Blog from America…time to cut ties with Trump

America is our closest ally. The world has benefited from American global leadership and so have we. Corbyn and his allies don’t get this. The Government and most of the British public do.

And yet, America is currently led by an appalling president. Let’s just run through a few of his actions in the past week whilst I have been here:

• he has resurrected claims that Barack Obama is not a US citizen
• he claims that the tape recording of his comments about assaulting women which he apologised for during his campaign may now be fake news
• he has retweeted racist, far-right videos to the horror of the UK and then had a public spat with the Prime Minister
• he is driving forward tax reform, now just passed by the Senate, which rewards the rich and further undermines Obamacare (it also allows for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge…)

American politics is in turmoil reflecting a divided country – one half of the country appearing to live in a parallel universe to the other.

And the Democrats are not without blame in all this. They have ignored many voters to their cost believing an alliance of minorities and support for, seemingly at times, extreme political correctness is enough. Their hypocrisy over a recent torrent of sexual abuse claims where they have condemned Republicans but have been found to ignore dubious behaviour within their own ranks has only compounded divisions. They lack fresh leadership and a new narrative which allows Trump to get away with far more than he should.

But the real issue is Trump. He corrodes public discourse, taking a scorched earth approach to political debate. He is petty, vindictive, divisive and a blatant liar. Factual reporting is undermined by reckless accusations of ‘fake news’. It will take much longer than the tenure of Trump’s presidency to heal the wounds.

On foreign policy, he is also  dreadful. His withdrawal of America from the international stage is leaving a vacuum nicely filled by a far from altruistic China. Let alone giving carte blanche to his corrupt friend Putin. It is not so much about ‘Making America Great Again’ as ‘Making America Small’. The long term damage is incalculable.

As America’s closest ally, it is time to cut ties with Trump, withdrawing an invitation to visit the UK. Such is public opposition to him, the trip would be a disaster anyway. A famously inward looking country needs to know what impact their president is making internationally and in particular to a friend like Britain.

The Republican leadership don’t like him, nor do much of the American public. We will get our post Brexit trade deal without him. We should embrace the rest of America as we always do, positively, but without Trump. In doing so, we would be doing ourselves and, equally importantly, America a favour.