STEPHEN GLOVER: Unlike a few of my Tory pals, the return of Donald Trump, a rabble-rousing braggart, leaves me fearful and depressed

Many people on the Right in Britain are delighted by Donald Trump‘s victory. He has seen off Kamala Harris, a patently mediocre woman of the soft Left who champions woke causes. I am very far from delighted. In fact, I’m profoundly depressed. 

There is good reason to believe that Trump will be bad for America, the world and Britain.

Of course, we don’t have very much idea what he will do since such policies as he unveiled during the presidential campaign were pretty vague, and may never see the light of day.

Nevertheless, we know he is a convicted felon who incited an insurrection in Washington in January 2021. We know he’s a liar and cheat who claimed without supplying any evidence that the November 2020 election was stolen from him.

We also know that last year a civil court delivered a judgment that Trump sexually abused a woman in the mid-1990s, and was liable for battery, as well as for defaming her.

Boris Johnson defended Trump during Channel 4’s live coverage of the election last night

Donald Trump’s more extreme policies could unsettle America and the rest of the world (pictured at an election night watch party on Wednesday)

Trump, his wife Melania and their son Barron celebrate the victory in Florida early on November 6

These are not mere character flaws or blemishes. They collectively amount to the most damning moral indictment of any leader elected in a modern democracy. Not for nothing was he recently described by his longest-serving former chief of staff as a ‘fascist’.

I am amazed that some of my Tory friends, not to mention millions of American voters, are prepared to overlook the sins of this foul-mouthed braggart.

Let me say, in a spirit of fairness, that Trump has one quality – an ability to persevere despite being hauled from one court to another and being chastised by the mainstream media. No one should gainsay the extent of his achievement in being only the second man in American history to return to the White House after being out of office.

We saw Trump’s inner strength in the moments after he was wounded in an assassination attempt in July, mouthing the words ‘Fight, fight, fight’ having been raised to his feet.

Remarkable, yes, but this resilience doesn’t wipe out the lies or the name-calling or the whipping up of a violent mob. It is proof of an unquenchable ego, and possibly of a narcissistic personality.

What does Trump’s triumph tell the young people of the United States and the world? That brazen lying can be rewarded with the highest prizes. That cheats prosper. What a dismal example, and how far from America’s idea of itself as a shining city on a hill.

It gets worse. Looking at Trump – his rambling and incoherent speeches, often delivered in babyish English – who can say with any confidence that this capricious, unpredictable 78-year-old will be a stable and reliable leader of the Free World?

Kamala Harris is pedestrian, and misguided in her economic prescriptions for America. Her dullness, though, would have guaranteed security. She wouldn’t have done anything mad. We can’t say the same about Donald Trump.

Consider his ideas. He has vowed to impose a 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries except China, which is threatened with 60 per cent duties. Oh, and Mexico faces 100 per cent tariffs unless it stops illegal immigrants from crossing the border with the US. The effect of such measures would be to increase prices in America, and probably lead to a global trade war.

Trump will be challenged to confront Russia and help Ukraine negotiate peace terms 

The United States is Britain’s largest single trade partner. We enjoy a surplus. Don’t imagine that, just because Trump is half-British and supposedly likes this country, he will exempt us.

Maybe he’ll change his mind about tariffs. But it’s certainly possible that he will go ahead with the scheme to our detriment. The other day – this is a measure of the man’s wildness – he suggested he would like to scrap federal income tax and replace the revenue with money generated from tariffs.

Trump is an isolationist as well as a protectionist. My colleague Boris Johnson – who as Prime Minister was the Western leader who first rallied to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s side after Russia’s invasion – has suggested that Trump ‘will be strong and decisive’ in his support of Ukraine and in ‘defending democracy’.

There’s very little evidence to support this view. Trump has spoken about Ukraine in negative terms, describing it as ‘demolished’ in September, and its people as ‘dead’. The US has hitherto provided far more military aid to the beleaguered country than any other government. Only optimistic souls believe this will continue under Trump.

Indeed, the happiest man in the world apart from Donald Trump is probably Vladimir Putin. He knows that prospective Vice-President JD Vance has said Ukraine should cede land to end the war. If such a capitulation is forced on Zelensky by Trump, it will embolden Putin in further adventures.

 Labour will be pressed to meet its defence obligations under Trump – but European leaders will fear the 47th President may pull the US out of the bloc altogether (pictured: Keir Starmer)

Then there is Nato, of which Trump has been a relentless critic. Earlier this year, he said during a campaign rally that he would ‘encourage’ Russia ‘to do whatever the hell they want’ to Nato allies that don’t spend enough on defence.

During his first presidency Trump rightly rebuked European countries for taking a free ride on American taxpayers, and devoting insufficient resources to defence. France, Germany, Spain and Italy must dig much deeper into their pockets. So should Britain, which spends only slightly more.

But it’s bound to take time for European countries to build up their capabilities. The danger is that they will face a resurgent Russia – which may be handed victory in Ukraine by the mercurial Trump – before they are able to defend themselves without Uncle Sam’s protection.

Those on the Right who deprecate Kamala Harris should accept that, for all her shortcomings, she wouldn’t have left Nato allies in such a predicament. That is what I mean when I say that she offered far greater security.

Not all of Trump’s policies are dangerous, of course. His tough line on illegal immigration, which has run out of control during the Biden years, evidently won him support including, interestingly, from Latinos. (Keir Starmer, take note.) That said, Trump’s threatened deportation of ‘maybe 20 million’ undocumented migrants sounds draconian.

Remember he will have a Republican Senate and, very possibly when the results have come in, a Republican House of Representatives. Republican appointees also control the Supreme Court. He will have almost untrammelled freedom to do whatever he wants.

We are heading for turbulent times. And I don’t expect that the bellicose Trump will be drawn to our own dear Government.

A man more different from our PM could scarcely be imagined; Starmer idiotically boasted of his recent dinner with Trump yesterday, as though it was proof of a deep friendship. I’m sure the volatile President-elect won’t forget insults recklessly churned out by Foreign Secretary David Lammy while in opposition, such as calling him a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’ and ‘a tyrant in a toupee’.

We’ll have to try to get on with him, of course. Let’s pray that his often insane bark turns out to be worse than his bite.

Donald Trump is, or will be once installed in the White House in January, the most powerful man on earth. It is the prospect of this vast power being misused and abused that truly terrifies me.