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Home / Northern Advocate

Paul Brooks: Giving us piece of his mind

Paul Brooks
Northern Advocate·
20 Jan, 2017 01:00 AM2 mins to read

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Donald Trump. Photo / AP

Donald Trump. Photo / AP

As fortunate as we are being able to view American politics from a distance, we should not be too complacent when it comes to the possible far-reaching effects of President-elect Trump's term.

We might be far from the action but consequences have a way of bridging distances.

Our place in the South Pacific might be geographically distant but, economically, we are very much tied to the rest of the world.

Just ask the people who set our fuel and milk prices.

We should be grateful that the complex machinations of US Government will be transparent and instantly communicated to the world via Twitter, the new Capitol news media.

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Every thought, every reaction to insults real or perceived, every hare-brained notion and sudden flash of inspired opinion, all will find themselves within the permissible character range on Twitter and communicated to the whole world.

Never again will we have to wait for Congress to approve measures or pass legislation.

Instead we will have everything straight from the man at the top.

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This is exciting news for political commentators and Trump fans everywhere, but not so good for the President's advisers, who will be let in on the secret at the same time as the rest of the world. That doesn't leave a lot of time for damage control or advice.

Not that President-elect Donald Trump needs advice.

By his own admission he is one of the most intelligent and well-informed Presidents the US has ever had.

Decisions based on his available knowledge, flawless intuition and meticulous fact-checking will therefore be easy.

Trump has legislation to dismantle, foreign policy measures to implement, jobs to create, industries to revive, positions to fill with family. He doesn't have time to wait for advice.

One of the joys of extreme narcissism is that no one else matters, ever. The moment he has a plan, or even half of one, we'll read it as a tweet.

Then, when challenged to produce proof, the media can truly say ... a little birdie told me.

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