#BTEditorial – The danger is clear and present

Politicians make strange bedfellows. It is well-articulated that those who operate in the political realm tend to focus on expediency as a matter of survival.

It, therefore, came as no surprise that former British Prime Minister Liz Truss is apparently backing a Donald Trump return as president of the United States of America. The woman who holds the record as the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British, and possibly Commonwealth, history would make such a stunning declaration.

But having thrown her Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) Kwasi Kwarteng and the first black man to ever hold the position, under the bus last year, one can expect the former PM will do what she believes is in her interest.

Writing in the American publication the Wall Street Journal, she stated: “I hope that a Republican will be returned to the White House in 2024. There must be conservative leadership in the US that is once again bold enough to call out hostile regimes as evil and a threat.”

With Trump as the clear front runner for the Republican party, could the former British Prime Minister be suggesting that a man who incited an insurrection on live television, encouraged an attack on his own Vice President, is facing a litany of sexual abuse and rape allegations, charged with 91 criminal offences, threatens members of the judiciary with impunity, encourages racial hatred, and has pledged to severely restrict the rights and possibly imprison his political opponents, is the right kind of conservative that Americans need.

Those who argue that American politics is the business of Americans and we should stay out of it, maybe suffering some kind of amnesia.

It was under the Trump presidency that countries in Africa were referred to as “s**thole” countries; that a near chasm developed in the Caribbean as countries were pitted against each other because of their stand on some political issues, and the list goes on and on.

The former British leader who has been effusive in the past with her praise of Trump made equally shocking statements when she inferred a Republican president was needed to “ensure a total Ukrainian victory and defeat of the Russian invaders”.

This is completely ludicrous when it is the current President Joe Biden who is fighting to maintain the sovereignty of Ukraine, while the Republican politicians want to end or significantly restrict financial support for Ukraine.

According to reports in the British Press, Truss’ column in the Wall Street Journal came following her visit to Washington where she was “feted” by the Heritage Foundation, a hard-right group helping plan a second Trump term. If elected, Trump has talked about attempting to consolidate conservatives’ hold on key institutions and to target his political enemies.”

It is the unpredictability of American politics and the dangerous threat that another Trump presidency poses that should cause us in Barbados and the region to pause.

The news junkies in the media will be closely monitoring what happens on the American political scene as that country prepares for another presidential election next November. However, we urge average Barbadians to follow the political developments in the US and to seek their news from credible sources.

The acclaimed Economist magazine has already issued an ominous warning that Trump poses the greatest danger to the world in 2024.

The publication has made it clear that if we thought his first term was bad, his second would be much worse.