'Trump appears to view 1984 as how-to handbook for governance'

IN THE hallowed grounds of All Saints' church in Sutton Courtenay, Oxon, George Orwell must be spinning in his grave. His classic novel 1984 laid out the framework for an authoritarian dystopian future he hoped never to witness. Yet Donald Trump appears to view 1984 as a how-to handbook for governance.

- Peter Sheridan

Positioning himself as the omnipotent Big Brother, he is arresting people for “thought-crime”, rewriting history like Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, and barring terms like “equality” and “inclusion” with the unashamed brazenness of Orwell’s “Newspeak”.

Millions of Americans who voted for Trump believed he was the voice of sanity and common sense, vowing to undo the excesses of extreme liberal “woke” policies, eradicate diversity programmes that seemed prejudiced against white males, keep trans athletes out of women’s sports, and halt the flood of illegal immigration.

True to his word he has done so, but Trump’s brutish grasp of politics has taken Orwellian totalitarianism and tipped it into the realm of lunacy, chaos and confusion. Big Brother would be mortified.

The global economy is in dis-array in the aftermath of his onagain, off-again tariffs. At home, Americans who saw Trump as their hope for law and order are bewildered to see him flout both, threatening to defy the constitution by running for a third term in office in 2028.