Boris Johnson says Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president…
“I happen to believe that when Donald Trump says that had he been President, there would have been no Russian invasion of Ukraine. My view is that is a credible assertion.”
Immigration minister Angela Eagle accused Donald Trump of fuelling “overt racism” in the UK at Labour conference and unsurprisingly it didn’t go down well with former President. Trump’s spokesman hit back with a damning response:
“Nobody knows who this random person is or cares what comes out of her mouth. Who is she and what does she do?”
The Donald entirely correct on this one…
Last night’s Trump vs. Harris debate was fairly underwhelming. The commentariat consensus is Harris came off better than expected. The bar was quite low for that…
It’s worth noting she didn’t say much about her own platform during the debate. Little on policy, more on laughing at Trump…
A fired-up Trump, on the other hand, took aim at Harris’ U-turns on key policies, from fracking to police funding, as well as delivering some tough talk on immigration and ‘woke’ ideology. He later blasted the debate as a “three-on-one,” with the TV moderators asking Harris easy questions on democracy while often interrupting Trump (to ‘fact-check’ him). While snap polling suggests Harris won the debate, the question still stands: if she can ‘do great things,’ why hasn’t she?
Foreign Secretary David Lammy, die-hard Remainer whose fervour eclipses even Starmer’s, is sure to relish his new role as an architect of closer EU ties. Though he might find it tricker to deal with US-UK relations considering his previous vehement anti-Trump views if he reclaims the White House. If co-conspirators hoped that his trusty new SpAds would keep his hardline views in check, they may be disappointed…
Ben Judah, formerly of Europe promoting think-tank Atlantic Council and journalist, has had some choice comments on President Trump over the years. During Trump’s 2016 campaign, he wrote that Trump’s supporters didn’t care about his more controversial background as “Outside DC, where the voters might struggle to place Ukraine on a map or tell the difference between Nafta and Nato… White America can’t always get what it wants”. He later wrote a damning diagnosis of his election in the Guardian:
“Trump’s election was a symptom of a foreign policy paradigm in terminal decline… Trump is, of course, not alone. From Benjamin Netanyahu to Vladimir Putin, rightwing leaders are practicing foreign politics to advance their personal interests”.
Meanwhile, SpAd Will Heilpern will no doubt be an echo-chamber for EU loving Lammy, who called for a People’s Vote on Brexit in order “to save the country from this hard-right Tory fantasy, which was built on xenophobia, lies and a law-breaking campaign”. No wonder he loved Remoaner Corbyn so much:
To be fair to Lammy, at least this time he allowed men into his team, something he famously refused to do as he was “determined to get a woman”. He clearly opted for the ‘surround yourself with yes-men’ approach…
Sadiq Khan has taken the opportunity to deviate from Labour’s position on the US election in a fawning interview for The New Statesman. While Lammy and Starmer have been “studiously neutral” on November’s election Khan has no qualms about his support: “I’ve been so impressed with Tim Walz. It just shows the judgement that Kamala Harris has in relation to her choice for vice-president. Compare and contrast that with the choice made by the other guy, in JD Vance.” No matter – Trump knows what the Labour frontbench thinks of him…
Lammy’s defence is that “you’re going to struggle to find any politician who has not had things to say about Donald Trump in his first term” and that Trump has the “thickest of skins.” Khan is happy to destroy that line as well:
“The last time we had a Trump presidency, as a matter of public record, there was a massive increase in hate crime towards me… I worry about what a second Trump presidency would mean for me and my family, but I’m not going to allow these people to cower me.”
The “matter of public record” is analysis produced by Khan’s own office, now used to claim that Trump was in some way responsible for the targeting of a mayor in another country. The FCDO will be gritting its teeth at this latest breathless bluster…
Khan also claims politicians need to be “braver on immigration” as its problems stem from unfunded public services, and that the UK should have a “conversation” about re-joining the EU in the “medium to long term“. Khan is always ahead of the curve on Labour’s intentions…
Trump returned to Twitter last night ahead of his major interview with Elon Musk on the platform. After 42 minutes of delay caused by what Musk called a co-ordinated attack on Twitter, Trump launched into all his favourite topics pretty much unabetted by the billionaire. The main points:
- Trump will return to Butler, where he was almost killed, in October.
- Biden didn’t want to go, it was a coup. He certainly didn’t look happy about it…
- Kamala is avoiding interviews because she can’t have a normal conversation.
- Harris is a “radical left lunatic”. Just look at her tax policies…
- Biden has jacked up inflation to intolerable levels.
- ‘Border tsar’ Harris failed to tackle the border crisis.
- The US is going to build an iron dome.
- Kamala will fail to deal with Jinping, Putin, or Jong-Un who are at the “top of their game.“
- Trump told Putin not to invade Ukraine.
Harris’ team attacked the event’s tech problems and Musk: “Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.” Let’s see how she performs when she sits down for an interview…
