How would you describe US president Donald Trump from his tenure as the 45th president of the US and since he was sworn in for a second term on January 20 2025?
Some have described what he has created in the past two weeks alone as a ‘reckless upheaval’ globally. I think this is an understatement.
Trump hit the ground running, signing on day one over 26 executive orders, the most for first-day executive orders of recent presidents. Among the orders was one for the US to exit the World Health Organisation (WHO) allegedly for ripping off the US and mishandling the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the ensuing days, Trump has signed many more executive orders including one on re-evaluating and realigning US foreign aid. This has paused all US foreign assistance funded by or through the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) for review.
For Malawi only, the executive order has put on hold $284.7 million (K493.7 billion) threatening jobs of over 5 000 Malawians and investments in HIV and Aids worth K134 billion basic health at K81 billion, agriculture at K53.7 billion, basic education at K43.2 billion, family planning maternal and child health K40.5 billion, among others.
Trump has not stopped signing the executive orders which he thinks are in the best interest of the American people.
So how do people describe him?
We look at two people, Inigo Montoya, an actor and an articulate and witty writer from England, Nate White.
In a conversation with a co-actor in the film The Princess Bride, Montoya says: “You keep using that word, ‘nice,’ in connection with Donald Trump. I do not think you know what that word means.’
“Trump is utterly devoid of anything even resembling empathy or consideration for his fellow man. He is morally bankrupt and self-absorbed to a fault. He is also a malignant narcissist.
“Trump is never too busy to exploit another person’s weaknesses or take gratuitous advantage of someone’s misfortune. If you look up the word inhumane in the dictionary, you will find his picture.
“Trump cleaves to the old adage, ‘no man stands so tall as when he stoops to kneel on the neck of a black person.’”
Asked about why some British people do not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. [Barrack] Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
“Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
“Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
“There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
“And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.”
Well, if I were to add anything to the two portrayals of Trump above, it would be just to say Trump is a heartless hypocrite. In one instance, he claims to uphold Christian values but in the next he throws them under the bus. As a hypocrite, he is worse than Pharisees and Sadducees.
