Us politics

Is Donald Trump a new Winston Churchill? Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, whose daughter Sarah serves as Trump’s press secretary, suggested as much in a tweet yesterday. After watching the new biopic Their Darkest Hour, a tribute to Churchill’s fearlessness in 1940, Huckabee announced that he had been reminded of 'what real leadership looks like'. He added in a second tweet that for eight years America had a Neville Chamberlain in the form of Barack Obama; now such pusillanimity has been replaced by resolute courage: ‘in @realdonaldtrump we have a Churchill.’ A new battle over Britain has now erupted.

We’re closing 2017 by republishing our twelve most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 6: James Bartholomew on the liberal elite's reaction to Brexit and Trump: Enough! Enough! For months, the so-called liberal elite has been writing articles, having radio and TV discussions, giving sermons (literally) and making speeches in which it has struggled to understand those strange creatures: ordinary people. The elite is bemused by what drives these people to make perverse decisions about Brexit and Trump. Are they racist, narrow-minded or just stupid? Whatever the reason, ordinary people have frankly been a disappointment. Time, ladies and gentlemen, please! Instead, let’s do the opposite. Let’s try to explain to ordinary people what drives the liberal elite.

Christmas in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth has, once again, been overshadowed by politics. The latest controversy surrounds Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The mayors of Bethlehem and Nazareth responded to Trump by toning down Christmas celebrations in a show of solidarity. Outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, the lights on the giant municipal Christmas tree were briefly dimmed in the run-up to Christmas in protest. In Nazareth, a traditional Christmas singing and dancing event was called off as a result of Trump's remarks. In Jerusalem, the celebrations are also muted. There is little sign of Christmas events in the historic Old City, where Christ once walked the streets.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, likes to make a stand. Specifically he likes to present himself (and the city in which he has been elected Mayor) as an antidote to global concerns about immigration, human unpleasantness in general and Donald Trump in particular. For instance, on the BBC on Sunday morning he explained his opposition to President Trump receiving a state visit to the UK. Though he added: ‘If [Trump] wants to meet with the Mayor of London, of course I’d be happy to meet with him and show him parts of London where Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, members of organised faiths and those that aren’t, don’t just tolerate each other but respect, celebrate and embrace each other.

Britain First hasn’t really taken off as a political movement in Britain, but it has caught the attention of the most powerful man on the planet. Today President Donald J Trump decided to brighten his and everyone else’s morning by retweeting three videos, posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, purporting to show Muslims doing horrible things. One is a video that shows a young thug – ‘a Muslim migrant', according to Jayda – beating up a boy on crutches, the other shows a Muslim cleric smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary and saying Takbir, and another shows Isis-types throwing a boy from a roof and then beating him to death. Everybody is horrified. Jayda is delighted, of course.