As Trump attempts to humiliate his ally, JD Vance waits to play his hand, writes DrAlex Vickery-Howe.

WATCH U.S. Vice PresidentJD Vance.

Hes the one.

PresidentDonald Trumpis living in the grievances of his recent past, whereHunter Bidens laptopis still a major news story. Age is wearying him and relevance is passing him by. JD is the one.

It was JD Vance who demanded that Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyythe war hero holding Ukraine together with scant resources and dogged will show fealty to American military supremacy andbend his kneein front of the media. Trump followed his Vice Presidents lead because Trumpisnt a leader himselfand hasnever displayed the necessary qualities. Yes, Trump can stir hatred and lead a thirsty rally. Yes, he can play the culture war game and bait overly earnest Democrats. Yes, he won the popular vote.

But Trump is merely a cartoon. Vance isthe supreme bullshit artist.

President Trump has caused much controversy through his apparent madness and chaotic leadership, but is there a method to his madness?

I have beencritical of the Leftsince the lead-up to the 2024 American Presidential Election. That criticism has earned me plenty of criticism in return, whether its in response to me pointing outthe hypocrisyof our feeble Australian Greens leader, lamentingthe cruel treatmentof former American PresidentJoe Bidenand the overall failure of the Left to connect with working-class voters.

Or simply pointing out that the Left lives ina bubble universeand is destined to keep on losing, keep on failing, until a major internal shift in policy is finally accepted by the rank and file. Im not alone.Bernie Sandersshares many of the same views.

I have also recently come to embrace centrism. Not as a midpoint between Right and Left that is a misconception of centrism as a political movement but as a set of bipartisan principles that can form the heart of public debate.

AuthorYair Zivanbreaks it down like this:

As an antidote to political extremism (which is currently, as you may have noticed, tearing the planet apart), I find Zivans approach interesting. Its a possible pathway out of a contemporary mess.

Im not shy about my embarrassment regarding the Left of late. We handed Trump that election. Navel gazing and pompous ignorance, particularly towards people facing material social and economic disadvantage, saw presidential candidateKamala HarrisseekingendorsementfromGeorge Clooneyand dancing withBeyoncwhen the American people wanted someone to notice their hardship.

The cost of living crisis will likely hobble the Australian Labor Party this year, too. In our rabidcancelling of peopleoften our own people and our prosecution of every microaggression we can spot, not to mention our invention of new ones, we have lost our core voter base. We wont ever win again without meaningful introspection and change. Im not confident that we have the humility to accomplish that anytime soon. Im not even sure we have the requisite social intelligence or critical thinking skills.

Still, you neednt rush to intervene: I understand the preferential voting system and Ill tick the Greens first in the hope that theyll rollAdam Bandtsooner rather than later, and Ill give my ultimate vote to Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese, who is also likely to be rolled if only for the crime of being thoughtful in an age wherevoters wantstrong men.

(Please note the quotation marks.)

A new report shows that Australia may be able to avoid the chaos evident in Trumps America but we are running out of time.

The recentpublic scolding of Zelenskyywas an example of strong men. Zelenskyy is actually a strong man. He is fighting for the freedom of a peaceful nation invaded by a loathsome dictator, and he is doing so with dignity, rationality and poise. Trump and Vance are Strong Men. They are the sort of people cowards admire.

The difference between strong men and Strong Men is all about character. Strong men are honest, direct, reliable and trustworthy. They make a promise, and they keep it.

Strong Men yell over cogent arguments because the truth scares them, and they treat intelligent debate as a threat. Strong Men inflate their confidence by pushing others to the groundand obsess over status. Strong Men pay porn stars for fake orgasms while neglecting pregnant wives and sometimes face charges and convictions, but too often end up in positions of power because the other Strong Men look up to them.

Oh, and Strong Men call themselves alphas without cracking an ironic smile. They think saying it with a straight face sells the illusion. It does not. Those same alphas shoot actual alphas of the animal kingdom with long-range weapons, because theyre so strong they must use bullets instead of claws. Just once, Id like to see a wolf or a lion takeDonnie Juniorin a cage match. Thatd be a lesson inobjective strength.

Weapons are, of course, the issue of the day.

Zelenskyy needs support. His country is holding Russia back at tremendous cost. As he said or tried to say America has an ocean between them and the enemy, but those ripples will reach the White House if Trump and Vance cant muster enough strength to faceRussian tyrant Vladimir Putinwith something other than curtsies and apologies.

At this point, its almost charitable to assume Putin has some blackmail material on Trump because the alternative is that Trump is a toadying wimp who not only flounders on the world stage but wets himself literally,if rumours are to be creditedwhen faced with a foreign policy challenge.

Watching the blubber puppet and his weaselly controllerJD is Wormtonguein all but name berate and attack a man of true strength and integrity should remind everyone why the Left, even at its most cringeworthy and embarrassing, is more ideologically and ethically robust than far-right small d**k energy. And thats what it is. Small people boasting about their weapons. Men whose penises are their microaggression. Thats it. Thats the substance of their strength and power.

Pundits will analyse this event and fools will delude themselves that perennially bankrupt Trump, a man of limited literacy and questionable business acumen, wasplaying 4D chess. But most clearheaded people will see thisbuffoonery and posturingfor what it is and know that America isweaker than ever before. Weaker, smaller, pettier and sadder.

Its hardly 4D chess toinvite a journalistinto your war chat. Thats like playing Cluedo with the murderers name stapled to your forehead. Its hardly 4D chess tocripple your own economywith childish tariffs. Thats like playing Snakes and Ladders but refusing to import any ladders.

Comparing Trump to Hitler is not about equating their crimes but recognising similar patterns of demagoguery and democratic decay.

Professional turncoat SenatorLindsey Grahamwas weakness and sadness personified when he fronted the cameras following the aborted White House negotiation with Ukraine and publicly insulted Zelenskyy, a man he hadpreviously praisedand fawned over, much as he oncepraised and fawnedover President Joe Biden, demonstrating yet again that present-day Republicans have no fidelity, no consistency and no concept of friendship.

It may not mean much coming from an atheist, Lindsey, but what happened to your soul? Did it slip between thecouch cushions? (Its not safe there!)

The message has been sent: America no longer values loyalty.

The land of the free and the home of the brave has becomea nest of vipers, gangsters and cowards. Of course, there are still wonderful people in that country and they may yet reclaim their international reputation, but the irony of the Make America Great Again movement was on naked display when Trump betrayed Zelenskyy and we all saw how horribly reduced how small, how mean, how vindictive and how ugly a once truly great nation has become.

And no, its not anti-American to criticise this sideshow. Anyone who values democracy, who respects American optimism and ingenuity, must lament these events. Fascism is anti-American. Disloyalty is anti-American. Cult rallies, thepublic humiliation of enemiesandbrutality against citizens and friendsare anti-American.

All those Republicans who claimed their Second Amendment rights to prevent a dictatorship are nowattacking judgesand entertaining a third term for their lord and master. Thats not just anti-American; its a fundamental failure to understand what America is.

Now, we brace for the consequences of Trumps dummy spit and Vances calculations.

European leaders will certainly know theglobal order has changed, and they cannot rely on thisweak and sadAmerica to stand by them.

Chinese leaders will watch this churlish display and think about taking a sneaky cruise to Taiwanese territory.

In the UK, SirKeir Starmerhaswelcomed Zelenskyyand pledged to support the Ukrainian people. King Charles has justreceived Zelenskyy at Sandringham. Meanwhile, Italy, France, Germany, Canada never to become U.S. territory Slovenia, Romania, Belgium, Finland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Latvia, Ireland, Australia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Japan and many other brave nations have come together to support Ukraine and condemn Russia.

A lonely America squirms in Putins pocket. The only appropriate response to presidential cowardice is national shame.

It looks like evenSupermangot it wrong truth and justice are no longer the American way.

The extreme nature of Donald Trump's presidency ought to serve as a wake-up call to Western democracies and those who take them for granted.

These are dark days for those who were taken in by Trumps lies, including his lie that he would make the rest of the world respect America again. He took a jerry can to Americas image the moment he pivoted from a beleaguered Ukraine to his own tedious personal grievances. For all his gaffes, Joe Biden never turned a White House press conference intoan episode of Jerry Springer. Trump did.

The future is, likewise,bleak for the MAGA faithful. Trumps idiotic tariffs, coupled withElon Musks systematic dismantling of infrastructure, will cripple American manufacturing, decimate the economy and make the American people vulnerable to everything from a domestic terrorist attack to a plague of preventable disease. It is the Age of Stupid in the USA and the verbal battering of Zelenskyy, while not the first exhibit, will serve as a flashpoint foranyone who was hopingTrump II would be one of those rare sequels that improves on the original.

I hope to see left and centre-left leaders learn from recent mistakes and reconnect with working-class people, who, while they may have voted for Trump in considerable numbers, stand to lose the most from what is currently occurring. They can be won back. They can be won in Australia, too.

I hope to see Europe stand up and defend Ukraine.

I hope to see the world at large push back against the Age of Stupid andclose the Overton windowtightly enough to exclude the ridiculous and the dystopian.Trump Plazawent broke, so lets not entertain Trump Gaza; two terms are enough for any angry old man, so lets not make this a bad trilogy. Putin will not stop if Ukraine falls, so lets try and remember which side were on.

And watch JD Vance.

Hes younger, smoother and in for the long haul.

Trump blusters, but hes almost 80 years old, incontinent, meandering and losing relevance even within his own regime as Musk upstages him hourly. Vance is the one to watch and the one to be worried about.Remember who chose him.

As Trump himself said to Zelenskyy: You dont have the cards.

We all know the American President isnt working with a full deck.

JD is the one with the poker face and we all need to look closer.

DrAlex Vickery-Howeis an award-winning playwright and social commentator. He teaches creative writing, screen and drama atFlinders University.

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