WE CAN'T LET THIS HAPPEN IN AUSTRALIA ...

Say what you will about Donald Trump, but even his most vehement critics must admit that he is, in a bizarre way, a brilliant communicator.

I say bizarre because clearly he has the ability to cut through and deliver a message, even if that message either makes little sense or, very often, is an outright lie or a misconstruction of the truth.

But Trump has been enabled in telling his outrageous lies and in unleashing his self-focussed stream-of-consciousness ramblings because of the gradual collapse of serious media in America and the impotent White House press corps.

We in Australia must take note of what has been happening behind the scenes in Washington. And we must make sure it doesn’t happen here.

White House press briefings have descended into a low-level vaudeville act where Trump’s latest press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, the youngest and least-experienced in history, holds court.

She is a 27-year-old whose credentials extend to being a former intern at Fox TV and in the First Trump White House and a 2022 failed New Hampshire House of representatives’ candidate.

At each White House briefing, she parrots the Trump party line with all the blind passion and unquestioned certainty of one who doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.

She picks favourites for questions, ignores queries that don’t suit her message and generally refuses to accept any accountability on behalf of the administration.

And she’s able to do that because Trump’s media handlers now effectively control access to the briefings.

Their doctrinaire selection process has allowed them to infiltrate the accredited media there with Trump-friendly ‘media’ representatives. In addition, they’ve cut back the number of briefings; changed seating plans to favour supportive news outlets; restricted live coverage; and limited the number of questions.

The tone is invariably adversarial, with Leavitt regularly labelling stories and outlets ‘fake news’ when they are counter the party line.

But, hopefully, there are some stirrings of a fightback.

Today, the US District Court ordered the White House to restore Associated Press’ full access to presidential events.

The administration had banned AP, the 179-year-old not-for-profit news agency, from the briefings and aboard Air Force One after it refused to comply with Trump’s executive order unilaterally renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

In handing down the order, US District Court Judge, Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, said:

“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists – be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere – it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints.

“The Constitution requires no less.”

But, while AP has had a small victory, Trump’s war against the media continues apace.

His minions have instigated investigations against the major TV news networks ABC, CBS and NBC, dismantled the government-run Voice of America and threatened to remove funding for public broadcasters, PBS and NPR.

It’s straight out of the playbook for dictators and autocrats. And it’s a recipe for disaster because a cowed, ineffectual media is the first step along the road to the destruction of democracy.

AMERICA'S COMPASSION BY-PASS ...

The one thing Donald Trump has been successful in eliminating from America’s international relations has been the very characteristic that set it apart from other great powers, compassion.

There have been many proud examples of American compassion on the international stage: the Lend-Lease deal with Britain in WWII described by Churchill as “the most unsordid act in the whole of recorded history”; the Marshall Plan after WWII to help rebuild Europe; the Berlin Airlift to break the Soviet blockade in 1948-9; and the Peace Corps created by JFK in 1961.

In recent years, America has continued in this vein: its humanitarian aid, especially in natural disasters; its acceptance of refugees, especially those fleeing violence, like Syria and Afghanistan; its global health programs, especially to combat AIDS and malaria; its educational exchange programs, like the Fulbright scholars; and its disaster relief programs (eg Ebola, tsunamis, etc).

Then came Trump reading from the Project 2025 manifesto.

In just a few months, Trump – supported by his tech thugs and his doctrinaire back-up singers - has worked tirelessly to eliminate compassion from all levels of his administration.

Sadly, it seems that it’s the one area of Trump 2.0 where he’s succeeded, both at home and abroad.

The resulting damage will be long-lasting and widespread and it will place America in the same category as Russia and China in dealing with its own citizens and with other nations.

MAKING ANZAC DAY OPTIONAL?

Last week the parents of the kids at Sherwood Ridge Primary received an email from the principal telling them that attendance at the school’s Anzac Day service, planned for April 10, was optional.

Sherwood Ridge Primary was established in 2004 at Kellyville in north-west Sydney. It educates kids from Kindy to Year 6 and its motto is: “from each their best”.

The school is clearly conscious of its own brief history. Its website highlights that it was built on the site of an old settlers’ cottage, dating back to 1883, “built by Frank Sherwood and Jim Armstrong, who cut their own timber and built it out of slab and clay”.

A couple of weeks ago the school celebrated Iftar (the meal Muslims have at sunset to break their fast after Ramadan).

And that’s a good thing, fostering unity and celebrating diversity.

But, after a small group of parents requested that their kids be “exempt” from commemorating Anzac Day, apparently on religious grounds, the school decided to make their day of remembrance optional.

As you’d expect, this has sparked the usual reactions from both ends of the spectrum.

Let’s take a more measured view. One of the corner pieces of the jigsaw that makes up what it means to be an Australian is an understanding of the meaning and significance of Anzac Day.

It doesn’t glorify war. Quite the contrary. It’s a day of reflection on the sacrifices made by so many to preserve the liberty which all Australians enjoy today. The spirits of those who made the sacrifices live on in each of us.

The Shrines at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Anzac Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park and on Melbourne’s St Kilda Rd all represent this reflective gratitude.

To understand where you’re heading, you need to understand where you’ve come from.

 Sherwood Ridge’s school pledge reads:

“I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,

Whose democratic beliefs I share,

Whose rights and liberties I respect,

And whose laws I will uphold and obey.”

 Surely it makes sense for all the kids who pass through Sherwood Ridge to understand who gave them the “liberty and democracy” they pledge to respect and uphold?

TRUMP 3.0? … SURELY NOT

Perhaps the most frightening development to emerge from the Trumposphere came this week when he started testing the water on a possible run for a third term.

Trump would be 82 at the end of this term but he’s been dropping hints that he may run again in 2028.

This comes despite the fact that it would be in direct contravention of the 22nd Amendment to the US constitution, introduced in 1951 after FDR had been elected four times in a row.

The amendment is clear: “No person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice.”

Trump claimed American voters would support a third term because of his popularity. He claims to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years”.

As with so many of his claims, this is false. George W Bush hit a 90% approval rating after the 9/11 attacks and his father, George H. W. Bush, reached 89% after the Gulf War in 1991.

Trump’s highest approval rating in this term has been 47%, despite his claims to have hit the high 70s “in the real polls”.

As always, facts in the Trump world don’t matter. The real concern is that he may be serious in his designs on a third term.

Some are suggesting he may try to circumvent the constitution by having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job then hand it to Trump.

But academic experts believe that tactic would be defeated by the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, that states: “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice president of the United States”.

Let’s hope Trump’s posturing is aimed at projecting strength at home and abroad to alleviate the problems of presidents in their last term, when they’re regarded as ‘lame duck’ leaders.

If it’s not, and he’s serious about another run, America and, more importantly, its allies, should be not only alert but genuinely alarmed!

OUR LEADERS MUST LEAD ... IMPLEMENT THE SUICIDE ROYAL COMMISSION’S RECOMMENDATIONS

One of the most urgent priorities of our next Federal Government must be to reinvigorate our Defence Force.

While Europe’s defences gear up for a world without American support and China roams the Pacific with intent, the Australian Defence Force has dropped from 62,000 in 2022 to 59,000 today.

This has occurred while the number of Defence bureaucrats has risen by 17%.

The recent Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide provided the blueprint and the recommendations needed to address the issues that have led to us losing a veteran to suicide every five days for the last 30 years.

The Chair of that Royal Commission, Nick Kaldas, reported on what he called “a catastrophic failure of leadership” across the board in the Defence ecosystem.

Around 6000 written submissions attested to this conclusion.

At every level, and right to the top, failures in leadership contributed to and, in some cases, actually prompted veterans to take their lives. Many felt abandoned by their leaders and the institutions to which they had devoted their lives.

Until we address the root causes of this disastrous situation by implementing the Commission’s recommendations, we will continue to lose our veterans.

And we will struggle to entice future generations to follow in the footsteps of those who have preserved our liberty.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS ...

SENDING THE WRONG SIGNAL …

The calibre of the Trump administration has been brought into sharp focus by the latest revelations in The Atlantic Magazine about the catastrophic Signal text message App scandal.

In a move that must have realised all the worst fears of those in the bunkers of America’s Five Eyes partners, the top echelon of the US Security and Military apparatus casually shared information on their phones about a planned attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Somehow, the chat group, which included National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, shared details of the attack and its aftermath with the Editor of The Atlantic Magazine, Jeffery Goldberg, who had been innocently added to the Signal chat list by Waltz.

Hegseth posted a running commentary on the raids, giving precise times for two waves of planned attacks, the weapons to be used and, later, the results.

Once Goldberg published the story in The Atlantic, the least-qualified Secretary of Defence in US history, led the response.

And it was exactly the response you would have expected: Hegseth reverted to his macho man-child persona, denied there was any security breach and attacked the only innocent party in the entire communication catastrophe, Goldberg.

It's a response straight out of Trump’s playbook (as inspired by his mentor, the late Roy Cohn): never admit anything, deny everything and attack the accuser.

When Hegseth categorically denied any classified material had been shared, Goldberg responded by publishing the texts, clearly revealing a litany of breaches that, in the wrong hands, could have cost lives.

Trump’s apologists have since resorted to semantics, claimed memory loss and pointed out that the Signal App was encrypted.

But security experts countered that the texts were shared via the participants’ phones and they were the weak link, under constant hacking attacks by Russia, China and many other bad actors.

All the while, Trump himself was playing golf in Florida.

The whole sorry episode highlights the underlying lack of seriousness of the administration and the appalling lack of judgement and mendacity of those in charge of America’s defence and security.

Every Five Eyes member surely must have now resolved never to share any intelligence of consequence with the Unites States while these clowns are in charge.

VENGEANCE AS AN ART FORM

Vengeance is an essential element of Trump 2.0. It’s centred on his fascination with personality, his legendary grudge-holding and his obsession with payback for perceived slights.

Trump’s recent revocation of the security clearances of his predecessor Joe Biden, former opponent Kamala Harris and other adversaries is unremarkable in itself.

Some are painting it as payback for Biden’s move to remove Trump’s clearance in 2021 for what he then described as Trump’s ‘erratic behaviour’.

But, actually, it’s common for former officials to lose their clearances once they leave office.

Of course, usually it’s done without fanfare and both expected and accepted by the individuals involved. Not with Trump. The Trump Reality TV Show requires it done with his absurd showbiz live signing and portrayed as some kind of retributive victory.

But, behind the scenes, Trump’s supporters are hellbent on far more sinister vengeance.

They are quietly hunting down all those involved with what they see as the victimisation of Trump through the many court actions against him, including the non-political cases related to Trump’s personal behaviour.

Not content with firing those who led the investigations and prosecuted the cases, Team Trump is trying to take legal action against the officials personally.

This should be deeply concerning to anyone who values a democratic system where the judiciary is independent from the executive arm of the government.

IS IT TIME FOR MORE AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENTS?

Just a thought: maybe electing more independents to our parliaments will protect us from the excesses of MAGA-Trumpism and its pathetic local copycat, Clive Palmer’s dog’s breakfast, Trumpet of Patriots.

At first glance, the rise of independents seems to foreshadow a confused, hung parliament that would slowly strangle good governance and planning and make it more difficult to innovate.

But, looking at what Trump has been able to achieve in such a short time under the American two-party system, it may be time to reconsider the value of independents.

Should we have an Australian version of the current American scenario: a craven Republican Party and a shell-shocked and toothless Democratic Party, we could see our system dismantled like America’s.

Strong independents, like David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie, and many others standing for the next Federal election, will act as an insurance policy against the regimented capitulation we’re seeing in America.

I’m thinking of genuine independents, not Clive and his playthings with their mindless MAGA mantras.

We need candidates with character, ability and policies aimed at bettering the lives of their constituents.

They speak without fear of party backlash and they are ever mindful of representing their core supporters rather than the party line.

Maybe it’s time to truly value independent voices and to give them the chance to hold both the major parties to account and to protect our democratic structures. We must choose carefully.

RATS FROM A SINKING TESLA ...

Do the board members of Trump’s chief tech thug Elon Musk’s Tesla know something that the rest of us don’t?

While Musk continues to divide America with his ham-fisted cost slashing and job cutting as the spokesperson for DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), his fellow directors at Tesla have been voting with their wallets.

Rupert’s less favoured son, James Murdoch, recently exercised stock options worth $US13 million and immediately sold them.

Tesla chairwoman, Australia’s Robyn Denholm, unloaded $US75 million worth in November and December, then another $US43 million in February and a further $34 million in early March.

Another board member, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, has sold more than $US100 million worth of her shares since last November.

Even Musk’s younger brother, Kimbal, sold $US 28 million on February 4 and the company’s CFO, Viabhav Taneja, sold $US2.5 million worth on March 3.

JP Morgan is forecasting that this quarter will be Tesla’s worst for car deliveries since 2022. Tesla’s new vehicle registrations halved year-on-year in January. And, JP Morgan says Tesla’s situation in Europe is even worse.

Overall, JP Morgan said: “We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly.”

And things don’t look like turning around any time soon. According to a CNN poll this week, the proportion of Americans who hold a negative view on Musk has grown from 35% to 53%.

Against this background, Musk is continuing his appeal against a Delaware court which rescinded his proposed pay package of $US56 billion. Delaware is where Tesla is incorporated.

THE CONVERGENCE OF CORRUPTION

Clearly, America’s chief tech thug, Elon Musk, is feeling the impact of the almost 50% drop in the value of his Tesla shares since the Trump Reality TV Show hit the airwaves.

 While Tesla owners across the nation were trying to disguise the marque with fake badges, the Presenter of the United States turned the White House driveway into a Tesla showroom to try to help his favourite billionaire stop the rot.

 Trump then pretended to buy a top-of-the-line shiny red Tesla, a Model S Plaid in deep red, costing about $US80,000.

 Even after the Tesla market falls, Musk’s personal fortune is still estimated at $US325 billion. He’s still the richest man in the world, ahead of Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who is at $US215 billion (and Vladimir Putin, estimated to be worth as much as $US200 billion).

 (No wonder Trump is such a fanboy of Russia’s oligarch-in-chief. Vlad Putin, the career public servant has amassed his vast wealth while on an official salary of around $US140,000 a year.)

 Meanwhile, Tesla is the worst performing S&P 500 listed company, dropping 45% this year. Musk owns 12.5% of its shares, worth roughly $US116 billion, about a third of his total wealth.

 Trump’s cheque is apparently in the mail.