I hate myself for applauding Trump, but in this one matter I can’t help it…

One thing I have learnt from turning into a history nerd is that there are very few people, if any in history who have no redeeming features or whose every decision is a wrong one, or whose every decision has a negative consequence.

Some people come close. King John of England comes to mind, but even he won a battle or two, and he did cause the creation of the Magna Carta, which has a huge place in not just the history of England but of the world. It might have been for the wrong reasons, but good came of a bad king.

Henry VIII has picked up a lot of bad press recently, especially amongst the feminist press and even the general historical press, and is often today being depicted as a misogynist and a wife murderer. This modern-day view of the situation is unfortunately rather typical of popular press and social media to project modern day views retrospectively, and even historians fall into the trap.

A detailed study of Henry reveals that he was no misogynist, Anne Boleyn was as much a player at court as anybody, and she was not backwards about coming forwards and breaking up Henry’s and Catherine’s reasonably happy marriage, though of course it takes two to tango. Jane Seymour died of natural causes, no blame can be put on Henry for that, Anne of Cleeves was a traditional medieval power play marriage, instigated by Thomas Cromwell, when Henry realised they were incompatible, he divorced her and gave her a stipend and lands to live her life and she was the last of the wives to die, outliving Henry by some years. Catherine Howard in a modern context deserves sympathy, but not at the time, probably her family unwittingly sent their own daughter to her death. Henry could probably have been more merciful, but again court politics were at play here. Catherine Parr saw out Henry to his death, tending him as his health worsened.

Henry did some good stuff and some bad stuff, he is not England’s worst monarch by any stretch of the imagination, but neither was he the greatest, that award goes to his younger daughter by Anne Boleyn, namely Elizabeth I.

So why do I say all this? Well, an article in the Daily Telegraph has caught my eye today relating to Trump, who as I write is probably one of the most hated and despised persons on the planet Earth, and dare I say, in the solar system. And yet he has just signed another of his multiple executive orders which is highly welcome in my view.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/sports/donald-trump-transgender-ban-change-everything-women-sport/

From the article “President Donald Trump announced he would deny visas to transgender athletes wanting to compete at LA 2028 as he signed new sweeping bans within sport nationally.”

I have no beef with trans-people, live and let live I say, but when trans-activists start removing protections for women and start taking over women’s only sport and women’s only spaces by insisting that males are allowed access to those things, that is where I draw the line. And its an area where the Left Wing and Progressives have failed to keep in touch with the public view, and still can’t fathom it out, one huge reason women voted for Trump.

And as J K Rowling recently posted on X, “Congratulations to every single person on the left who’s been campaigning to destroy women’s and girls’ rights. Without you, there’d be no images like this.”

So the man who at worst has admitted sexually abusing women, or at best has been caught joking about abusing woman, has single-handedly delivered the biggest boost to women’s rights for a decade, whilst at the same time enabling hard right wing Republican’s to roll back women’s reproductive rights several decades. The man is a massive contradiction.

So what will history say of Trump?

Who knows? Personally, I find the man incredibly annoying, vulgar, rude and offensive. But a small part of me now despite all my efforts to fight it, is gently applauding him for having the balls to stand up to a tiny-minority of ultra-trans activists. Activists who have somehow managed to hoodwink vast swathes of the left wing politic, leaders of industry and public servants into believing that it’s fine, just fine, for men to invade women only spaces and steal medals and awards from women in sport and other ventures.

To paraphrase Joan Jet and the Blackhearts “I hate myself for applauding you!”

Cheers