I felt it in my bones. That Trump was going to win the 2024 presidential election. Kamala Harris seemed nice enough. But she just couldn’t get her point across. I don’t understand what she stood for. Collecting celebrity endorsements, waving your arms and going ‘Ra! Ra! Ra!, are not enough to win a presidential election. It’s about having a message that resonates. And Trump certainly had that. I really don’t want Taylor Swift telling me how to vote in a UK general election. So Britain has just got to roll with it. Something I don’t think was helped by David Lammy’s 2019 comments about Trump. Wow! That’s going to be good for business. Oh I forgot! He and Starmer had lunch with Trump. So that makes it all right.
When I wrote about Trump in my 2021 book, Write Quick. Get Published, I had no idea that he was going to make a comeback. For me, he was just a trope of a showman come politician. An entertainer. Someone who used their celebrity to propel himself into the White House. This is what I said.
“If you are writing a political thriller, wouldn’t you want to reserve a place for Donald Trump? He might be the bad boy of American politics. But he’s also a big character. He’s larger than life. Remember that before he became president, he was an entertainer. He hosted the American version of The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015. Like Reagan before him, it was his celebrity which propelled him into the White House. Pitch him against other politicians in a stand-up comedy contest and he’d win hands down. No one is asking you to like him. Of course you’d have to change the name. And not include anything which might identify the real person behind that character. You might even decide to cast your president as a female. But the core authentic personality would still be the same. “
There are also some things on which I agree with Trump. Like Trump, it irritates me the way the West has outsourced all of its jobs, manufacturing and pollution to China. Why is it that I can’t buy anything that isn’t made in China? Even the £150 jacket which I saw in Debenhams before it closed up shop. Even the Covid testing kit which I chucked in the bin. It’s as though I don’t have a choice. Several years ago, a weddings outfitter was prosecuted after pretending that wedding dresses were made in its own factory, when in fact they had a label saying that they were made in China. I’m glad I wasn’t wearing it.
BRUCE AND HOLLY 