Time for us all to stand up to Trump and his ‘American Carnage’
Posted by Jim on January 28, 2026
THE IRISH NEWS:
Opinion
Tom Collins: Time for us all to stand up to Trump and his ‘American Carnage’.
When Trump spoke of ‘American carnage’ in his first inauguration address, who knew he was exercising his gift of prophesy, for that is what we are seeing now.
A makeshift memorial is placed where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a US border patrol officer in Minneapolis
By Tom Collins
January 27, 2026 at 6:00am GMT
IN Irish culture, the seanchaí was revered. This keeper of tradition told stories – fabulous tales which took us into the spaces between our world and the world of Aos Sí (the term ‘fairy people’ does not do them justice).
These were stories of ancient battles and ill-fated love; and the history of our land, including tales passed down from ancestors who lived before history as we know it began. The tradition is hanging on by its fingertips, but hanging on it is.
Our need for stories is universal. Fact or fiction, they help us understand the world and to engage with one another.
Sometimes the stories which touch us are formed from facts assembled by a journalist and expressed in language shorn of linguistic decoration.
As for fiction, it is often anything but that. Many of the greats of literature revealed hidden truths: Joyce eviscerated an Ireland – ‘the old sow that eats her farrow’ – dominated by the Catholic Church; Edna O’Brien spoke up for women whose sense of being had been taken from them; like her, Colm Tóibin gets under the skin of Irish society.
Night-time stories are often a subtle way of teaching children life-lessons; and many stick in the memory.
As the horrors since Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term have unfolded, one such story keeps coming to mind. You all know it. It’s The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen.
“So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone said, ‘Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes’. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success.’
“Then a little boy piped up. ‘But he hasn’t got anything on’.”
This is now reality in the United States, where a self-proclaimed emperor – leader of a coup attempt in 2021, creator of fantasies about his role as a peacemaker and economic wizard – is being feted by his courtiers and many in the wider world.
In Andersen’s tale, the little boy performs a public service. In Trump’s America, he would be shot dead for daring to exercise his right to free speech.
That happened this weekend in Minneapolis where an intensive care nurse, Alex Pretti – remember his name – was shot dead by his government’s militiamen; and that is what happened to Renee Good, a poet and, more importantly, a mother, shot dead by ICE. The government desecrated her memory when it branded her a “domestic terrorist”.
When the crowd started laughing at his nakedness, “the Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has got to go on’. So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”
In our time these noblemen are people like Nato secretary general Mark Rutte; Keir Starmer, the fawning prime minister of Little Britain; war crimes suspects Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin; a string of dictators in the Middle East; human rights abusers like Alexander Lukashenko; and Tony Blair – I rest my case.
Since his assumption of power last year, and what can only be described as a reign of terror on the most vulnerable in the United States, the world’s approach to Trump has been to suck up to him.
Global organizations like FIFA have debased themselves. Even the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize offered up her medal to Trump.
Meanwhile, Venezuela has been decapitated and its oil stolen; Ukraine has been left exposed to the predations of Russia; Greenland is under threat of occupation; and across the US, individual states – like Minnesota – are being invaded by the federal government and turned into killing grounds.
When Trump spoke of “American carnage” in his first inauguration address, who knew he was exercising his gift of prophesy, for that is what we are seeing now: American carnage in the United States itself, and American carnage across the globe.
Yes, America is powerful and Trump can do enormous damage from his gilt-lined office in the White House.
But the time has now come for the ordinary decent people of America to stand up to him – and increasingly people there are.
But more importantly the time has come for the world to untangle itself from the US and to forge new alliances – closer links between Canada and the European Union being a good starting point.
As a seanchaí would remind us: “Any man can lose his hat in a fairy wind.”
With St Patrick’s Day approaching, let us pray that the fairy wind brings misfortune to the current occupant of the White House and good fortune to a world which deserves better than he is offering.
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