In Trumpland, all the world’s a boxing ring

On Monday morning, to start off the fourth week of Donald Trump’s presidency, a man named Fred Fleitz went on Britain’s flagship domestic radio programme and blew a raspberry as he threw punches.

Mr Fleitz, vice chair of the Center for American Security conservative think tank, said the Europeans had “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out) on Ukraine. This was the reason they’re throwing “a temper tantrum”, he thundered.

Proof of the temper tantrum was apparently a scheduled meeting in Paris of the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the top officials of the European Union and Nato military alliance.

Set for the afternoon of February 17, the meeting was meant to coordinate a response to the Trump administration’s sudden announcement that it was launching peace talks on the Russia-Ukraine war. Europeans (and Nato) wanted to discuss how to interpret the Americans’ declaration that the talks would only be attended by one party in the hot war: Russia. They wanted to parse the reality that Ukraine, whose future and territory would be discussed, was not invited. Nor too the Europeans, who have been told by the US to  expect the thankless job of policing the peace should it break out.

Clearly, the Europeans were aching to talk about the right response to the Trump administration’s well-aimed kick at the collective solar plexus.

Hardly a temper tantrum – more a group therapy and strategy session – but it’s not surprising such invective comes from Trumpworld. Mr Fleitz, who served in the first Trump administration, is a good example of acerbic impatience.

Last week it was Donald Trump’s vice-president J D Vance, who lectured Europe on its censorship and lack of freedom.

And on and on and on.

In Trumpland, all the world’s a boxing ring and all the men and women merely actors, forever throwing punches and hoping their opponent spits out a mouthful of teeth.

In the years since Mr Trump travelled down his golden escalator in Trump Towers, America’s language and instincts have sunk pretty low.

MAGA-land has trademarked its catalogue of insults, using cruel language and the coarsest ofcurses to suggest its ideological rivals are beyond sense, salvation – and sans strength.

Funnily, there is nothing the MAGA insult so resembles as North Korea’s typically grievance-filled diatribes against enemies, which a Korea expert James Grayson once diagnosed as a solid psychological ploy because anyone powerful “has to be made to be the embodiment of all that is evil.” (Click here for a blog on the art of the hermit kingdom’s insults.)