Donald Trump: Winning an Imaginary War
- Dec 30, 2017
- 2 min read
In the wild, fascinating ride that was his election campaign, Donald Trump declared that his base and the country as a whole would “win so much you may even get tired of winning” under his presidency.
We are at the end of the first calendar year of Trump’s presidency. It has been an often-hysterical intersection between the American media, the American people and a President who has brought business trimmings and reality TV show braggadocio to the White House. Trump has been intensely scrutinised, probably more so than any other Commander-in-Chief. 2017 has seen white nationalists marching, terror attacks in New York and major media outlets casting aside all pretences of bipartisanship to identify as pro or anti-Trump propaganda vehicles.
But wining? Well, probably no more than any presidential honeymoon year. Certainly, no one in Team Trump is victory fatigued (certainly not Trump himself, who is continuing his year-long lamentations of “crooked” Hillary Clinton, his FBI investigations and negative press report in tweets that were once outrageous and are now mundane).
In the last week before 2017 turned its final page, the 45th President of the United States claimed one for the scoreboard with a tweet announcing “people are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase”.
But… has he?
The so-called ‘war on Christmas’ has been a social media point for several years, with claims that politically correct extremists have forced the ousting of traditional Christmas customs in favour of non-denominational alternatives. “Merry Christmas”, out. “Happy holidays”, in. Starbucks using red takeaway coffee cups instead of green and red and, most laughably in a completely fabricated hook-line-and-sinker piece, “Father Christmas” flicked for the gender neutral “Person Christmas”.
So the argument goes, these developments are not merely petty, anti-offensive safe-space pandering. They are a subversive affront to traditional Christian values, waged by, uh …
Well, we’ve never been told. Muslim? Communists? Feminists? Hillary? Could it be that the whole thing is just a false flag for conservatives to get good and riled up and unite around?
There’s nothing purer than Christmas. So there’s nothing worse than someone trying to manipulate and exploit it for political gain. And nothing more heroic than the President who prevents that from happening. So what if it never
happened? A bit of make-up, some good lighting and a good script team and how could anyone with reality TV brains go wrong?
Certainly, it’s hard to believe that Trump inherited a political climate conspiring against the pagan traditions of Christmas considering Barack Obama’s final presidential Christmas address…
Donald Trump was a spendthrift with his words in his campaign. Now, those words – the promises, the accusations, the off-the-cuff opinions – are catching up with him.
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