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Democracy dies in Trumpian boredom

The candidate’s unchecked flow of untruths and bizarre outbursts spell danger but no longer cause sufficient shock.

Donald Trump’s unchecked flow of untruths and bizarre outbursts spell danger but no longer cause sufficient shock, says the writer.

The 2024 US election’s odd blend is to be equal parts dull and frightening, says the writer.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Edward Luce

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Call it the banality of chaos. Here is a checklist of Donald Trump’s recent activity. He

promised to let Jan 6 convicts out of jail

on day one of his presidency

close the US-Mexico border and “drill baby drill” for gas and oil. He feted Mr Viktor Orban in Mar-a-Lago as the best leader in the world and assured Hungary’s strongman that he would not “give a penny” to Ukraine. He took out a US$91.6 million (S$122 million) surety bond to pay

defamation damages to his sexual assault victim, Ms E. Jean Carroll.

He purged the Republican National Committee (RNC) with 60 staff firings – the opening move by his daughter-in-law, Ms Lara Trump, whom he hand-picked as RNC co-chair. He

did a U-turn on TikTok,

now saying its Chinese parent company should retain ownership. He mimicked US President Joe Biden’s stutter, insisted that America’s true inflation rate was 50 per cent, and attacked Jimmy Kimmel as the worst-ever Oscars host. It seems almost trivial to add that new detail emerged about Trump’s apparent soft spot for Adolf Hitler.

Democracy dies in Trumpian boredom

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