As Liz Truss endorses Donald Trump, her new book Ten Years to Save the West should be filed in the fiction section – Scotsman comment

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss should be ashamed, but instead she’s trying to make a comeback by embracing Donald Trump and the hard-right

As Liz Truss promotes her new book, Ten Years to Save the West – presumably a sequel to her as-yet unpublished work, 49 Days to Trash the UK Economy – the former Prime Minister has endorsed Donald Trump, apparently because the West’s opponents were afraid of him when he was in the White House.

Seemingly, it doesn’t matter to Truss that, in 2021, Trump incited a mob of his supporters to “fight like hell” or “you're not going to have a country anymore”, then sent them to the US Capitol where they promptly stormed the building, violently attacking police officers, while Trump did nothing to restrain them for hours. It doesn’t matter to her that the then outgoing US President tried to persuade Republican officials in Georgia to “find” him some more votes to change the result, that he ‘jokes’ about being a dictator for a day, or that he’s facing a string of criminal charges. According to Truss, he’s a better choice than Joe Biden because he’s scary.

The prospect of a Trump presidency is indeed terrifying, and not in a good way. His actions demonstrate a contempt for democracy which suggests he will attempt to corrupt it if re-elected. He may also cut military aid to Ukraine, potentially enabling murderous dictator Vladimir Putin to win, and withdraw the US from Nato.

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However, Truss’s endorsement could be a sign that America and the world are safe, given her lack of judgment. She complained to the BBC that civil servants had failed to warn her “the UK economy was uniquely exposed” to liability-driven investments, often made in government bonds because they’re supposed to be safe. Her disastrous economic plans pushed this market close to collapse, forcing the Bank of England to start buying bonds back. So, essentially, she didn't understand the consequences of her actions, but that’s someone else’s fault.

Truss should be ashamed, and not just because of such snowflakery. Instead, she’s trying to mount a political fightback by embracing the hard-right. We trust in the British electorate to reject any renewed populist overtures, and mentally file her book firmly in the fiction section.