On Reflection | Can America do to Trump what Philippines did to Estrada?
With scandals gushing from the Oval Office, it seems only a US special prosecutor has any chance of bringing the truth into the light of day – the world waits with bated breath
All prospects are worrisome, certainly for Americans, who are watching their 230-year-old governing institutions stretched to the breaking point. But it is also frightening for the world, living with the possibility the most powerful nation on the planet may be led by someone who could be mentally unhinged, ethically unfit or demonstrably unqualified for the job.
The fear is particularly acute in Asia, where the US president cavalierly boasts about his ability to launch a catastrophic nuclear war, thinly concealed behind a juvenile taunt more fit for a high school locker room than the White House situation room, as per his tweet: “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
For Asian countries located within the potential blast radius, nuclear annihilation is no joking matter. But Asia’s experience dealing with their own incompetent leaders may offer a way out.
Trump’s mental fitness – and the possibility he might be unstable – has become the hottest topic in Washington and beyond, fuelled by Trump himself who declared, via his favoured medium, that he is “a very stable genius”.
