What are the Yanks thinking of?

What are the Yanks thinking of?

His first televised press conference was dreadful.

The president-elect was like a raging boxer coming out of his corner swinging punches left and right.

The press – bam! The intelligence services – bam! Reporters he didn’t like – bam!

These were the actions of a thug, lashing out at anyone who dared criticise him.

OK. It’s none of my business. So what do Americans in the Solent area think about the man who is soon to be the poster boy for their nation?

Susan Penny from Bittern is a mother and grandmother.

She came to England from Rhode Island in 1970.

She’s lived here for 42 years and voted in the last presidential election.

Alarmed and disappointed, she thinks that poorly educated Americans voted for Trump because they were lied to about job prospects and better lifestyles.

Fearing the worst, Susan stresses that the President of the USA has astonishing power. He could literally rock the world. His image gives Americans permission to be bigoted, racist and sexist.

She has little time for several previous presidents but, by comparison, they look like men of integrity.

The intelligent, mild-mannered and gracious Obamas certainly had plenty of that.

Russ Shipley was a sergeant major clarinettist with the US Army Band for 24 years. He moved to Meon Valley 14 years ago.

He now plays with Dorset County Orchestra and sees the Trump victory as a reaction to traditional politics.

Voters wanted someone to shake things up.

Russ thinks Trump will make a terrible president because he’s a bully and not a team player.

His own party, the Republicans, hate him so he’ll find it difficult to get money bills passed through Congress.

Lillian Clark and her husband Peter are academics who live in Denmead.

She’s originally from the Mid-West and he’s from Massachusetts.

They both think Trump is the worst thing that’s happened to America for a long time. They see this as a redneck reaction to an intelligent black man being in the White House.

Having failed to find any Americans over here who will say a good word about Donald Trump I got a quote from his website: ‘Together we will begin the urgent task of building this nation...specifically jobs, security and opportunity.’

Well, he’s made a start by giving jobs to four of his immediate family.

That’s not fake news.

Stuart Reed is a musician from Fareham.