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In the days leading up to Donald Trump’s inauguration and the start of his second term as president, the president elect is seemingly facing trouble from all sides. Not ideal at the best of times, especially as Trump’s presidency will need to be ready to support those who have lost everything in the devastating fires in Los Angeles.
A small reprieve for the president elect comes in his sentencing for the New York hush money trial. The self-proclaimed “totally innocent” Trump was found guilty on 34 counts. His punishment? Effectively a slap on the wrist. Trump has been handed an unconditional discharge.
Perhaps this will give the incoming president time to regain control of his friend and billionaire Elon Musk and attempt to rebuild the damage that he has done to his already strained alliances. Musk, after his public spat with Farage over support for Tommy Robinson and calling for Reform UK to have a new leader, suggested America should “liberate” Britain from its “tyrannical government”. In combination with Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st state of America and the possibility of his government buying Greenland, this becomes a pattern. The rhetoric of Trump’s incoming cabinet is becoming more and more expansionary.
This is a continuation of Musk’s attempts to insert himself into British politics, having already secured himself a position in American government. However, with the bridge seemingly burned between Musk and Reform, Musk must turn to other alliances to continue extending his influence. Andrew Tate appears to be offering his services, threatening to run for British Prime Minister with his freshly formed ‘B.R.U.V. Party’, complete with Microsoft PowerPoint graphics – that is, when they’re not AI generated – makes weak appeals to the hateful ‘masculinity’ that he is known for. It is by all accounts a laughingstock or, at the very least, feels as though it should be satire.
Clearly Trump’s cabinet ministers are causing problems for the incoming government, second only to the problems Trump is causing himself. How he deals with this remains to be seen, but the clear implications of this rhetoric are alarming. Diplomatic relations have been replaced by fiery social media exchanges and billionaires attempting to buy political influence. Not new, perhaps, for Trump the billionaire turned president, but clearly the open call for invasion from American politicians is not winning the hearts of the countries on the other end of them. It is unrealistic to imagine Andrew Tate’s B.R.U.V. party standing candidates in local elections, maybe as unrealistic as a Canadian 51st state. What is realistic and undeniably present is the threat that extremely wealthy pose to the balance of politics, increasingly so on the international stage.
Image: 58th Presidential Inauguration, Sgt. Marianique Santos (US Air Force), 2017 // under public domain
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