, Musk has done more than anyone else ever to discredit mainstream media – that is, the media that are run by trained journalists with ethical codes, that are held accountable and where facts are checked.

Musk has shamelessly spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories on Twitter/X and ensured that the algorithms make every user see a bunch of his tweets every day.

Go read this intelligent piece by Carole Codwalladr in The Guardian.  “The world’s richest man bought a global communication platform and is now the shadow head of state of what was the world’s greatest superpower. That’s the message. Have you got it yet?”

She writes: “Social media is mainstream media now. It’s where the majority of the world gets its news. Though who even cares about news? It’s where the world gets its memes and jokes and consumes its endlessly mutating trends. Forget ‘internet culture.’ The internet is culture. And this is where this election was fought and won … long before a single person cast a ballot.”

The internet never forgets

Trump’s nomination for secretary of state, the experienced Marco Rubio, compared to some of the others, is one of his better appointments. But Rubio is fanatically opposed to China, which could lead to major international disruption or even conflict in the next year or three.

Rubio was, of course, one of Trump’s sharpest critics before he changed his tune. Here he is just a few years ago.

Trump and Musk both have a soft spot for Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The most dramatic international impact of Trump’s election may be that America will stop all aid to Ukraine and push for a peace treaty that will cede large parts of Ukrainian territory to Russia.

But Vlad is an old fox, and although he is pleased that Trump won rather than Kamala Harris, he probably doesn’t think much of Trump’s abilities and intellect.

And this week, Russian state television, which never does anything that would offend Putin, showed Melania Trump’s nude photos from her modelling days on the programme 60 Minutes with big smiles and amusement. 

But the Russians are mistaken if they think they’ve scored a point against Trump. He is so vulgar that he would be likely to see the display of these photos as a compliment.

Here comes a big haka

The All Blacks’ haka before international rugby tests was in the news last week when an English player, George Marler, called it “ridiculous” and asked for it to be abolished.

It is indeed a custom that benefits the All Blacks, as no other rugby nation has a similar ritual. But in my opinion, it’s so special that we should tolerate this Maori war dance. It is now part of our international rugby culture, and I suspect most rugby fans enjoy it.

But this week, the haka regained its original meaning when Maori members of the New Zealand parliament, to the speaker’s annoyance, performed it during a debate on an old agreement between the Maori and the British Crown.

It gave me quite a chuckle – eat your heart out, EFF; you don’t come close to having that much style.

♦ VWB ♦

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