From the never-ending Brexit drama, to Theresa May stepping down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the UK has had an uncertain year in 2019. Luckily, a scheduled visit was approaching and the apparent saviour of the far right was making a visit to the UK. That’s it, Donald Trump was making his long-awaited return to the land where colonialism was born.
Trump’s visit began before he even boarded Air Force One with his war of words with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, over Twitter (a.k.a Trump’s battleground). Trump tweeted “@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly “nasty” to the visiting President of the United States”. It’s tweets like this that make you think: ’If I was the leader of the free world I would probably talk like Trump all the time’. However, you then realise you are an undervalued university student and what you say goes unnoticed anyway.
Business picked up in Trump style with his almost comical statements made during his sit-down meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May. Trump was quoted by CNN declaring “stick around, let’s do this deal” when discussing the possibility of trade deals in the future.
These were all standard Trump characteristics rolled into a big bouncy ball of Trumpness. Thankfully, Trump has stopped his handshake ritual of dislocating one’s arm, while skilfully popping it back into place to let them know who is boss.
Trump continued his tirade on political correctness by calling Meghan Markle “nasty” while being interviewed by British newspaper, The Sun; ultimately ruling out any chance of meeting the former American actress. A part of me would love to have Trump tell Queen Elizabeth in all his Trump-like bravado, “you know we made her famous, your majesty”.
Trump, following all his controversy in the UK, had reached the apex of his meeting with the 93-year-old Grandmother of the Commonwealth in only a couple of days. Trump had great things to say about the face on our five dollar note. From calling her majesty a “great great woman” to “embodying the spirit of dignity, duty and patriotism”.
Nevertheless, it would not be a Trump visit without controversy. What about his war of words with the Mayor of London and ill-words towards Duchess Markle? No, no my dear friends. These are mere social faux pas for the leader of the free world. One thing that cannot, and I repeat, CANNOT be broken is…royal protocol.
May I remind everyone it is not the 1700’s. What even is royal protocol? From what I understand, it is bowing and curtseying when meeting the Queen, not touching the Queen, and addressing the Queen as ‘Her Majesty’.
Here at Chattr, we do not endorse Trump or his administration…but I personally have to applaud this man for ironically bringing us into the postmodern era we call 2019.
From calling the Queen ‘she’ instead of ‘Her Majesty’, to shaking the Queen’s hand instead of choosing to bow, Donny set a much-needed precedent for Lizzy. THE WORLD IS NOT GAME OF THRONES! We do not need to bow and address people with formal titles, upholding traditions dating back to as far as the 1700’s. Should we uphold a few more traditions that date back that far? How about public beheadings, incest, defecating in the street (lets bring back that one please). You get my point.
Your Majesty, you’re an amazing woman and we love you here in Australia as well. However, these traditions and protocol you make the leaders of the world follow, as well as the members of the public, are ridiculous. It is a common debate to leave the Commonwealth – a.k.a the House of Liz – and become a Republic amongst young Australians. These protocols fuel my thirst for a Republic further.
Last year, Trump showed up three hours late for his first ever meeting with the Queen. I respect that. I truly do. We all should. World leaders should not bend over backwards and forwards – quite literally – to adhere to age-old traditions written by classists and racists.
You are problematic Donny, but you did the right thing when you met Lizzy.