Tag: Trump

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Carry On Terror Far Right Edition by Lawson Akhigbe

Every crisis deserves a prompt, and the far right is nothing if not punctual. Five men were arrested early on a Sunday near RAF Fairford, the Gloucestershire base from which US B-1 bombers have flown missions against Iran, after a local farmer noticed three white vans heading towards it. Bomb disposal robots trundled about the woods, and dozens of villagers were bundled out of their homes. Nigel Farage, meanwhile, had already left the building, intellectually speaking.

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The American Constitution Was Never Designed for a President Who Treats Congress as Optional By Lawson Akhigbe

The framers of the United States Constitution expected conflict. They expected ambition. They expected rivalry between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

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Oprah, Oz and Phil by Lawson Akhigbe

There is a particular kind of American alchemy in which a Black woman from rural Mississippi, daughter of a maid, builds the most trusted media empire in the country on a diet of empathy, self help and the gospel of "live your best life," and then spends two decades unknowingly running a finishing school for men who would go on to embarrass her politics. Oprah Winfrey did not set out to produce Donald Trump's health czar and a cable news also ran who rides shotgun on ICE raids. She set out to help people cry productively on daytime television. The nursery was warm. What hatched from it was not.

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The Monumental Ego: How Trump and Tinubu Turn Public Infrastructure Into Personal Billboards By Lawson Akhigbe

There was a time when nations had the decency to wait until a leader was safely six feet under or at the very least, out of office before plastering their name across state infrastructure. The unspoken rule of public memorials used to be simple: let history render its verdict first. If your legacy survived the passage of time without decaying into scandal, perhaps the state would name a secondary school or a modest bypass after you.

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The Diminishing Deal: When Trump Demands the Whole Field and Settles for the Square Metre He’s Already Standing On by Lawson Akhigbe

Donald Trump wanted Greenland. Not in the quiet, diplomatic, “let’s explore strategic interests over aquavit and polite nods” manner that grown-up nations occasionally attempt. No. He wanted it the way a toddler wants the biggest toy in the shop window: loudly, immediately, and with zero regard for the fact that it already belongs to someone else.

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