By Michael Glackin
The Daily Star
Tuesday, July 17 2018
It’s never a good week for women when Donald Trump is around. I’m not talking about Stormy Daniels, or the U.S. president’s infamous Access Hollywood “Grab them by the pussy” tape recording.
No, I’m talking about U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and German leader Angela Merkel, both of whom were humiliated last week by Trump’s habit of engaging his mouth before his brain is fully in gear. Indeed, just ask Queen Elizabeth. During Trump’s “working visit” to the U.K. last week, the president broke protocol and cut in front of the 92-yearold monarch during a guard of honor inspection at Windsor Castle.
I was raised by staunch Republicans but always taught it’s ladies first, whether it’s the cleaning lady or the queen.
Trump fares better with men. Particularly if they happen to be autocrats.
Indeed, by the time you read this article, we will know whether Trump has opted to pander to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as he pandered to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un last month. I suspect the supposed leader of the free world will be a good deal more conciliatory toward the Russian president for life than he was to any of the democratically elected female leaders he met last week.
But, here in the U.K., so long as there is the slimmest prospect of a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S., the government will continue to genuflect at the altar of Trump.
Consequently, when Trump denigrated his NATO allies in Brussels last week, and launched a blistering, irrational and unfounded tirade against Merkel, hardly a word of dissent was raised in London.
Indeed May went out of her way to flatter Trump’s giant but fragile ego during his two-day visit to the birthplace of his mother. Yet within hours of his arrival in the U.K., May had been both humiliated and perhaps mortally wounded in political terms by Trump.
It started during a black-tie dinner hosted by the prime minister at Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill, whose bust Trump famously reinstalled at the White House after President Barack Obama removed it. The messy stuff hit the fan before dessert had been served, as the first extracts of the president’s explosive interview in the following day’s Sun newspaper began to filter through on diners’ mobile phones.
In the interview, Trump launched a scathing attack on May. He lambasted the Brexit deal she had painstakingly brokered with her divided government earlier this month, and criticized her failure to follow his advice on how to negotiate with the European Union.
Two of May’s senior ministers have already resigned in protest over her “soft” Brexit plan, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who desperately wants to unseat her and became prime minister.
May’s so-called Chequers deal, would effectively keep the U.K. in parts of the EU single market despite leaving the trading bloc. Johnson claimed in his resignation letter that the Chequers deal meant the U.K. was “headed for the status of a colony” of the EU. Most explosively, Trump insisted the Chequers deal meant the U.K.’s chances of a trade agreement with the U.S. were dead and heaped praise on the departed Johnson.
Bizarrely, the following morning a contrite Trump apologized to May for his comments and during a news conference with the prime minister insisted the article was “fake news.” Needless to say, The Sun published a tape recording of the interview, which proved Trump had been quoted accurately.
Despite this, May happily went along with Trump heaping the blame on journalists. Unfortunately, Trump went off-piste again and told the gathering “Boris Johnson would make a great prime minister” before hastily adding “this wonderful lady here is doing a fantastic job.”
He also dismissed the large protests in London against his visit, insisting many of the protesters were actually there to support him.
So far, so Trump. But the damage of his Sun interview could prove irreparable for May.
It’s worth pointing out that the Chequers deal may well be rejected by the EU.
However, the principal problem for May is that it has exacerbated rather than mended the splits in her government, and Trump’s newspaper interview has emboldened those opposed to the deal.
Even if it proves acceptable to the EU, the Chequers deal is now unlikely to be ratified by the U.K. Parliament.
The hard Brexiters within May’s government would rather have no deal at all and believe Trump’s comments prove it will be better to simply crash out of the EU next year. Meanwhile the government’s soft Brexiters and Remainers (those who wish to stay in the EU) believe the deal will leave the U.K. only partially in the EU single market and customs union, but forced to abide by most of its regulations. Following Trump’s intervention, they are now openly calling for a second referendum on EU membership.
Will they get one? I suspect not. But either way, May’s authority looks dangerously close to collapsing following Trump’s intervention. What will the U.S. president do next? Following last week’s fractious NATO summit, alliance officials privately expressed fears that Trump may unilaterally offer to scrap NATO war games during Monday’s summit with Putin, including the massive flagship Trident Juncture exercise in Norway in October.
During the summit with North Korea’s Kim, Trump abruptly canceled similar military exercises with South Korea, where 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed. Kim offered nothing in return.
Who knows? By the time you read this, Trump may even have suggested Russia join NATO, as the Soviet Union cheekily offered to in 1954. Trump has already demanded Russia should be readmitted to the G-7. Indeed, as things currently stand, Putin’s Russia looks more likely to clinch a trade deal with the U.S. than the U.K.
I guess it’s a man’s world.
Michael Glackin is former managing editor of Beirut newspaper THE DAILY STAR. A version of this article appeared in The Daily Star print edition on July 17 2018 on page 7.
