Trump, Musk and the Global Far-Right Circus Threatening to Drag in the UK

Just because the US is sinking into the abyss, doesn't mean the rest of us have to go down with the ship, argues The Bear

So, here we are.

Again.

Donald J Trump, now the 47th President of the United States, inaugurated with a pompous mix of bombast and petty grievance. As if that wasn’t unsettling enough, he’s brought with him a star-jumping, Nazi-saluting Elon Musk, who has been appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a role that ensures his influence will be deeply felt in the administration. For us in the UK, it’s tempting to think this chaos is safely across the Atlantic, and we can sit back and watch things burn with knowing grimaces, but don’t kid yourself. Trump’s impact this time, even more so than before is truly global, and we’re already seeing his fingerprints on our politics and media.

Trump’s reign is characterised by an old but effective strategy, one that he rolled out to great effect in his last term as the most powerful man in the world: flooding the zone with so much noise, nonsense, and chaos that it becomes nearly impossible to focus on the real issues. And it works. It works extremely well.

Here are just a few examples of the times when the story was less about what was actually happening and more about the man manipulating that situation to his own ends.