TRUMP’S A MONSTER!

There’s the popular global narrative for you after just ten days of Donald Trump’s tenure as President of the United States of America.

Indeed, such is his monstrosity status, there is currently a petition in Britain to have him banned from receiving a state visit as a guest of The Queen that has so far been signed by nearly two million people.

This follows the huge marches around the US and UK in response to Trump’s ill-conceived and poorly executed temporary ‘travel ban’ on immigrants and refugees from seven terror-strewn predominantly Muslim countries.

Protestors, led by incensed celebrities and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, have been competing to see who can be most abusive about the President.

Many of them, ironically, deploying the very same coarse misogynist rhetoric they cite as one of their main reasons to hate him.

The popular global narrative just ten days into Donald Trump’s tenure as President of the United States of America is that he is a monster. But a new poll has revealed that 49% of Americans support Trump’s travel ban, as opposed to 41% who are against it

For example, there’s one video that’s gone viral of a large rally in Brighton, on the UK’s south coast, where thousands of people simply chant ‘Donald Trump, you’re a c**t!’ at the top of their voices.

This just about sums up the ridiculous Trump-bashing hysteria that has enveloped the world since his inauguration.

People are literally losing their minds over the mere thought of him sitting in the Oval Office.

A mental faculty failure that is driven, I fear, by sore loser syndrome.

The protestors wanted, and expected, Hillary Clinton to sweep this ghastly man to crushing defeat in the election two months ago and become the first female president.

When it didn’t happen, mainly because Hillary was a terrible candidate who fought a terrible campaign, they were collectively struck down by Post Trump Success Disorder.

This is an awful affliction that causes victims to lose the power of calm, rational thought and instead resort to uncontrollable, unrelenting outbursts of shrieking, screaming, wailing and teeth-gnashing.

Every single thing President Trump now does, says or tweets or is greeted by instant paralysis of perspective.

He is, and must remain, a ‘MONSTER!’

There’s just one problem: the majority of people don’t seem to actually agree with this assessment.

Protestors expected Hillary Clinton to sweep this ghastly man to crushing defeat. When it didn’t happen they were collectively struck down by Post Trump Success Disorder. This is an awful affliction that causes victims to lose the power of calm, rational thought and resort to uncontrollable, unrelenting outbursts of shrieking, screaming, wailing

In fact, the more the angry, puce-faced, self-righteous, snowflake, marching, millennial mob try to force through their view, the less inclined ordinary voters seem to be to swallow it.

A Reuters poll last night revealed that 49% of Americans support Trump’s travel ban, as opposed to 41% who are against it.

And in the UK, a YouGov poll today revealed 49% of Britons are in favour of President Trump’s state visit going ahead, compared to just 36% who are against it.

So despite all the howling, marches, social media onslaughts and foul-mouthed chants, more people in America and Britain appear to be behind Trump than against him.

And as we saw with the US election and Brexit, these polls are probably understating that support.

Perhaps the reason for this is that the further away you get from the hysterical liberal elite conclaves of places like New York, Los Angeles and London, the more calmer common sense prevails.

Those people see a travel ban portrayed as a ‘racist Muslim ban’, then work out for themselves that 85% of the world’s Muslims aren’t actually banned, and shrug their shoulders.

They know President Obama had a shockingly poor record on admitting Syrian refugees, and let many of them die by not engaging with Assad when he crossed the fabled ‘red line’, so can’t get too worked up about Trump not letting any in.

They remember Bill Clinton had ‘sexual relations’ with interns inside the Oval Office, so can’t get too wildly outraged by Trump saying women throw themselves at celebrities either.

Just as they know Bill’s wife Hillary voted for war with anything that moved, so they rather like Trump not instantly nuking Russia but instead making friendly overtures to Putin.

And so on.

In short, they don’t over-react.

As for the Queen, they’ve also probably worked out that Her Majesty’s met a lot worse world leaders than Donald Trump.

Real monsters, in fact, who’ve done truly monstrous things.

I studied the entire list of state visits to the UK since she ascended to the throne in 1953, and found a right royal Dirty Dozen that my poor Monarch has had to endure:

* 1971 Emperor Hirohito of Japan, who led Japan into World War II, ordered the attack on Pearl Harbour and allowed systematic and appalling prisoner-of-war camp torture.

* 1973 President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, a despicably corrupt military dictator who embezzled £12 billion, caused the country’s financial collapse, and is blamed for the deaths of 230,000 people.

* 1973 General Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria, who waged the Biafran civil war that killed 100,000 soldiers and created a blockade which starved a million civilians.

The Queeen has met a lot worse world leaders than Donald Trump. Here she is with Hirohito, left, and Nicolae Ceausescu, right, on London visits

* 1978 President Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania, a blood-thirsty, genocidal communist despot who banned abortion and contraception.

* 1979 President Suharto of Indonesia, who ran a vile regime that is blamed for the deaths of a million people.

* 1991 President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, a brutal iron-fisted dictator with a shocking record of human rights abuses, corruption and torture.

* 1994 President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a repressive and sickeningly corrupt dictator responsible for the murder of more than 10,000 rebels, anti-white discrimination, human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.

The Queen smiled in 2002 as she greeted Syria's President Bashar al-Assad nd his wife Asma at Buckingham Palace during a three day visit

* 2002 President Bashar Al-Assad, the ruthless Syrian dictator responsible for the deaths of an estimated 500,000 civilians and who thinks nothing of murdering his own people with barrel bombs and chemical weapons.

* 2003 President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has bullied, tortured and killed anyone who gets in his way.

* 2007 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a country rampant with medieval beheadings, stonings, religious and political persecution, that treats women with grotesque intolerance and where it’s illegal to be gay.

She also smiled through the 2003 visit from Putin and the 2007 visit from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, both seen her at their Buckingham Palace state dinners

* 2015 President Xi Jinping of China, a nation with a shocking record of human rights abuses, jailing political dissidents, religious and ethnic discrimination, torture and executions.

That’s 11 utterly reprehensible ‘monsters’ if ever I saw one.

Who’s the 12th?

Well how about President George W. Bush, who waged an illegal, unethical, immoral war in Iraq as revenge for 9/11, against someone, Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with it?

That senseless, disastrous war created most of the resulting mayhem in the Middle East, fuelled the rise of ISIS and cost the lives of up to a million civilians and military servicemen and women.

George W. Bush was rewarded with a state visit the same year he started a disastrous war! He's seen here 19th November 2003 at a Buckingham Palace state banquet in his honour

Bush’s reward was a state visit at the end of that very same year, 2003!

So, monstrosity is all relative, right?

To date, Donald Trump’s most monstrous act is to enforce a campaign pledge to suspend travel for people from seven very dangerous countries until a new, stricter VISA system can be established.

I don’t personally agree with the way he’s gone about it, and I’m glad to see he’s already reined back on banning any green card holders, but I absolutely respect his right to do it given that is what he promised to do.

This is how democracy works. You listen to election campaign arguments, you vote, and the winner gets to do what he or she said they would do if it’s within the law.

Amid all the furore over the travel ban, Trump has also unleashed a blizzard of other executive orders and statements that deserve bigger headlines.

Yesterday, he said he was supporting an Obama EO protecting LGBTQ rights in the workplace.

No one is giving enough attention to the executive order he signed protecting LGBTQ rights. But I accept that Trump IS a monster in some ways- a monstrous force of personality. He’s won the White House with an undeniably monstrous ego, monstrous determination, monstrous chutzpah and monstrous doses of political incorrectness

‘The President is proud to have been the first ever GOP nominee to have mentioned the LGBTQ community in his nomination speech, pledging to protect the community from violence and oppression,’ said the White House.

Nobody’s talking about this today because it doesn’t suit the ‘MONSTER!’ label.

But it is a very significant moment worthy of applause, not apathy.

Similarly, what Trump’s said about issues like NATO, red tape bureaucracy, government waste and tax are all important things that should be given credit.

As is his pick for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, who seems a very impressive and not-very-dangerous individual.

Trump’s hit the ground hard, and shown he both means business and intends to deliver on much of what he said he’d do.

In some respects, though, I accept that Trump IS a monster.

America has never seen someone like him bulldoze his way like this into the White House through sheer monstrous force of personality.

He’s done it with an undeniably monstrous ego, monstrous determination, monstrous chutzpah and monstrous doses of political incorrectness.

Now he’s applying the same tough, uncompromising strategy to his presidency.

Trump’s tactics may not be pretty, but they might yet prove to be rather effective in a country so paralysed by Washington intransigence that 20 children can be shot dead at school and not a single new law is introduced to stop it happening again.

So call him a ‘MONSTER!’ all you like.

But by comparison to many of the real monsters who’ve been entertained at Buckingham Palace, Donald Trump’s still a choirboy.