This blog entry is entirely attributed to Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England who apparently wrote the following response (below) to the question in the headline: “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
Note: The text was written during the reign of President 45 (sometime during the years of 2016-2020), but I guess the words are applicable also in 2025!
“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?’ If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set”.
you left out narcissistic.
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hello. I am a black woman and a Christian. I love Trump. You are entitled to your own opinion. I could say a lot about your king which would be my opinion. I cannot endorse, affirm, or agree with everything that I president has done, is or said, but one thing I can say is that we need a fighter in our country and apparently looking at your kings since you do not need a fighter in your country. I totally understand why you would not be able to comprehend a fighter like the one we have. Please do not mention the Holy name of God to further affirm your point. if you do you believe in God and consider Trump an enemy as it came across to me, you would be following the the Bible, which are God‘s words. The Bible commands us as Christians and believers to bless our enemies and curse them not to pray for them. Maybe your prayers for Trump could change the things of which you criticize him. I do not understand how you can speak so nasty of him while criticizing his language. What a hypocrite. we Americans are not confused as you stated, I believe many Americans simply realize and understand that we need a fighter. God chose Trump as our president for such a time as this. As he chose Biden, Obama, Nixon, and Washington, for their time. I believe in a divine God. I live in Chicago and see and here horrific violence. Every day mass killings, and shootings are normal here. I am sorry, but I would never choose your king to be my leader. We live in quite different situations and we need a fighter a horrific one at that
again I cannot condone everything Trump has said or done, but to be quite honest there’s not one person on this earth that I can totally agree with including you, but I can still learn from your point of view and peaceably argue against them.
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