Women are wiser than men

If you take exception to this observation, it ought to take just three words to bring you around: María Corina Machado.

Just think of other statesmen who have tried to ingratiate themselves to Donald Trump and failed miserably. Zelensky, for example, dared to express a mild disagreement with Trump and his wolfhound, Vance, and had to be shouted down the way Edvard Beneš was at Munich in 1938.

Hitler told him something to the effect of ‘shut up when grow-ups are talking’, and the way Trump treated Zelensky was eerily similar. (I hope my MAGA friends don’t think I’m suggesting that Hitler has come back as Trump, in anything other than manners at any rate.)

And what did Zelensky’s audacity, albeit respectfully expressed, get him and his country? The hole from a bagel, as the Russians put it. US military aid to the Ukraine was cut off, or as near as damn, and even the funds already appropriated by Congress continue to sit in American banks – that is, if Trump doesn’t favour Omani ones.

That’s what male pride and testosterone aggression get a supplicant talking to Trump. Only extravagant praise, lick-spittle sycophancy and some spectacular offering are tantamount to respect, as Don Trump (and Don Corleone before him) define the concept.

In common with most intelligent women, Miss Machado can see through men with X-ray accuracy. So she put her feminine wiles to good use and found a path to Trump’s heart.

The starting point of that meandering journey was her presenting to the president her Nobel Peace Prize medal, that Trump has always said should be his as of right anyway, or would be if there were any justice in the world.

In the process, Machado called Trump “the heir of Washington” (note the definite article – there have never been any other heirs). After all, the president had made a “unique commitment with our freedom”. I do hope she meant “to our freedom”, for otherwise the praise sounds ambiguous.

Both the donor and the recipient seemed to think that what Trump now possessed wasn’t just the medal, but the prize itself. If so, then a question arises about the $1.2 million in legal tender that accompanies the prize. That sum may be pocket change to Trump, but it’s the thought that counts. Did Machado enclose a cheque for the full amount?

One way or the other, Trump’s note of thanks to Machado did suggest that he regarded himself as a full-fledged laureate of the prize: “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

I know that the president doesn’t always appreciate semantic nuances, but to those who do there exists a valid difference between the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prize medal. The former is a great accolade; the latter, just a bauble.

A misunderstanding was brewing, but the Nobel Committee nipped it in the bud. Its prizes, it said, “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others… a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”

So that’s it then. Machado gets to keep her prize (and presumably the $1.2 million). Trump, on the other hand, will have to satisfy himself with merely a gold disk, and we know how much he loves that metal, especially as part of interior decoration.

If Machado hoped that her gesture of rispetto would soften Trump up to a point where he’d install her as Venezuela’s democratic leader, she has so far come a cropper. Maduro’s thugs continue to oppress the country without Maduro, although God only knows how long that will last – and even Our Lord God Almighty may find it hard to second-guess Trump.

Meanwhile what’s happening in Iran isn’t without gruesome parallels in US history. In 1956, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and other American CIA-run stations encouraged Hungarian patriots to rise against their communist oppressors.

Though no formal promise to support the Revolution with military aid was given, those broadcasts created a widespread impression that help was on its way. The Revolution started, no US help arrived, Soviet tanks rolled in and thousands of people were butchered.

Am I the only one who detects a parallel? When Iranian protesters started their revolt, the regime responded with a violent crackdown, murdering thousands (estimates vary, but by all accounts more Iranians died than Hungarians in 1956).

Radio Free Europe is no longer in business, but there is no shortage of other media outlets. It was through those that Trump promised to protesters that “Help is on its way!”. Everyone took it as an imminent US invasion, but so far that hasn’t materialised.

Instead, Trump helpfully informed Iranians that the ayatollahs had promised to stop executions. And their word is their bond, we all know that.

One can be forgiven for forming the impression that sometimes it’s more dangerous to be America’s friend than her enemy. Let’s wait and see what happens, but at the moment things aren’t looking good.