The Jungle upon Us, &c.

On ‘might makes right,’ ‘a low-IQ person,’ Vance in Hungary, college hoops, and more

(Photo by Cameron Smith on Unsplash)

Yesterday, I began my column with NATO, and I’d like to do the same now. One thing that can be said of President Trump is that he’s candid. Very often candid.

Here is the pattern: Trump makes a candid admission, and then an army of people get to work dressing it up, in an attempt to make it look respectable, or somewhat so.

They do this at magazines, in think tanks, at TV outlets (certainly). I worked among these people for many years.

But if you want to know what Trump thinks, he’ll tell you, more likely than not.

Yesterday, the president said this, about NATO:

And you know, it all began with, if you wanna know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don’t want to give it to us, and I said, “Bye-bye.”

For decades, people have accused America of being a bully. This was, in the main, a false charge. Never was a power so benign or beneficent.

But now the charge is true.

For decades, people said, “America doesn’t give a damn about freedom and democracy. Americans barely care about their own security. They want resources. They want to exploit other people’s resources.”

Remember the slogan “No blood for oil”?

It was always nonsense. But our current president says, over and over, We want to take the oil. We’re gonna take the oil. Yesterday, he said, “To the victor go the spoils.” He said it approvingly.

That has never been the American ethos, the American principle. We always stood against “might makes right” and “the law of the jungle.”

But here we are.

In 2018, Robert Kagan wrote an excellent book called “The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World Order.” (I podcasted with him about it here.)

America was not supposed to be the one representing the jungle.

***

Yesterday, Trump was at the White House Easter Egg Roll. Talking with parents and their children, he called Kamala Harris “a low-IQ person.” Then he repeated, “She’s a low-IQ person.” Then he said, “Who’s a lower-IQ person? Biden or Kamala?”

I don’t think a president ought to talk this way. I don’t think a man ought to talk this way. I am an antique. Might as well put me out on the lawn for 59 cents.

***

On Election Day 2024, I published a piece called “A Political Testimony.” (It is a personal piece.) I’d like to paste a swath of it, for a purpose.

I will bring it up to date, so to speak.

Anyway, that swath:

On May 18, 2019, Joe Biden launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. In the course of his remarks, he said, “Are we a nation that embraces dictators and tyrants like Putin and Kim Jong-un?”

Four days later, on the 22nd, North Korea’s official “news agency” issued a broadside against Biden, calling him, among other things, a “fool of low IQ.”

On May 25, President Trump issued a tweet:

“North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Bidan a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?”

Concerning the firing off of “small weapons”: These missile launches may have been trivial to Donald Trump. But they were not so trivial to the South Koreans and Japanese. The president’s advisers were right to be “disturbed.” (One of those advisers was John Bolton.)

Concerning “Swampman Joe Bidan,” etc.: The conservatives I knew, pre-2016, would have been aghast at what Trump did. You may not like Democrats. But to chortle with a murderous, anti-American dictator over a former vice president …

All right. Yesterday, Trump again spoke of Kim Jong-un,

who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person.

Again, I don’t think a president ought to talk this way about his predecessor. I also don’t think a president ought to cite North Korea’s dictator as a character reference.

They call me a “zombie Reaganite” who “doesn’t know what time it is.” Zombie Reaganism aside, I know what time it is. A low dishonest time.

***

In my column yesterday, I spoke of Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian foreign minister. You recall what he said to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov: “I’m always at your service.”

True words.

It has now been revealed that, one rung up, Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, says the same to Putin: “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”

Again, true words.

Funny thing about the “nationalists” among us. They tend to be Putin men at heart.

***

Vice President Vance is now in Hungary, campaigning for Orbán, who faces an election on Sunday. Both the Kremlin and the White House are working their tails off for Orbán.

(This would have revolted conservatives, once upon a time.)

As other analysts have noted, Vance is singing from the Kremlin songbook, accusing Ukraine and the EU of interfering in the Hungarian elections—even as the vice president himself is in Hungary, campaigning for Orbán.

(To listen to Vance, go here and here.)

For the Kremlin, the Trump administration, and Orbán—all three—Ukraine is a perpetual bogeyman. Thus is an invaded, brutalized, victimized country demonized.

President Trump called in to an Orbán rally, saying, “I just want to tell you, I’m a big fan of Viktor, I’m with him all the way. The United States is with him all the way.”

Not all of us. Not all of us.

***

You could view Hungary as an early 2028 Republican primary. Vance is there now. Marco Rubio was there in February, campaigning. (“Especially as long as you’re the prime minister and the leader of this country,” said Rubio, “it’s in our national interest that Hungary be successful.”) The 2028 primaries bid to be a festival of illiberalism. Who knows? Orbán might even endorse.

Whether anyone will be representing American conservatism, no one can say.

***

Some golf, before I sign off? I thought that Jason Sobel made an excellent point:

I’ve covered the Masters since 2005. What makes it so special? Well, plenty. But here’s the best explanation I can come up with: It’s the only place you’ll ever go where everyone is exactly where they want to be. DisneyWorld? No way. Family wedding? Doubtful. But Augusta National during Masters week? You won’t find a single person who’d rather be somewhere else.

***

Some music, too? The Metropolitan Opera staged Innocence, by Kaija Saariaho, which is about a school shooting. For my review, go here.

***

Some basketball? Oh, yes. My Michigan Wolverines have won it all. We won the NCAA championship last night. Defeating UConn, we were not exactly pretty, but …

I love what Andy Reid, the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, once said. After his team won a big game in rough fashion, he said, “Hey, not all of Mozart’s paintings were perfect. The end result, though: that sucker’s gonna sell for a million dollars!”

Thank you, my friends. You make one feel a little less alone (if you know what I mean).