Just two days into Donald Trump’s presidency and there has already been a notable number of hissy-fits thrown in Ireland over the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States. As a visibly failing Joe Biden handed President Donald Trump the reins, he seemed he couldn’t care less about a legacy already in tatters, pardoning a handful of family members and Covid commander in chief Dr Joe Fauci among others before exiting.
There was less talk or commentary here in Ireland about the astonishing preemptive pardoning of a government scientist – the first in such a position to receive presidential clemency – or the pardoning, in the final 15 minutes before Biden left office, of a whole swathe of family members, despite Biden’s promise in 2020 that he would do no such thing because it would set a bad precedent.
Of course not. Because the Irish media appeared to be, a full eight years on from Trump’s first term, far more focused on, once again, drumming up anti-Trump hysteria. The full-blown meltdowns over Trump on our airwaves and in the pages of our newspapers are all the more noticeable this time around, given that the Trump Derangement Syndrome or DTS (the term coined to describe what can be summed up as a sort of irrational hatred for Trump) seems to have gone into at least partial remission in the US and the UK. The whipped up fury unleashed against the US president as he was sworn into office had calmed this time around. Newspapers in the States noted that the number of protestors this inauguration day had fallen.
“Where is everybody?” one enraged protestor wearing blue eyeliner and a slogan t-shirt told CNN. “Literally, two days from now, we’re going to be plunged into an oligarchy with a fascist dictator.” Across the Atlantic, in London, a ‘Together Against Trump’ rally organised by Stand Up To Racism attracted hundreds at Downing Street in response to Trump’s “far right reactionary agenda.” Still, a few hundred people is a rather far cry from the thousands who packed central London to protest then President Trump’s UK visit in 2018 and subsequently, in 2019. There’s been a noticeable decline in the orange-tinted mockery of the former tycoon than there was in 2016, or in 2020 in those countries.
Yet, there has been no turning down the dial on the Trump-induced theatrics in our own national press. While people around the world, including a great deal in Ireland, hailed President Trump’s early signing of an executive order which established “government-wide, the biological reality of two sexes and clearly defines male and female,” the Irish media and elite class were pulling their hair out. Deaf and blind to the prospect that they may just have lost the room, there was a headlong rush to mark inauguration day with indignant sulking and moralising about the dangers of Trump.
“With each stroke of the pen came seismic hammer blows,” the Irish Times declared, reporting on Trump’s signing of some 196 executive orders on the first day back in office. Beforehand, another piece from the newspaper asked: “Why is Donald Trump glaring in his inauguration portrait?” with the writer describing the image, of all things, as “eerie.” Melania Trump, who won international admiration as a fashion icon, (and I love fashion, so I can confirm she was an impeccably stylish first lady) was described as a “fashion menace” for dressing like “a mob wife at a funeral.”
Back to Donald, because the negativity went on and on, he was described as promoting a “dark message” to half the country who voted for him, with IT editors declaring that “if fully enacted, the actions he has promised would undermine some of the most fundamental principles of liberal democracy.” RTE, in usual fashion, decried that the President was “targeting” immigration and climate, whilst running a piece interviewing Irish firms and small businesses “scared” of the effect a Trump presidency will have in Ireland. Donald Trump’s inauguration “qualifies as ‘weird sh*t’” an op-ed in another national paper simply read.
After all, we in Ireland have a monopoly on decency and compassion, don’t we? We’re the ones who set the ethical, moral standards for everyone else as the most progressive, lovey dovey nation on the face of the earth. And yes, in case you were unsure, that includes setting the moral bar for the 77 million people who voted for Trump. They were wrong, tricked, deceived, and our tiny island population of five million, we are right to deplore the election results. That is the very tone of the coverage here in Ireland. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so poisonous.
With people like Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO present at the inauguration – now seemingly repentant for his notorious oversight of Big Tech censorship – the ‘vibe shift’ as the gen-zers call it, has been confirmed. The cultural sea-change and the excitement around a Trump presidency, advanced by public figures like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, is impossible not to grasp. Yet eight years on, we remain stuck, and perhaps increasingly isolated, in our own profusely Trump-critical echo chamber.
Trump derangement syndrome seems to be as strong as ever in Ireland, reinforced by those who control the narrative regular people buy into. I don’t recall anybody ever saying Donald Trump, as a human being, was perfect, but there has been a concerted campaign from the media to belittle and demean the US leader, and that effort has not been constrained to the media. While part of the frenzy around Trump seems based on concerns around the legitimate worry about the OECD tax rate, more of it seems focused on him being an awful, monstrous person, with his detractors barely able to articulate why they hate him so much. People have bought into the caricature so much that they are not able to see what a terrible leader Joe Biden was, nor are they able to recognise the early wins of the Trump administration.
Our own President previously condemned Trump as a “regressive” figure. When Trump won the election in November, a lingering silence came from Aras an Uachtarain, as Michael D Higgins took two days to bother to congratulate the new president. Simon Harris, thought it was just fine to call Trump a “ghoul.” No need to worry about international relations though, Harris insisted. Just a light-hearted jab. From all of our key political figures has come the usual sighing that democracy must be respected. The moral distancing. As Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill sighed yesterday, ‘I don’t agree with Trump, but I’ll engage.’
All of these examples, and there are so many more, should embarrass us. The Trump trauma still seems to be very real in Ireland, which is why the absurd sense of superiority remains. The irony of it all is that we like to peddle the idea on the world stage that we love America – to remind everyone that 35 million Americans claim Irish descent. The Irish establishment, you can be assured, will harp on about our ‘special relationship’ and will be thrilled to participate in the St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House, because that suits them.
It fits the narrative of the fun-loving Irish who went all over the world. Meanwhile, we continue to carve a shameless path for ourselves as one of the most Trump-hating, condescending of nations. The Irish establishment seems intent on alienation; there is no willingness to see the merits in Trump that tens of millions of Americans can see. No attempt to understand those who might think differently from us because we can’t possibly be the ones in the wrong. That is an ill-informed stance that might have consequences.