Surveying Trump

As Donald Trump offers to govern by survey, an Irish senator passionately calls him out for what he truly is

On Friday, President-Elect of the United States of America Donald Trump sent out what he termed a “100-day plan of action survey” with the objective of “[determining] what we must accomplish as our first order of business”.

Within the survey were twenty-nine multiple guess options to click and instead of following ‘The Donald’s’ supposed election day desire to “heal” and “unite”, most of them were incendiary and dividing. Amongst them were the following:

“Begin constructing the wall along the Southern border”.

“Repeal and replace ObamaCare”.

“Direct the Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator”.

“Introduce [sic] plan to defeat ISIS”.

“Begin removing the more than two million criminal illegal immigrants”.

“Cancel billions of dollars in payments to U.N. climate change programs, and use that money to fix our own country”.

“Lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars worth of American energy, including shale, oil, natural gas, and clean coal”.

Indication of anything other than a tolerant and logical regime, Trump’s continuing focus on his ridiculous wall and insulting China shows how little he’s progressed but thankfully in Ireland one politician has dared to stand up to him.

In a video, shared on his Facebook page, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin remarked:

“Edmund Burke once said: ‘The only way evil can prosper is for good men to do nothing’ and America has just elected a fascist and the best thing good people in Ireland can do is to ring them up and ask if it’s still OK to bring the shamrock on St Patrick’s Day”.

“I am embarrassed by the Irish government’s reaction to what’s happened in America… And I don’t use the word fascist lightly”.

“What else would you call somebody who threatens to imprison his political opponents? What else would you call somebody who threatens to not allow people of a certain religious faith into their country? What else would you describe someone who is threatening to deport ten million people? What else would say the media is rig, the political system is rigged and then he wins an election and the best we can come out with is a phone call to say: ‘Is it still OK to bring the shamrock?’ I am appalled that a member of this house, a female member of this house, went on social media to congratulate this man”.

“… Can the government not understand what is happening? We are at an ugly international crossroads. What’s happening in Britain is appalling, what’s happening across Europe is appalling. It has echoes of the 1930s and America, the most powerful country in the world, has just elected a fascist”.

“… When are we going to have the moral courage to speak in terms other than economy all the time and to realise what is happening?”

“… I am frightened, I am absolutely frightened for what is happening to this world and to our inability to stand up against it”.

“… How are we supposed to deal with this monster who has just been elected President of America? I don’t think any of us, in years to come, should not look back at this period and not say we did everything in our power to call it out for what it is”.

Elsewhere, in New York, last night, Mike Pence went to see Hamilton in New York. He was booed so loudly by the audience that the performance had to repeatedly be stopped and then, at the end, the cast told him: “We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children”.