American Thinker

by Stephen Helgesen

    I recently wrote an article about the joint U.S./State of Israel attacks on Iran for my Danish audience under the headline: "Should we not be thanking Donald Trump " I figured on getting a few mixed responses, but I wasn't prepared for the level of negativity that I got back from the Danes.

The responses ranged from the "steadfastly opposed" (on legal grounds) to the isolationist ones that basically said, "It's none of the U.S.'s business and none of our (Denmark's) business either." There were those that said: "It's just another example of the (American) dictator at work" and my favorite self-serving one was: "And now our gas prices are going up. Thanks a lot, Donald Trump."

    I suppose I should have been prepared for the onslaught of critical comments given the level of vitriol and downright hatred of Donald Trump by many normally calm, reserved Danes, but I can admit that I was a little taken aback. I can only surmise that "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS) has overtaken COVID now as the world's pandemic and it has made its way to Scandinavia.

    I must confess that this situation (with my article) is a wake-up call of sorts for me when it comes to the Danes's deep-seated feelings about President Trump. Many of my friends who know me and who know America and Americans well have been unwilling to "throw America under the bus," but those who have only a tangential relationship to the U.S. or have little first-hand knowledge are now ratcheting up their criticism to the point where they are sounding like American Democrats/progressives.

    Over the past year, I have watched and listened, carefully, to prominent and not-so-prominent Danes speak about America, Americans, MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump. I have been giving talks around the country on the state of the U.S., our politics and on the current administration, and at each event I could feel the temperature of the audience rising. Their resentment of being allied with America and their anger with Donald Trump was now palpable and has, in my opinion, reached the point where I can say with confidence that TDS has now officially become America's greatest export -- and we didn't need an accident in a Chinese lab in Wuhan to make it happen.

    TDS is the new COVID.

    This pandemic of anger is not something that can be prevented by a vaccine nor can it be treated with any known drug, and it is spreading largely because of the growing number of people who are diametrically opposed to Donald Trump, the MAGA movement and the American brand of conservatism in general. These people have become so consumed by rage that they have allowed that rage and frustration to become the guiding measurement of everything that Donald Trump does or says.

In one email exchange I had with one of my friends, he said (on the question of whether we should be thanking Donald Trump): "He (Trump) should have stopped after he destroyed the Iranians' nuclear capability. The Iranian religious rule has significant local support regardless of how backward and terrible it is. It is none of our business (read: to be involved) …" I could not restrain myself. I had to respond and said: "Do I take it to mean that you agree with the Iranian government's policy of killing hundreds of thousands of its own people and funding international terrorist organizations for nearly a half-century "

    He responded that he didn't but that the U.S. has no plan and its incursion into Iran will fail and end up like Iraq and that if unchecked Mr. Trump could set his sights on other targets like one in Denmark, using U.S. security needs in Greenland as the predicate.

    This was a bridge too far and I had to tell my friend that I thought it best that he and I not discuss politics anymore and that I should probably remove him from my distribution list for my articles. I suspect that he will agree. I just hope that we can still be friends, though I have my doubts.

    New and even long-standing friendships are being tested to an unusually high degree these days and many are being lost forever because of extreme political disagreements. That is one of the results of TDS. It is a pity that TDS has now reached the Danish shores and infected normally reasonable people and that it is busy eating away at their reasonableness and objectivity.

    The prognosis for TDS is not good. Those who have contracted it will have great difficulty with its effects, not only on their corpus but also on the soundness of their judgments and emotional equilibrium. I am afraid that the Iran conflict will contribute to the ongoing pariah-fication of Americans overseas. I am also afraid that this is one pandemic that is bound to linger on for at least another three years.

    Stephen Helgesen is a retired American diplomat specializing in international trade. He has lived and worked in 30 countries over the course of 25 years under the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, seven of them on American politics, and has written more than 1,500 articles on politics, economics, and social trends. He now lives in Denmark and is a frequent political commentator in Danish media. He can be reached at: stephenhelgesen@gmail.com.