God Save the Queen

(Door Hugo Kijne te Hoboken USA)

Before traveling to Great Britain for an official state visit Trump called Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wife of Prince Harry and one of the most popular members of the Royal family, ‘nasty,’ and from Air Force One he tweeted that the Mayor of London is a ‘stone cold loser.’  It pretty much set the tone for his second encounter with the British Royals and public, during which the former showed their stiff upper lip and a good sense of humor.   After a previous, unfortunate experience the Queen had Prince Charles inspect the guard with Trump, so that the buffoon would not step in front of her again, and her present for him was a book about WWII, written by Churchill, that is guaranteed to remain unread unless Barron can use it for a term paper.  The public showed its disapproval of Trump with a sign that read ‘Obama’s popularity 72%, Trump’s popularity 27%,’ indicating that the president would not carry London, a projection of the name of the Destroyer USS John S. McCain on Madame Tussauds, and the famous ‘Baby Trump with cell phone’ balloon as well as a balloon of the president sitting on a golden toilet called the ‘Trump Dump’ in the air.

In a failed attempt to match the Royals Trump had brought his whole offspring of grifters minus Barron with him, but the Queen didn’t want to have them around for the night, so unlike Reagan and Obama the Trumps could not sleep at Buckingham Palace, where all 52 bedrooms were said to be under renovation.   Also unlike Reagan and Obama Trump wasn’t allowed to make a speech in parliament, and it was striking that during his dinner speech he didn’t mention his mother once, possibly because she was a poor immigrant from Scotland, a ‘domestic’ who came to the US to make a better life for herself, like the women the president is trying to keep out of the country.  Even Boris Johnson didn’t want to meet with Trump, probably because he figured that it would hurt his chances to become Prime Minister, so the president had to do with Nigel Farage as soul mate.  When asked at a presser if he had noticed the protests Trump answered that he had only seen thousands of people cheering for him but no protesters.  According to reporters those thousands of people didn’t exist and there were 15,000 protesters, so the UK got a taste of Trump’s alternate reality.

During his whole trip the president was pinballing between looking vaguely presidential when he was reading speeches others had written for him – at the state dinner in an ill-fitting white tie and tails outfit that he appeared to have borrowed from three different people and at the D-Day remembrance ceremony in France – and being his old, vulgar self.   At 1:30 am he tweeted from London that Bette Midler is a ‘washed up psycho’ and called Chuck Schumer ‘a creep.’  The next day he denied having called Meghan Markle nasty.

Trump’s multitasking continued in Normandy, where just before the start of the solemn commemoration he said in a Fox News interview, with the American cemetery in the background, that Robert Mueller, a highly decorated ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran, is ‘a fool,’ and called Nancy Pelosi ‘nervous Nancy’ and ‘a disaster.’  Pelosi had enough class not to respond while the president was abroad, but later indicated that he belongs in jail.

Add to all this a number of minor gaffes, like Trump’s suggestion that American health care providers might be allowed to compete with the National Health Service, and the concern about his mental state is understandable.  As one observer said: “He was never able to follow someone else’s train of thought, but now he cannot follow his own anymore.”

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