Donald Trump is currently selecting the people who will form the next US government. But he decided to apply pressure to the UK government at the same time. On 22 November, President-elect Trump made a public call for UKIP leader Nigel Farage to be made UK ambassador to the US. The reaction from UK voters has been frank and fast. And not in the way Trump might have hoped.
Donald Trump’s government is a monster’s ball
Trump’s choices for the next US government are questionable, to say the least.
He has nominated neo-Nazi Breitbart propagandist Steve Bannon to be Chief Strategist. Climate change denier Myron Ebell is his pick to head up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And Trump’s chosen Attorney General is Jeff Sessions. A man deemed too racist to be a federal judge in the 1980s.
As Senator Elizabeth Warren puts it:
He promised to ‘drain the swamp’, and after one week we’ve seen what Donald Trump’s promise means: nothing. His word, his promise to the American people, is worth nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1jV7Q6Ff7A
Trump’s pick for UK ambassador
Trump has now called for unelected interim UKIP leader Nigel Farage to be given a prominent role in the UK government. This went down well with American Trump supporters. But UK voters did not agree. Instead, they decided to give Trump an education in British ‘straightforwardness’.
Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage spend a full year having painful diarrhea on his bedroom rug
— Near deGrasse Tyson (@DrNeilTyson) November 22, 2016
many people would prefer to see Mr Bean
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) November 22, 2016
https://twitter.com/bendanielsss/status/800983646882635776
It wasn’t just voters who responded, either. UK members of parliament made their views on the matter known too.
Sorry. We are a sovereign nation and make our own decisions. https://t.co/dbuXM4Hm7E
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) November 22, 2016
If we're going to have Farage as an ambassador for anywhere can it be somewhere far away without good communication links, like the moon?
— Justin Madders (@justinmadders) November 22, 2016
Many people would like to see Homer Simpson as United States ambassador to the UK. He'd represent you well.
— Neil Coyle (@coyleneil) November 22, 2016
There can be little doubt about how disastrous a Trump-Farage axis of Western power would be for a world in a state of violent flux. Both men represent the very worst of imperialist bravado, when much of the world is already in flames from the misadventures of presidents and prime ministers before them.
Trump may be getting a better schooling in British diplomacy from social media than anyone ever got from Trump University.
Featured image via Twitter