The `Donald` was POTUS No. 45. Now he is simply P01135809.
This rather distasteful portmanteau richly deserving for someone who – as a despairing world watches the GOP car crashing inexorably out of control – may well return as POTUS No. 47!
Yes, Thursday (Friday lunchtime in Malaysia), former US president Donald Trump was arraigned as he turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia to be charged with racketeering, in connection with his effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
It is not unlike being banished to the outhouse even if Trump’s Teflon coating is slimier than most, but will he wilt under the heat of Georgia?
He has faced three other indictments (in Miami, New York and Washington DC) this year, but this is the first time the process has gone one step further. It required him to turn himself in which he did in style, flying from his home in Bedminster New Jersey to Atlanta, Georgia in his own Boeing 757.
After a two-hour flight, Trump surrendered himself at the jail after a short motorcade drive from the airport a little after 7pm (they do things differently in the United States, don’t they).
As is customary with police `arrests`, he had his photograph taken as well as fingerprinted.
His mugshot comes complete with a prisoner ID number which no doubt will be of interest to 4D lottery diehards this side of the Pacific. ENE numbers punters in Malaysia will no doubt go to town this weekend should his “OKT serial number” appear in any four-digit combination promising a possible `nombor ekor` jackpot!
The process was over too soon and having posted US$200,000 bail, Trump was free to leave – which he promptly did by flying immediately back to New Jersey from whence he came.
What a comedown for someone who presided as President of the most powerful country on earth to have your weight (he has lost a little bulk), height (the same height as NBA star Stephen Curry at 6 ft 3), hair colour (dependent on what toupe his valet picked up before he steps out of his front door) measured and recorded under duress – like any common thief. Perhaps what was missing was a device to measure his outsized ego.
Several adjectives in the pejorative are now aimed at this `Donald`. Gaslighting is one, but narcissist is rather appropriate.
In Malaysia, I wonder if we are in the realms of demagoguery – notice how someone with almost Trump-ian girth spouting uncouth invectives bordering on the profane attracts sticky support from the electorate. Credit to him, since his voter base clamour for change, and the ruling elites of the past have singularly failed to deliver.
But back to matters Trump-ian. Maybe Trump is in a league of his own although those not so enamoured by his antics may feel this Trump is one Trump too many.
But his band of `Trumpettes’ (albeit almost half of the national voter base which is evenly Republican-Democrat) simply adore him. So what does that say about the state of the United States?
And the way the GOP is scared stiff to mount much resistance, he may well win their nomination and even beat Biden to become POTUS No. 47.
When that happens there will no doubt be a clamour to flee earth’s bounds and sign up for a trip to the South Pole of the moon now that Chandrayaan3 has shown it can be done for half the cost of some Hollywood-produced space adventure movie.
Nanoo nanooo, Over and out!
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
