Mick Clifford: Trump visit a reminder of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 stopover here
Donald Trump is obsessed with himself and furthering his aims through deploying fear, anger and resentment. Photo: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Ahead of his visit to this country, the US president was, for many, “a harmless old clown, a figure of fun”. For others, he was “a harmless old clown who held an office worthy of respect”.
Some things change. The above, as reported by journalist Gene Kerrigan about Ronald Reagan’s 1984 visit to Ireland, could, at least in part, apply to Donald Trump. Many on this side of the Atlantic consider him a clown. Not too many consider him harmless.
Other things stay the same. It would be fair to suggest that there is a broad consensus that the office Trump holds is still “worthy of respect”, even if occupied by a clown who might better be described as dangerous rather than harmless.
Reagan came here in a US election year in search of his roots and the Irish American vote. Trump arrives this weekend to indulge his twin interests in life, golf and accumulating money.
The protesters were out for Reagan on his visit principally because of his forays into foreign territories, like Nicaragua, where his people organised the sale of guns in order to fund violent opposition to an elected socialist government.
Trump would never have indulged in that kind of subterfuge. He would have just asked for his cut on the sale of anything that wasn’t tied down and explored the possibilities of branding the guns with the Trump logo.
He is probably dreading the meet and greet with Catherine Connolly more than she is. After all, the Irish president is highly unlikely to tell him he is the greatest thing since old Mr Brennan perfected the sliced pan, so she will be of no use for inflating his perennially hungry ego.
Also, she doesn’t play golf, the only redeeming feature that could save her in Trump’s eyes.
Reagan and Trump are the only two US presidents who were not greeted with near-universal acclaim on visiting this country. George W Bush didn’t meet a great welcome, but you don’t get the impression that any of it was personal.
Reagan and Trump, each a product of their own time, managed to elicit levels of ire and anger that were unparalleled for a leader of a friendly nation.
Neither man possessed the kind of intellectual curiosity and heft that might be expected of somebody who got to the top in a democracy of over 250 million people. Yet they were both, in their separate ways, supreme communicators who managed to brush lightly up against a large chunk of the electorate.
Reagan channelled his B-movie acting smarts by talking to the American people like a father rather than a politician. Some people loved that. He was always there to give folks a lift, to promise them that the shining city on the hill was within reach. His smile said he was with you all the way as you struggled and aspired.
But he was also the kind of dad who left the family home at night to explore his worst demons in the darkness. Minorities, like Aids victims, the poor, and those abroad considered to be tending the dying embers of communism, were dealt with ruthlessly as if they were the other.
His political philosophy was driven by an Old Testament morality that saw the strong raised up and the weak left to wither and die. His most enduring legacy was the widening of the gap between those for whom the American dream is within reach, and the also-rans for whom the whole thing is a nightmare of struggle and pain.
So it was that when he came to Ireland, there were protests, principally about the US forays into the developing world where tyrants were tolerated, and human rights were trampled on. To many on this side of the Atlantic, Reagan’s America was seen as a bully.
Protesters of many hues were mobilised for the visit. In his book, , Kerrigan documented how 30 women protesters were taken from the Phoenix Park, where they had set up camp and locked up. Their arrest and detention were, at the very least, based on the dodgiest of premises by using a by-law for the park.
They were not allowed station bail ahead of a court appearance. Normally only somebody considered a threat to public safety or a flight risk would be denied station bail. One of their allies in fighting the law over those days was then senator Mary Robinson.
The women sued and almost three years later the State settled, awarding 27 of them £1,000 each, around €3,300 in today’s money. “It was a cheap way for the State to keep the matter out of court,” Kerrigan wrote.
“Immense power had been brought into play to carry out mass arrests and to hold a group of people who were deemed an embarrassment to the State.”
A repeat this weekend is highly unlikely, but don’t rule anything out. Reagan was a Cold War warrior who believed in trickle-down economics, which disproportionately rewarded those at the upper echelons of the socioeconomic ladder. But at least he had a philosophy and could attempt to make a case that his politics were aimed at bettering society for at least most people.
Trump, by contrast, has shown himself to be preoccupied with bettering the world for himself and his family. The reported last month that since his re-election in 2024, his family’s wealth has increased by around $1.5bn.
He is obsessed with himself and furthering his aims through deploying fear, anger and resentment. As Reagan pointed towards the shining city on the hill, Trump warns of the carnage on American streets that would explode without him waving his fist.
And yet, Trump is a product of what Reagan created. The man-child who proclaims himself the greatest ever American president represents the ultimate outworking of the political economy shaped by Reagan.
Trickle-down economics and globalisation combined to see multitudes excluded from the American dream.
By the time Trump came around, a whole cohort had been left behind, failed by politics, in the mood to listen to any snake oil salesman promising that a better way was possible. So it was that Reagan ultimately begat Trump.
Spare a thought for President Connolly on this trip that precious few want to see at all. She will have to bite her tongue and practice unreal restraint as she listens to Trump prattle on about himself.
Her only hope really is to give in and assure him that old Mister Brennan had been on to her recently and actually did confirm to her that Donald J Trump is indeed the best thing to happen to the world since the sliced pan.
And then let him clear off to his golf and leave the rest of us in peace.
God help America.
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