West Bromwich Albion 2 Oxford United 0
Our world is full of tumult right now, but I have an emerging theory. I think everyone knows that Donald Trump is completely woo woo. He’s your cantankerous uncle sitting in the corner of a family party; you know he’s probably going to say awful things, but rather than challenge him, you give him another sausage roll and try to move on.
Trump has a limited vocabulary, a short attention span and appears to be operate entirely instinctively. Some of the things he said this week look bad on paper, but in context, they sound like the rantings of a simpleton rather than a pre-planned, targeted evisceration of international relations.
When he said Ukraine started the war with Russia, I don’t think he even set out to say that when he started his sentence. He has a vocal tick in his speech which requires him to say sentences in two parts – set up and punchline. He started by saying Ukraine could have stopped the war (by somehow doing a deal), because of the tick he needed to find a punchline. This came out as ‘they shouldn’t have started it’. I think he meant they should have just struck a deal and not engaged in any fighting. The idea of a deal was a vague concept, there wasn’t one to be had; like your cantankerous uncle telling you that the world’s problems can be sorted out by knocking people’s heads together or using common sense, it’s meaningless and over-simplified.
But, I think those around him know this.
You can see the parallel world in some of the actions of US diplomats who subtlety contradicted their President. It’s also, I think, what Boris Johnson meant by saying we shouldn’t be scandalised by him (code for, ignore him, he’s your cantankerous uncle). Even the Russians were quick to manage expectations following talks in Saudi Arabia this week.
As was pointed out, despite everything Trump said this week, US policy hasn’t changed in Ukraine, they’re still delivering the finances and military hardware the country needs. I suspect there’ll be lots of noise from Trump himself, but realities on the ground will move more slowly because of what’s happening away from his lectern.
We live in these multiverses all the time; they don’t make our lives easier but it’s helpful to know they exist.
Take the game against West Brom yesterday, on the face of it we were impotent, devoid of chances, and generally outplayed. But equally, we were in the game deep into injury time and only conceded a second when we were stretched. More broadly, we dropped two places to 18th but the points gap to the relegation zone remained unchanged.
