A Ridiculous Man: Donald Trump and the Verdict of History

154 Pages·2020·2.986 MB·English

by  Norman Abjorensen

The distinguished English television interviewer
Sir Michael Parkinson said in 2019 that ‘no
journalist worth their salt’ would not want a
sit-down interview with U.S. President Donald
Trump ‘and find out why he is such a ridiculous
man. And I think you’d have to be equally
ridiculous, in a sense, to try to imagine you might
get something from him.’ He said Mr Trump was
‘impenetrable in his idiocy’, adding ‘He’s a very
dangerous man. And you feel sorry for America
in that sense.’

© Norman Abjorensen 2020
First published 2020 by
Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd
under its ARDEN international imprint
Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd
7 Lt Lothian St Nth, North Melbourne, Vic 3051
[email protected] / www.scholarly.info
ISBN 978-1-922454-02-7
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Cover design: Sarah Anderson
For Carmel, who first asked the question.

Contents
Snapshot November 2016: Politics Goes Punk 9
1 The Historian’s Challenge 13
2 Reality and Donald Trump: ‘Are Ye
Fantastical?’ 20
3 The Ugly American 38
4 Contextualising Donald Trump: An
Exceptional American or an American
Exception? 49
5 Historical Comparisons 62
6 The Historical Trump 80
7 In the Court of King Donald 105
Index 148
About the Author 152
7

Snapshot, November 2016
Politics goes punk1
The names Johnny Rotten and Donald Trump would
not normally be found in the same sentence, but 40
years ago the Sex Pistols and other punk rockers
were doing to popular music what Trump and other
populist insurgents are now doing to politics – and
the similarities are many.
The immediate point of comparison is in the full-
frontal assault on the status quo that each represents:
punk on the musical establishment and Trump on
the political class. The assault was deliberately and
provocatively transgressive in each case, seeking to
maximise the impact through publicity and play to
the gallery. If piercings in various parts of the body
revolted many, there were more than a few who
not only rejoiced in the shock value but emulated
the effect; it was OK to look nasty. Trump’s ‘locker-
room banter’ offended many, but there were those
among his followers who took it as an affirmation of
their own mores.
With the rise of punk in the mid-1970s, musical
ability no longer counted; it was simply not necessary
to know how to play an instrument, as the hapless
Sid Vicious, among others, showed. With Trump, it
was irrelevant that he had never held elective office
nor, in any sense at all had he been held accountable
in the past. Experience was not only irrelevant, it
was what the hated establishment thrived on.
Traditions, in each case, are not only ignored but
9