Something is awry,

A view from a British octogenarian who’s been, and who continues to be a long-term admirer and lover of the United States - a man who’s loves much of America’s culture and styles of life, a man who married an American wife and who has loving Americans in his family as well as many American friends, and a man who, just maybe, can see the quality of the current political drama more clearly, as an open-minded outsider and supporter. 

 What’s going on now is not so much the trial of an unfortunate President – an excessively vain, obviously corrupt and not especially intelligent man – a man who’s energy and conceit are encouraged by his Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and a man, although he clearly lacks the integrity that a President should have, offers obvious and attractive charisma to many Americans (although far less to the rest of the world, many of whom find him ridiculous), but who now deserves our pity and compassion. (As anyone suffering from NPD does). 

 His childish need, expressed in his recent pathetic tweets, to give nick names to those who oppose him, also reveals a shocking immaturity, that can come with NPD. Today’s shower of insulting nick names reveals the mentality of a child, or of a schoolboy still learning how to insult people. It’s very far from the sagacity anyone expects from a President of one of the world’s most powerful nations.

 This can only be a tweet from an immature school boy (a boy who sticks his tongue out at those he dislikes) “Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M.”

It's sad, and it shames the USA as well as all the Founding Fathers,

President Eisenhower once expressed the need for a leader to have integrity succinctly.

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible.”

He, as well as many other former Presidents, would have been horrified by the shameful crudeness and self-adulation of the current President.

 Although what’s going on now is not a principally a trial of Donald Trump, it’s a trial or a test of the integrity and courage of America’s Republican Party, and that of many of its supporters. What’s desperately needed among the Republicans now is the courage to admit to a colossal mistake – an admission that has, urgently, to put the reputation of the American nation first.

First, Republicans have to admit to having fallen for a rabble-rousing populist over a wise and experienced political leader. Cast your mind back over Trump’s primitive hostility to some of America’s most serious and keenly critical press. It was worthy of Benito Mussolini who once said: “We become strongest, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look for moral guidance”.

 Supporting a political party is not like supporting a sports team, and neither is supporting a President – whichever party he or she is associated with.

Those who still support Donald Trump, and despite some of his few successes, remain unwilling to see that it was a mistake to elect a man with such little respect for integrity as their President, should pause, and consider why they support a man who denies climate change, despite the overwhelming body of evidence that grows by the day, who uses infantile nick names to describe those who oppose him, and, to quote Shakespeare exemplifies this quote from Macbeth, who ”struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

It’s not unreasonable to hope that Trump “is heard no more”. The behaviour of the Republican Senators in obstructing justice is now seen throughout the world as shameful at best. It’s clearly ‘unamerican’ and unpatriotic. Mitch McConnell’s antics, although palatable to some in the US, are seriously damaging America’s worldwide reputation, possibly irreparably. Many in the UK can now watch American television.

Each time the world sees the US President strut and push himself disrespectfully in front of others at international conferences and then make foolish remarks, he damages the reputation and the respect that much of the world has had for the USA.

For a fan and admirer of the USA and a man from a generation which respects the crucial part played by its allies, such as the USA, and like the former Soviet Union, in ending “World War Two, as well as many other allies.

Few realise today just how much the US contributed to the UK’s war effort and to the rebuilding of Europe, or that it was Russia’s Red Army, led by Russia’s General Zhukov who - after the most terrible experiences, like the siege of Leningrad (also known as the 900 Day Siege though it lasted a gruelling 872 days and resulted in the deaths of some one million of the city's civilians), as well as other horrific atrocities - finally broke the spine of the Nazi army and made defeat inevitable. Russia lost 25 million during that terrible war, compared to the USA’s and the UK’s roughly half a million each – not counting the millions that the Nazi’s exterminated in their horrific concentration camps. 

Hopefully, after the next US election, no more is heard of the unfortunate President Trump who seems to do little but “strut”, “fret”, “pose” (and tweet).

It's worth remembering these wise and prescient words by Founding Father Alexander Hamilton: “Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing”. It’s also worth remembering two more wise and prescient sayings by Founding Fathers: Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin.

Patrick Henry said: “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them”. Trump’s tax returns and business shenanigans are still largely a mystery.

Benjamin Franklin said: “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. QED.