Current Affairs

Its called “sundowners” in America, I first learnt about sundowners from a personal account by Paul Krugman, he explained that sadly his father went through it and thinks Trump is in his final stages of sanity. In Britain we call it vascular dementia, (the symptoms fit) in the last few weeks of my fathers life he suffered from the disease, it is a sad way to go, at times there is lucidity but at other times there is no filter and the wildest arguments come out from the person affected by the disease.

Filters are important, they strive to create arguments, which brings consensus. I have no doubt that the belittling of the Europeans who came to the aid of the US after it invoked Article 5 of the NATO convention has been forgotten, (especially among the non-combat contingent JD Vance and Pete Hesketh), who have rolled out their version of the truth by playing dumb when it came to the contribution of the NATO forces in Afghanistan. (It is a really sad reflection of the US political scene that there is an inability of the presidents party to create consensus and have an input in Trumps diplomatic machinations). But to be blunt about the US forces – without NATO the war would have been shorter – the US would have lost more service men, however with NATO the trouble US forces got into in Afghanistan reflected the trouble UK and other NATO contingent experienced in Afghanistan as well.

I will never forget the hearse driving through Wooten Basset with crowds throwing flowers on the slow moving vehicles carrying the coffins of our fallen. I will also never forget the servicemen who have been left disabled from the war in Helmand and will never forget that Blair with his usual determination negotiated Britain into the worst sector in Afghanistan – so he could “sit at the top table….”

There are so many arguments that could be made about the lack of experience in the White House of combat in war zones, that it would be nice to see the images that Vance made on the frontlines, and as a veteran of the Iraq campaign he may have had a bit of experience with other NATO forces he has forgotten about. It would also have been nice if Vance had stood up for those soldiers who gave their life – that Trump termed “stupid” for defending their country. And it would be nice if the US special operations gave some credit to the British special forces who taught the US operators how to perform complex operations in complex fields. But like anything in American life – fiction is more real than facts – and with this president there seem to be very few facts and a lot more fictitious arguments that he draws on to create statements that wouldn’t be out of place in a school play ground.

My father was always worried that he was missing a flight in his final weeks of vascular dementia. He had somewhere to be, somewhere to go and my favourite memory was of him sitting on a trolley waiting in A&E, asking me if the suitcase he packed had been checked in. There were other elements in his last few weeks that weren’t so pleasant, but he did know he didn’t want a priest on his death bed and did know who I was in his final moments. I am glad that on the day he died I got hammered at his favourite pub where we told stories, laughed and cried in a strange kind of wake.

I am not sure whether Trump will have many getting hammered when he dies, but there are some similarities with my father, he liked golf, but unlike Trump he hated cheats. He was useless at the game – but bet on his prowess and lost every match he competed in. He was proud of his position at golf tournaments giving out prizes to the professionals, and it was a great disappointment in his life that I did not share his passion for hitting a ball around a field. But that’s where the similarities with Trump end – apart from sundowners or vascular dementia as it is called here.

The hand injury Trump had in Davos mirrors a bruise the doctor makes when trying to find a vein to place a drip; but it is the lack of lucidity and his aggression that is at the forefront of Trumps behaviour when he is among journalists, especially women that is most worrying. The long rambling press conferences that juxtapose his thoughts are keenly snapped up by those looking for by-lines and headlines, but it is in the presidents rambling and meandering speeches that there is a lack of lucidity, focus and direction that is most concerning. “YES” Trump is known for rambling and a lack of direction, but the behaviour of the president in Switzerland would challenge any professional or any business person to trust his arguments especially in the privacy of a conversation between two business or state leaders.

I am sure the health secretary Kennedy would have a few arguments that would expound his own view of dementia, but the fact that there is only so much that you can do, is also a realisation that the arguments that took place about Biden’s health are coming back to bite the US once again under Trump. Questions of competency have been at the forefront of back channels for some time, but it was the questions asked when the president had an MRI, which should have been at the front of every journalists notebook. The sad argument is whether a presidential age limit should be set in the United States, especially after the US has been saddled by two presidents who have been challenged by their age and been undermined by arguments of competency.

It is also that Trump is hitting out continually with law suits that would not necessarily be a priority for a president who is confident in their handling of Wall Street or media companies. Maybe I am reading to much into the machinations of the president, there are two questions that should be asked, one is whether the bubble he lives in reflects the reality of his life in general or whether the unpredictability of the president is a sign of a cognitive degenerative disease. But the Trump who fought the election single handed and was able to focus on the main gripe of the American people (inflation) is not the same man. The lack of filter is worrying and that he does not have a dominant argument other than route one is extremely worrying from this side of the Atlantic.

There has been talk that he is unable to analyse conversations that he has had and the last person that he spoke to is the most likely to have influenced his arguments. The behaviour of Trump is really unreadable as he seems to be a soundboard for other arguments, and though the likelihood is that he is suffering a degenerative illness that is making him incapable of analysing arguments, his weakness seems to be that he is either not receiving the information he needs to manage his arguments or he is cognitively becoming less capable of managing the pressure of high office.     

Whether you agree with Trump or not, is also a reflection of how world leaders manage the machinations of a man who is ready to spill diplomatically sensitive arguments into ramblings that at times challenge those closest to the United States. The poverty of his arguments were set out before he came to power, but now he is celebrating the first year of his presidency is a reflection of how these arguments have turned both inwardly and outwardly that reflects a decline in American argument.