Britain vs Donald Trump

LONDON — Britain is in the grip of its most unrelenting heatwave in forever. The England national football team has made the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, succumbing to Croatia on the eve of President Trump’s arrival in the capital. In a beer-fuelled, sun-drenched haze, the not-quite-state-visit of the Commander-in-Chief takes on an ever greater significance.

Having seen the full works laid on for Chinese premier Xi Jinping in 2015, despite his reputation and undemocratic consolidation of power in a brutal, corrupt leadership, and, earlier this year, treating new Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to a lavish reception, it is only the visit of Donald Trump that has stirred the public imagination into action. And whilst there is much to protest in Trump’s politics, he has not yet reached the murderous, dictatorial lows of some of the men greeted with embrace or indifference. So what is it about Donald Trump that so offends British sensibilities?

Hanging over Parliament Square, the rather useless stretch of grass that divides London’s great institutions — the Palaces of Westminster, Whitehall, Wesminster Abbey — is an inflatable representation of Donald Trump as an iPhone clutching baby. It was crowdfunded (raising £31,302) to be the symbol of the anti-Trump protests in London (though a counter-fundraiser to create a similar balloon of London mayor Sadiq Khan raised £51,176). Tethered rather limply some 50ft of the ground, it’s an image that will be relayed via news stations around the world, communicating one…