Doctor Henry Kissinger, the fabled former American Secretary of State once gave me an interview on his way back from yet another failed Middle-East peace mission. There now follows the full text of what he said…
‘You win some, you lose some’.
This neatly sums up where the current US President finds himself after the mid-term elections. His party has hung on to the Senate, but lost control of the House of Representatives. Which matters. A lot.
But in true Trump style he’s hailed the result as ’tremendous’.
As the sassy little sex-bomb Mandy Rice-Davies said so nimbly of a peer who flatly denied any involvement with her: ‘well, he would, wouldn’t he?’
The court dissolved into laughter. As might the world, after The Donald’s vainglorious boast. But people back then were laughing with the lady. Right now they’re laughing at the man.
Veteran Democrat Bernie Sanders says he’s a pathological liar. Funny, that.
There’s no question the new demographic in the lower house can clip the mighty man’s wings, big time. His pet projects, like the so-called ‘great big beautiful wall’ he’s so gagging to get built between the US and Mexico, now look like a distant dream. Or nightmare, according to taste.
Also, those pesky Democrats can do all manner of annoying things, like demanding more information about alleged Russian collusion in the vote that got him in. Or banging on about the tax returns he seems, unaccountably, not to wish to share with the nation.
But against that, his sustained majority in the Senate means controversial appointments to senior positions of alleged sex pests can after all go through. And the prospect of impeachment seems not so much jam tomorrow as sometime towards the end of next century.
Not that one ever says never in politics.
However, the underlying reality is that the American economy under the current administration is booming. And, causal connection no doubt, vast swathes of Trump supporters are still standing by their man.
Pussy-grabbing? Trade war starting? Climate change agreement breaking? Arms control treaties tearing up? Yeehaw cowboy! The boy done good!
And, albeit in a marginally more muted form, these results suggest a second Trump term is a runner.
What was it Oscar Wilde once said of the transatlantic interface? ‘We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language’.
Peter Spencer has 40 years experience as a Political Correspondent in Westminster, working with London Broadcasting and Sky News. For more of his wonderful takes on the turbulent political landscape, follow him on Facebook & Twitter.
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