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How mocking Trump has blinded the world to real danger
Every era has its coping mechanisms. Ours, it seems, is laughter.
Scroll through any social media feed, and you will find Donald Trump reduced to a punchline. Memes of orange faces. Late-night monologues competing to outdo one another. Group chats are lighting up with screenshots of his latest outburst. The joke feels endless and, for many, necessary. Humour helps people survive anxiety. But what if this laughter has become part of the problem?
The global response to Trump has settled into a familiar rhythm. Watch. Ridicule. Repeat. Meanwhile, the man himself keeps moving forward, striking deals, consolidating power, and shaping policy that affects far more than just American borders. While the world laughs, he governs.
When humour becomes a blind spot
Mockery can be disarming. It makes threats feel smaller, more manageable, and even childish. Trump has often been framed as a cartoon rather than a calculating political force. That framing has consequences. It turns serious warning signs into entertainment and transforms civic danger into background noise.
In the United States, loyalty to Trump has increasingly replaced loyalty to institutions. His influence over his own party has weakened legislative independence and normalised attacks on the judiciary, the media, and electoral processes. These are not the actions of a clown. They are the mechanics of power.
Yet globally, the dominant reaction remains a shrug wrapped in a smirk. Another outrageous comment. Another viral clip. Another round of jokes over dinner. The blueprint is ignored because the performance is distracting.
The warnings we chose not to hear
What makes this moment particularly unsettling is that the alarms were not only political. Mental health professionals, academics, and policy experts have repeatedly raised concerns about Trump’s behaviour, temperament, and capacity to wield power responsibly. These warnings were extraordinary precisely because they broke with long-held professional conventions.
Instead of prompting serious international reflection, they were often absorbed into the same cycle of mockery. Concern became content. Analysis became entertainment. The result was a strange global numbness to escalating risks.
Power thrives when opposition laughs
Trump’s political style has always thrived on attention, even hostile attention. Every joke keeps him central. Every meme reinforces his dominance of the conversation. While critics laugh, he reframes institutions, redefines norms, and tests the limits of accountability.
Diplomacy has been treated as theatre. Longstanding international frameworks have been weakened or dismissed. Authoritarian leaders are praised while democratic allies are unsettled. The consequences of these shifts do not land evenly. They ripple outward, affecting trade, conflict zones, migration, and global stability.
Laughter, in this context, becomes a form of permission. Not approval, but tolerance. It signals that the world is watching, amused, rather than organised and alert.
History’s uncomfortable echo
History rarely announces itself clearly. It often arrives disguised as farce. Many authoritarian figures were initially dismissed as absurd, unserious, or too chaotic to succeed. By the time the danger was undeniable, institutions were already hollowed out and resistance fragmented.
The comparison is uncomfortable, and that is precisely why it matters. The early stages of democratic erosion are rarely dramatic. They are incremental, normalised, joked about, and shared as content.
An African perspective the world needs
From an African viewpoint, this moment carries particular weight. The continent knows what it means to live with the long shadows of power abused and institutions broken. It also knows the cost of global indifference.
Africa has rarely been the architect of global conflict, yet it often bears the consequences. Economic instability, proxy wars, humanitarian crises, and displaced populations do not respect borders. They arrive quietly, then all at once.
There is an opportunity here for African voices to speak with clarity, not amusement. To insist that justice, accountability, and humanity are not optional extras in global leadership. To remind the world that peace without justice is not peace at all.
When the joke stops being funny
Perhaps laughter feels safer than fear. Perhaps it is easier to mock than to mobilise. But history is unkind to those who mistake comedy for containment.
Donald Trump is not a meme. He is a political actor with access to immense power and influence. Treating him as entertainment may soothe anxiety in the short term, but it risks something far greater in the long run.
The world does not need better jokes. It needs clearer thinking, firmer principles, and collective responsibility. The punchline, if we are not careful, will not be funny at all.
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Source: IOL
Featured Image: OSV News
