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Tom Gallagher once asked me this and Richard Vinen, a fine historian, explores the idea in Unherd.
I'd prefer to say he is the antithesis of Franklin D Roosevelt. That is a good thing, in case you were in doubt.
When I was 19 the joke was "Ronald Reagan's hero is Calvin Coolidge, Nancy Reagan's is Calvin Klein".
It is Ronald Reagan's achievement that the joke is no longer funny because liking Coolidge is respectable.
It is Ronald Reagan's achievement that the joke is no longer funny because liking Coolidge is respectable.
I have come to join his fan club.
Donald Trump has certain things in common with Silent Cal, when it comes to policy not personality. Perhaps he should bring tiger cubs into the Oval Office.
The BBC's Katty Kay said in 2016 that Trump was really a Democrat but he turned out to be one of the very few Republicans still standing, by which I mean Coolidge Republicans.
Trump is right-wing but left and right no longer mean very much and the parties in most countries no longer make sense.
Donald Trump has certain things in common with Silent Cal, when it comes to policy not personality. Perhaps he should bring tiger cubs into the Oval Office.
The BBC's Katty Kay said in 2016 that Trump was really a Democrat but he turned out to be one of the very few Republicans still standing, by which I mean Coolidge Republicans.
Trump is right-wing but left and right no longer mean very much and the parties in most countries no longer make sense.
My favourite journalists are mostly leftists like Glenn Greenwald, Matt Tahibbi, Max Blumenthal, Patrick Cockburn and Caitlin Johnstone, on foreign affairs.
They are far more like my romantic Toryism than any British Conservative politician.
Theresa May was to the left of Tony Blair.
Boris Johnson was the most left-wing Prime Minister since Harold Wilson.
This is from Allister Heath in yesterdays' Telegraph. (He is usually very good, but not when he rejoiced at Liz Truss's budget.)
Another question is: is Putin Russia's De Gaulle? They do have certain things in common, though very much that separates the Christian gentleman from the ex-KGB thief.
This is from Allister Heath in yesterdays' Telegraph. (He is usually very good, but not when he rejoiced at Liz Truss's budget.)
"America is now Trump country, at war with progressivism, open borders, international bureaucracies, net zero, Jihadism, military adventurism and the Left-wing media. The old order is dead, never to be resuscitated; for better or for worse, American politics has finally caught up with globalisation, deindustrialisation, the resurrection of history (contra Francis Fukuyama) and the internet’s explosive rise.
"Donald Trump is 78, but he is a very modern politician with an intuitive grasp of how social fragmentation and the rise and fall of institutions can work for him. He has learnt to bypass network news and The New York Times. His brand of populist, multi-racial, working-class, highly online, Right-wing politics has captured the new centre-ground. It now looks as if 2016 was a mere dry run, derailed by Covid; 2024 is the real deal, a revolutionary moment, a reconstitution and realignment of American and Western politics around fresh principles, many excellent but some much more malign."
Another question is: is Putin Russia's De Gaulle? They do have certain things in common, though very much that separates the Christian gentleman from the ex-KGB thief.
Frank Luntz, Republican pollster:
ReplyDelete"Voters already know everything there is about Trump – but they still wanted to know more about Harris’ plans for the first hour, first day, first month and first year of her administration. It was a colossal failure for her campaign to shine the spotlight on Trump more than on Harris’s own ideas.”
Trump is almost as tall as De Gaulle, but otherwise I have a hard time thinking of any similarities. De Gaulle wrote his own books, showed considerable personal bravery, and that I have heard of, his integrity was not questioned.
ReplyDeleteThat's wishful thinking on Allister Heath's part. Has he not noticed what young people and people at large are like these days?
ReplyDelete"First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they're right." Independent Senator Bernie Sanders
ReplyDeleteTrump is Putin's overweight poodle.
ReplyDelete