What do Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Silvio Berlusconi have in common? If this sounds like the beginning of an off-colour joke, in a way it is. But the joke’s on us.
Huge egos, certainly. Love of money, no doubt. Compulsive lying, untrustworthiness, predatory relationships with women, links to shady characters, media manipulation – in life and death, they shared all this and more.
All three relied on opportunistic, hard-right populist-nationalist politics, spiced with braggadocio and sickly charm, to dazzle, woo and bamboozle voters – which they often succeeded in doing.
The Three Stooges were top of the news again last week, but for different reasons: they hit the buffers, finally came unstuck, got what was coming, were called to account – pick whichever phrase best expresses your inner schadenfreude.
Trump was criminally indicted in federal court. Johnson ran for the hills – in his case, the Chilterns – rather than face the Partygate music. And Italy’s eternally divisive Berlusconi, who believed he was immortal, went to meet his maker.
Attention-seeking is another shared characteristic. It was a subdued Trump who was hauled before the beak in Miami. But he perked up when Maga-maniacs, Bible-thumpers and assorted hangers-on lionised him at a 77th birthday bash.
Taking refuge in his luxury golf resort in New Jersey, poor, persecuted Trumpy whimpered he was the innocent victim of nasty Joe Biden’s “band of thugs, misfits and Marxists”. Paranoia: that’s another shared trait.
Trump thrives on being the centre of attention, on hogging the limelight. At heart, he’s a showman and a child, eager for his mum (and the world) to watch. “Hey, Ma! Look what I’ve done now!” Margaret Thatcher called it the “oxygen of publicity”. Without it, he suffocates.
Johnson is much the same. As parliament was reminded last week, there’s nothing he will not do, no one he won’t betray, no promise he won’t break to steal a march or grab a headline. Cut from the same cloth, Berlusconi bowed out with the starring role in an epic state funeral.
The humbling of heroes and powerful villains, the fall of kings and tyrants – these are age-old, ever-popular political and theatrical themes. Think King Lear. Think Shah of Iran or Romania’s Ceausescu. Think Thatcher herself.
It makes for a great story, which is why Trump et al are box office. They sell papers, attract page views, boost ratings. Sadly, in Trump’s and Johnson’s cases, dethroning may not permanent. Both plot a glorious restoration.
A bigger problem is that such carry-ons and make-believe palavers are a serious distraction from what’s happening to real people in the real world. It’s a familiar dilemma for conscientious news editors and consumers alike.
Take war-torn Sudan for example. While Trump was fulminating about the unfairness of it all and Johnson was whingeing to his mates, hundreds of terrified, unaccompanied children were spilling over the border into Chad – victims of an unfolding regional catastrophe.
Sudan led the news a few weeks ago when Britain and other more fortunate countries scrambled to evacuate their nationals. Now it’s almost forgotten by western governments and media, even though the war is escalating.
The numbers are shocking. The UN estimates 470,000 people have left Sudan since April. About 1.4 million are internally displaced. Nearly 25 million are in need. Twenty-five million!
Sudan’s implosion is only too real, and resonates across northern Africa – where broken countries such as Somalia, Libya and others in the Sahel also totter on the brink of disintegration – and far beyond.
“The outbreak of fighting in Sudan should give world leaders pause: it threatens to be the latest in a wave of devastating wars in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia that over the past decade have ushered in a new era of instability and strife,” the independent International Crisis Group warned recently.
“Mostly because of conflicts, more people are displaced (100 million) or in need of humanitarian aid (339 million) than at any point since World War II.”
Inescapably real, too, is the fact that poor countries are the biggest losers from the combined effect of the pandemic, the Ukraine war and western anti-inflationary measures. The World Bank says UN anti-poverty goals will be missed by miles.
If only because of a prospective surge in cross-Mediterranean and cross-Channel migration, dramatised by the latest terrible boat tragedy off Greece, addressing root causes of instability in Africa should surely be a top UK priority.
“Losing” large regions of the world to authoritarianism and Chinese and Russian influence should be a big worry for the US. Yet rightwing populists like Johnson and Trump seem oblivious. Living a blinkered alternative reality, they act out solipsistic dramas – and indulgent media mostly play along.
The damage done by such “leaders” cannot be measured simply by the number of lies told, laws broken and promises unfulfilled. Their bad example, emulated around the world, inflicts unseen, untold damage on millions whose future hopes depend on responsible global leadership.
It damages countries whose path to prosperity, democracy and human rights is uncertain and easily reversed. Each time Trump sets himself above the law, a dictator in Africa or Asia cheers. Each time Johnson distorts the truth, dark deeds go unpunished elsewhere.
Trump, Johnson, Berlusconi and likeminded charlatans of the right hijack the agenda, journalists write the headlines, and readers lap it up. Yet here’s the real story: those guys are bad news – for everyone, everywhere.
