TACO Trump Bottles it Again

Ben Wildsmith 

Of all the barbs thrown at Donald Trump, it’s apparently ‘TACO’ that really gets his turkey neck quivering with rage.

It was coined by traders on Wall Street who had learned to ignore the president’s frequent threats of steep tariffs on other nations. There’s no point basing investment decisions on those, they reasoned, because ‘Trump always chickens out’.

For Cankles McGhee, the suggestion of cowardice is, of course, outrageous. He is a brave, hypermasculine sufferer from bone spurs who recently survived a sniper attack on his ear. You’re chickening out, not the Donald. Oh no.

But here we are again. After weeks of bellicose threats on the sovereignty of Greenland, including a couple against Iceland for good measure – it’s all walruses and Commies, what’s the difference – the retreat has started. At one point, Trump seemed to threaten the world with nuclear annihilation if he didn’t get his way on this issue.

Then, after a chat with Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, everything is apparently fine again. There is, the president tells us, the ‘concept of a deal’. I’m sorry, hun, I’m not being funny, but you just threatened to wipe out life on earth and now you’re happy with ‘the concept of a deal’? We’ve seen more resolve from Brooklyn Beckham this week and, to be fair, at least his wife wants to dance with him.

To torture this comparison a little further, Beckham Jr. used to provoke mirth with his cookery videos because his entitlement in producing expensive films to showcase basic skills was such a cringe example of unearned privilege.

Trump’s entire presidency is like that. This no-nothing, boorish fantasist is afforded the rapt attention of the world because the US electorate has put him in charge of its nuclear arsenal.

After twelve months of world leaders colluding in the delusion that he is in any way suitable for his role, we finally heard the truth spoken this week by Mark Carney of Canada.

I was disquieted by the way Carney was seemingly coronated as Canada’s prime minister. As a central bank supremo, there is the feeling that his politics is conducted in the service of a status quo that is no friend to progressive causes.

Indeed, much of the iniquity that Carney laid at the door of the USA has been ongoing for decades, but it is only now, with western interests directly threatened, that he has chosen to make it a matter of urgency.

Compelling

Still, Carney’s grasp of the wider picture, and willingness to see beyond the inevitability of American hegemony made for a compelling and genuinely important political speech of the calibre we have not heard in many years. It was delivered in a week that Carney had visited Beijing to reset Canada’s trading relationship with China. In speaking of a ‘rupture’ in the existing order, Carney had that deal in his pocket as proof that he was comfortable with new ways of positioning his nation in the world.

This, surely, is how Europe must respond to America’s current path. We have seen that the substance of Trump’s foreign policy does not match its rhetoric. In Venezuela, the regime endures, even as Nicolas Maduro awaits his show trial in New York. The mullahs have retrenched in Iran, and Cuba somehow clings on to self-determination 90 miles from the Florida coast.

Public opinion, even amongst Republicans, is overwhelmingly against any American action against Greenland, and with midterm elections in November, American voters once again have some leverage in their nation, whatever the sycophantic voices around Trump are telling him.

Amidst all the noise around Greenland, one voice was notable for its measured tone. When Trump claimed that Greenland was vulnerable to Russian or Chinese attack, Beijing swiftly refuted this, citing its commitment to international law.

Whilst this is to be treated sceptically, given the status of Taiwan, Tibet, and various internal repressions, China is careful to observe the letter of the law if not its spirit. For that reason alone, it has a credible case to be a more reliable international partner than the USA. That is, you’ll agree, a startling new paradigm. Carney’s speech tacitly acknowledged it against the backdrop of Trump’s half-joking threats against Canada’s sovereignty.

If the American people don’t find a way to neutralise or remove Trump, his legacy will be to legitimise China as the trustworthy power in world affairs.

The oligarchical corruption of democracy in the USA is undermining its unquestioned superiority as a system. If China were to turn on the investment tap into beleaguered Europe, where would America find itself then?