Hot Type: Cabbies in the Mist

American political columnist Heidi Siegmund Cuda shares her travel diaries and conversations with taxi drivers in Washington DC, London, and Paris, where the disgust for Donald Trump is now palpable

Paris taxi at the Arc de Triomphe. Photo: FreeProd/Alamy

A taxi driver from Ghana in Paris slipped into a Donald Trump Jr impersonation. It was before dawn in February and very cold, and he immediately knew from my greeting that I was an American.

He began riffing on how ‘dad’ bragged about plans to clean up New York City.

I said, “I liked it better dirty.”

With a glance in the mirror, he confirmed I wasn’t MAGA.

He went into a full-on comedy routine — staying in character as son boasting about father, who he clearly depicted as a blowhard.

Once he confirmed I was friend not foe, he told me about his real son in New York, and I could see he was worried for him.

Some taxi drivers in Paris were silent. A few shared their love of America, and one who discovered I was from California, immediately changed the track to the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’. We began singing the lyrics.

He only listens to American music.

Paris is in mourning for America. I feel it everywhere I go.

The country that gave us the Statue of Liberty as a celebration of our achievement of accelerating human freedom has watched us fall behind enemy lines.