There was a collective sharp intake of breath this afternoon, when notifications started pinging up on phones that Donald Trump had been posting on Truth Social again – here are the most unhinged things that happened in Trumpworld in the last 24 hours
A year ago today, Donald Trump was sworn in as President for the second time. Politicians who get things done are often referred to as “a man in a hurry”. That’s a phrase that might have to be retired after Trump’s second Presidency, because it implies the hurry he’s in is towards some sort of positive change, rather than a rush to completely disintegrate the world as we know it.
Many of the things he’s done were predictable. Invading sovereign countries, trying to buy Greenland, the mass deportations and arrests of innocent US citizens – he promised to do all those things, and some of us took him at his word. But nobody really expected him to break everything so efficiently and quickly.
So here’s to another three years or more of Donald Trump turning up into down and black into white and painting the sky purple. Maybe one day things will calm down. But not today.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- Trump started with a posting spree
- He absolutely bodied Keir Starmer
- Then he leaked Macron’s DMs
- A Danish MEP had a very sweary pop at him
- And Gavin Newsom came up with a very odd, but useful, analogy
Here’s what you need to know
1. Trump started the day with a posting spree
There was a collective sharp intake of breath this afternoon, when notifications started pinging up on phones that Donald Trump had been posting on Truth Social again.
He started by posting a whole bunch of stuff about ICE and wild conspiracy theories.
“The Department of Homeland Security and ICE must start talking about the murderers and other criminals that they are capturing and taking out of the system,” he wrote, as if they’ve not been trying to spin their migrant purge that way since the campaign.
He posted a video of a man in a trucker cap claiming that Somali Americans are too stupid to come up with a plan to defraud the US government on their own, and must be in the thrall of some kind of shadowy force in control of “them”.
And he retweeted a lengthy string of conspiracy theories about election rigging and voting machines, one of which was from an account called “QThestorm”. All totally normal behaviour for a world leader. No notes.
2. Of course… it didn’t last
At the time of writing, Trump’s most recent post takes him back to the subject of Greenland and the Nato alliance.
“No single person, or President, has done more for NATO than President Donald J. Trump,” he wrote. “If I didn’t come along, there would be no NATO right now!!! It would have been in the ash heap of History. Sad, but TRUE!!! President DJT.”
Nurse!
3. Trump does a late night mid-air drive by on Starmer
Travelling back to Washington DC from Palm Beach late last night, Trump went on a bit of a posting spree. We’ll get to the rest of it later, but let’s begin with this absolute bodying of Keir Starmer. “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Perhaps even more than the Greenland tariff threat, the US President having a pop at the Chagos Islands deal lit up the British right wing like a burning house full of fireworks. For some reason, the UK right is FURIOUS that we’re giving up the Chagos Islands, despite most people outside Westminster neither knowing what they are or caring if we own them. Farage and Badenoch, obviously, both took the opportunity to swing in behind the US President, and in opposition to Starmer.
There’s also some question of whether Farage put this particular bug in Trump’s ear. On Saturday night, when Trump’s tariff Truth post broke, Farage was straight out of the gate, posting on Twitter: “If Greenland is vulnerable to malign influences, then have another look at Diego Garcia.”
4. Starmer wasn’t the only one who got Trumped overnight
As well as Starmer’s day being made much more awkward by a Truth Social post, Emmanuel Macron woke up to find his DMs had been leaked. By Trump.
“My friend, we are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” Macron said in a screenshotted text message posted by Trump overnight. “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland. Let us try to build great things: 1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us. Emmanuel”
5. This all came after Trump made this wild threat to Macron
Asked on the tarmac in Palm Beach whether he was bothered about Macron declining to join his Board of Peace…permanent membership of which will reportedly set a country back $1 billion… Trump said: “Nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office pretty soon. What I’ll do is, if he’s, like, hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join.”
6. A Danish MEP made his feelings very clear about Greenland
Hero of the day goes to A Danish MEP Anders Vistisen, who stood up in the European Parliament today and made himself extremely clear.
He began his speech by saying: “Let me put this in words you might understand: Mr President…f*** off.” He was almost immediately interrupted by the chair and told that his language was not appropriate for the hallowed chamber. They have rules about this sort of thing.
But it’s actually not the first time Mr Vistisen has used this particular form of profanity in relation to Donald Trump. He first used it in a speech a year ago, when Trump first seriously floated the idea of the US annexing Greenland.
7. Von Der Leyen hits back at tariff threat
Trump’s threats of new tariffs over Greenland are “a mistake especially between long-standing allies,” top EU official Ursula Von Der Leyen said in Davos.
And she’s calling into question Trump’s trustworthiness after he agreed last year not to impose more tariffs on EU countries.
“The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July,” Von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “And in politics as in business – a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.”
She vowed that the EU’s response “will be unflinching, united and proportional.”
8. He leaked the boss of Nato’s texts too
Not satisfied with leaking the private messages of the French President, he also published an alleged message from the Secretary General of Nato, Mark Rutte, who said: “Mr President, dear Donald – what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.
At least he didn’t call him Daddy this time.
9. Europe, Gavin Newsom has had enough of your nonsense
Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, has been in Davos to counterprogram Trump’s arrival tomorrow. And he had a message for European leaders at the summit: Buck your ideas up.
“It’s time to buck up,” he told reporters. “And it’s time to get serious. And stop being complicit. And it’s time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone. I’ve seen this in the United States, a supine congress playing both sides. Saying one thing on a text or tweet and another thing publicly. It’s time to have principles. It’s time to stand tall and strong and stand united.”
He went on: “I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of knee-pads for all the world leaders. I mean, handing out crowns, and handing out…I mean, this is pathetic. Nobel Prizes, they’re being given away. It’s just pathetic. I hope people understand how pathetic they look on the world’s stage. At least from an American perspective, it’s embarrassing.
“The Europeans should decide for themselves what they do, but what they can’t do is what they’ve been doing. And they’ve been played. This guy is playing folks for fools and it’s embarrassing.”
Asked about the prospect of talking Trump down, he laughed and said: “Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He’s a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other. The European could be [devoured] if they continue down this process.”
And in a point that will resonate with many, Newsom said: “A year ago we should have been having this conversation and they didn’t. And now you’re paying the price. It’s exactly what any objective observer would have anticipated where we are today.”