Soon
after Donald Trump was elected, there was a scandalous rumour about
his use of prostitutes in Russia on a visit there, and of a video
tape to prove it. That rumour is considered false today, as it was
part of a 'dossier' prepared by a former British secret serviceman in
the pay (indirectly) of the Hillary Clinton's Democratic party.
Maybe
Trump's opponents thought that it seemed a realistic idea, since
Trump was what you could call a 'womaniser' – that is, a man who
has a history of multiple female partners, often not lasting a long
time. However, the accusation was never widely believed, because it
seemed that the man who had Ivana and Melania, and was the father of
Ivanka, wouldn't be too interested in Moscow ladies of the night.
When
we look at the events of the last two weeks, though, it seems more
accurate to see Trump as a 'triangulator', which means a person who
forms links easily with many people at the same time, forming
'triangles' of relationships linking often very different people
together.
It's
two weeks since Trump entertained Kim Kardashian-West (wife
of African-American rapper Kanye West, mother of North and Saint,
famed for her shapely bottom and TV show). The first Kim to the
Whitehouse, then, was a reality star. She went there, however, to
represent the interests of Alice
Marie Johnson, 63, an African-American great-grandmother serving a
life sentence in a US prison for a nonviolent drug offence. Trump
accepted Kim's request for a Presidential pardon.
Now
Trump has just met with another Kim- Kim Jong-Un, Chairman of the
People's Republic of North Korea. It's quite a triangle to form,
between the two Kims- both famous, and, some would argue, both
wanting to be celebrities in the world. In the past Trump was the
owner of the Miss Universe competitions, so he knows a bit about the
desire for stardom.
Last
weekend, however, there was a different type of meeting, the G7
summit, and Trump looked much less happy with the company he kept. It
was a meeting full of anger from the leaders of countries like Canada
and Germany because of Trump's new tariffs on their exports to
America.
Looked
at in another way, though, this could be seen as another form of
triangulation, this time with the voters of the Midwest who actually
made the difference electorally between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
They depend on manufacturing for their livelihoods. And of course,
looked at in another way, Trump's alliance with Kim Kardashian is a
way to reach the African-American population that so routinely vote
Democrat.
Will
Trump's action with the second Kim be successful? Will Kim Jong Un,
despite his terrible early years as leader, be the man to bring North
Korea back to the modern world. The answer is difficult to be sure
of, but the indicators are interesting.
The
first thing is that Kim has already been meeting with the South
Koreans in a way that has no precedent. His choice was to meet on
the border between North and South and to walk backwards and forwards
across the border with the South Korean President. The symbolism of this, and the meeting with Trump,
will create pressure on him to show that he is decisive and has made
a firm decision. Of course, it is probably true that Kim's North
Korea has run out of money, but why just now? Is it Trump's pressure
on China (diplomatic and economic)? Whatever the answer, Trump is the
Great Triangulator, and that means bringing sharp angles to a strict
point.
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