Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, and the Rise of Lunacy

CAIRO – 11 October 2017: Donald Trump; where to start. Enough has been written about the President of the United States and the commander-in-chief of the most extensively financed army the world has ever seen, that it feels all possible words one could use about this divisive figure have been used and abused. This won’t stop me however.

Trump’s rise to the presidency came as people grew disenfranchised and detached with the corrupt political norm, with many Trump supporters seeing him as a breath of fresh air. This gasp for air in the U.S. political system is alone; the jaws of civil-society have been wide open as he continually rants and raves like he’s in the diary room on “Big Brother.”

As David Chapelle stated, “Donald Trump is the first U.S. troll president.” Instead of using traditional channels of diplomacy, he uses Twitter as his mouth piece with words such as “covfefe” leaving the world scratching its head and wondering what could possibly come next.

The regularity of Trump’s bizarre outbursts make you question whether you should pity this man or mock him. A man who looks like the love child of Lucius Malfoy and Spike from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, with the gentle use of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, has ended up in the world’s most powerful office with the mental capacity and common sense of a Cane Toad. That’s not the only similarity they share though, Trump also is involved in a constant flurry of sex scandals.

Domestically Donald Trump’s political career has followed those of many U.S. presidents before him, characterized by flip-flopping and reneging on promises which, made during the campaign trail, would obviously never be kept. A lot of the world could see right through this mockery of democracy, but never challenge the ignorance of vast swathes of the American population. Donald Trump is not actually similar to any President before him. If Rick Sanchez could extract every unpleasant attribute from the previous U.S. presidents and inject them into a Boris Johnson cross Alan Sugar-looking robot, we would have our man.

Frankie Boyle, a highly-controversial British comedian and writer aptly likened the Trump family to “a teen movie about Wall Street vampires directed by Uday Hussein.” The photo below could be taken from a “Desperate House Wives of …” episode. I’m certainly not one to judge looks, but the Trump family certainly fills their role as evil villains.


CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
International relations are where Trump truly excels at proving to the world that he was never lying, and that he truly is a lunatic. Threatening North Korea, the world’s most unpredictable state, with “fire and fury” doesn’t bode well as the North still harbors a hatred for the U.S. from the 1950s which continues to fuel its nuclear ambitions.

Internationally, Trump has tried his utmost to insult his allies and conduct a disheveled foreign policy. Handing Angela Merkel a fictitious NATO bill whilst tearing up international agreements doesn’t help improve his public image and the already dampened image of the country he runs. Supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombing of innocent civilians while supporting pro-life abortion policies also shows his distorted moral compass.

When Trump engages in an indirect dialogue with the world’s token-lunatic, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, we get something special.

The two men are unbelievably similar in their lack of international understanding, and both relish seeing their image in the media. Be it good or bad, Trump blurts out whatever will give him the most public exposure. It feels like he’s running out of people to attack: the Republican Party, the media, revered athletes, the population. Defend Nazis? Yeah, why not. Combine this will a nuclear charged argument with the international moron of mystery, and it feels like Trump has imposed the "Truman Show" over all of us as his reality TV career continues.

But it is this lunacy which may keep us all safe; Mutually Assured Destruction has kept the world from total annihilation since the beginning of the Cold War, and Mutually Assured Lunacy is arguably, so far, keeping the reigns in between Trump and Jong-un. Although North Korea had a 60-year head start, the two leaders are now equally as unpredictable and equally as peculiar, and the more the aggressive back-and-forth increases, the more clueless the world is of the truth. As the threats of reprisal increase, the more one fears the other and thus the benefits of initiating a conflict decrease.

ISIS’s members have continually proclaimed that they will raise the Black Flag over the White House, but I anticipate the building being painted gold with streaks of orange or being in the midst of a nuclear wasteland before this ever happens. It’s hard to see how the next U.S. President could trump Donald Trump in providing a terrifying yet somehow disturbingly amusing image of what could happen to our world. But I wouldn’t worry, I don’t see foresee Charlie Sheen making it into office.

Twitter:

Joseph Colonna