SO President Trump would have been afforded a 'warm' welcome to Northern Ireland if the former first minister and deputy first minister had their way.
That the DUP would be in a rush to invite the obnoxious, self-absorbed narcissistic incumbent of the White House is hardly a surprise. That our first female first minister who by her own admission has a strong dislike of misogyny would be clamouring to host a man who has referred to women as objects, slobs, fat and much worse is just staggering.
Trump may hold one of the most important jobs in the world but he would be the visitor from hell.
More surprising than Arlene Foster signing off an invitation to Trump, is the fact that it was co-signed by her equal partner in office Martin McGuinness.
Sinn Féin likes to brag about its equality agenda so was the former deputy first minister thinking of setting the American president straight on his offensive and misogynistic attitudes to women? Would the ever courteous Martin McGuinness berate Trump on his so called locker room banter? It's hard to know really when the president of Sinn Féin tweeted a picture of himself between Mary Lou McDonald and their new leader in the north Michelle O'Neill saying ' Blessed am I amongst women.' Adams is known for his eccentric tweets about dogs, his baths, his favourite plastic duck and tree hugging but even by those standards this was crass and hardly a credible statement from a party leader committed to equality. It's like one of those woeful wedding jokes about a woman being a rose between two thorns.
Irish News readers vote against inviting Trump to visit Northern Ireland
It's actually a mark of just how out of touch both Sinn Féin and the DUP are against the prevailing winds of current opinion - Sinn Féin re Trump and the DUP on Brexit. Of course, on Trump Sinn Féin are already back pedalling quicker than Sir Bradley Wiggins.
I don't envy any Irish politician having to ingratiate themselves with the bumptious American president. Having met with four former presidents - Carter, Clinton and Bush 1 and 2 - and after watching the eloquence of the Obama presidency, (though less impressed with his actual performance in office) the Trump presidency is already looking like a train crash type of Truman Show. It's reality TV without controls.
It's hard to believe that Trump actually gets the security codes to launch a nuclear attack. He has described it as a 'sobering moment of responsibility' for him. Across the world political leaders were reaching for Valium and brandy in equal measure.
His cabinet is stacked with hawks and family members. His regime resembles more the court of Imperial Russia than a modern American democracy.
There are a high number of Irish Americans in his inner circle who have perhaps forgotten where their journey started.
The Anglo Saxon/ WASP propaganda of east coast and southern Americans which carried well through into the twentieth century spread fears against Catholics/Irish/blacks and Jews that were as unfounded and unrealistic as this current regime's obsession with Islam.
After only a few weeks President Trump is sucking the oxygen from the Free World. One thing is for sure that the founding fathers of the USA could never have envisaged a man at the top with so many private global interests and what part these interests may play in his presidency has yet to unfold.
The Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island that once most likely greeted Trump's German grandfather and the antecedents of his cabinet who were dirt poor Irish proudly proclaims: "Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Seems hollow these days as Trump foolishly closes the doors not only on wretched refugees but British Muslims like the British Iranian cardiologist refused entry to the US to deliver a medical paper last week.
In an era of fake news and a repudiation of experts by eejits it’s hard to believe that this infantile approach towards members of a global faith is actually anything other than a purge against common sense, shared knowledge and world interdependence.
To his supporters, Trump is a man keeping his campaign pledges - the fact that those pledges are repulsive, repugnant and regressive is neither here or there for them.
A far cry from George Washington who said: "America is open to the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions."
