After threatening death and destruction never seen before, Donald Trump climbed down just hours before his umpteenth deadline was about to expire. Trump had warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought again”. On Easter Sunday he had issued one of his most unhinged and most profane missives on Truth Social – “Open the F—‘ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”. He designated Tuesday 7 April the day of the deadline as “power plant day and bridge day, wrapped into one” as he planned to commit war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure in his efforts to make the Iranian leadership capitulate. Nobody in his right senses thinks this man is a stable rational person.
And it’s not just his vile and crazed comments in the last six weeks that has highlighted this man’s total unfitness to hold power. This is who Donald Trump has been at least throughout his terms in office. He’s called political adversaries “vermin”. He’s referred to undocumented migrants as “not people” but as “animals” who are “poisoning the blood of our country”. He spread unsubstantiated rumours that migrants were eating cats and dogs. Before his re-election in 2024 he warned that if Americans didn’t put him back in the Whitehouse there would be “a bloodbath for the country”. During his campaign he framed the 2024 election as a “final battle” to “cast out” communists, Marxists and “radical left lunatics”. He spoke of “the enemy from within” describing political opponents like Nancy Pelosi as “sick” and “evil” claiming that they were more dangerous than foreign adversaries like China or Russia. He suggested that shoplifters should be “shot as you are leaving” a store and called for “one really violent day” or “one rough hour” of policing to end crime immediately.
His behaviour was as erratic as his rhetoric. He threatened to take Greenland, even by force if necessary. He called his NATO allies “cowards” and NATO itself a “paper tiger”. He mocked the contribution of British military officers in Afghanistan claiming that they stayed far from the frontline. He referred to Britain’s aircraft carriers as “toys”. He humiliated Zelensky at the Whitehouse accusing him of ingratitude and ironically of “gambling with world war III” yet he rolled out the red carpet for the warmonger Putin. He mocked Macron, imitating his accent and claiming that his “wife treats him extremely badly, still recovering from the right to the jaw”. He’s referred to journalists as “the enemy of the people”. His toing and froing over tariffs caused chaos and panic. His bombing of boats in the Caribbean raised concerns. His withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran deal, his bizarre claims that bleach could eliminate COVID, and his decision to separate migrant families from their children were all troubling. Yet nobody said anything. Those he surrounded himself – Pete Hegseth, Kirsty Noem, Pam Bondi, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Tulsi Gabbard – were never going to rein him in. But for world leaders to keep praising him and thanking him for his terrible decisions was not just cowardly, it was irresponsible.
Everybody knew Trump was a loose cannon that couldn’t be trusted as far as you could throw him. Everyone knew he was a danger to his country and to the world. Everybody knew he was an erratic disrespectful bully. Yet instead of standing up to him, fellow world leaders sucked up to him. They tip-toed around him, wary of upsetting him, thinking that appeasing the brute would pacify him.
One world leader after another queued to flatter Trump, to tell him how great he was. The secretary general of NATO Mark Rutte called him “daddy” even as Trump threatened to scuttle the organisation that has kept Europe safe for decades. Rutte called Trump’s 2025 strikes on Iran “truly extraordinary” encouraging him to do worse. And now he has. “You will achieve something NO American president could get done”, Rutte told Trump.
But Rutte wasn’t alone. From Theresa May to Emanuel Macron they all tried to ingratiate themselves with Trump. May held his hand at their meeting at the Whitehouse. Macron’s long handshakes, his chummy thumping on his back, his over the top praise for Trump didn’t stop the American President from insulting and mocking his French counterpart. Japan’s Shinzo Abe went on frequent golf outings with the President including at his Mar-a-Lago resort and constantly praised Trump’s leadership instead of denouncing his inconsistent and damaging decisions. Sanae Takaichi continued in the Abe-style flattering of Trump’s ego – “I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world”. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has done her best to seduce Trump with her praise and deference. Trump fell for her charm calling her “a beautiful young woman”, “an incredible leader” and “an inspiration”. She’s belatedly realising that having Trump on your side is more of a liability.
And of course we had our own Ian Borg who not only tip-toed around Trump but actively sucked up to him. Borg not only nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize but he publicly revealed his shameful act and directly informed Trump of what he’d done, expecting to earn brownie points from the American President. When he faced an almighty backlash even from some within his own party, including his own party president, he tried to backtrack and claimed that he hadn’t nominated Trump on behalf of the Maltese government but in his role as chair of the OSCE. By invoking the OSCE Borg tried to signal greater legitimacy and amplify the obsequious gesture towards Trump. But this was just performative ingratiation. The OSCE is not an entity that submits Nobel nominations. Nobel rules don’t allow organisations such as the OSCE to nominate anybody. For Borg to claim that he was nominating Trump for the Nobel peace prize as chair of the OSCE is procedurally incorrect and misleading. Besides, nominations for the prize had long closed by the time Borg bragged with Trump he had nominated him.
All those leaders who groveled and genuflected before Donald Trump bear responsibility for the disaster he has caused in the Middle East and around the world. The thousands of deaths, the tens of thousands of injured, the devastation to vital infrastructure and the irremediable and lasting damage he has done to the world must weigh heavily on their conscience.
No toddler’s behaviour ever got better when its parents let it eat all the chocolate. Appeasing and indulging Trump’s obnoxious and outrageous demands for flattery has only egged him on to do his worst.
