Leader of Portsmouth City Council, Cllr Gerald Vernon- Jackson, said they “don’t want to see” President of the United States, Donald Trump, in the city for the D-Day 75 commemorations.
The President is set to travel to Portsmouth on 5th June to take part in the city’s D-Day 75 event on Southsea Common, which will be honouring the survivors of the 1944 Normandy invasion.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson told the Portsmouth News that he didn’t want to see Trump in Portsmouth.
Leader doesn’t want Trump visiting
He said Trump’s proposed visit had changed things dramatically for D-Day 75, ruining things for the people of Portsmouth.
He explained that the council had made a conscious decision not to invite the President. They had considered inviting all the Heads of state of Allied nations but decided against it.
Now ‘out of their hands’
It was now out of their hands with the council’s Leader claiming that Downing Street had arranged it without their say so.
Many Islanders travelled to London last year to protest at Trump’s visit to the city, others like ‘The Donald’, so cross-Solent operators may be busy on 5th June for more than one reason.
Critchley: “Obscene clown” will dishonour D-Day ceremony
Island Labour’s spokesperson, Julian Critchley, said:
“In my view, Trump is a racist, misogynist crook. A deeply stupid, compulsive and sociopathic liar, who is subverting the US constitution.
“This obscene clown intends to dishonour the D-Day ceremony in Portsmouth through his attendance. There are likely to be large popular protests against Trump’s presence, and the right-wing press will doubtless clutch its pearls and demand that we ‘honour’ or ‘respect’ his presence.
“This is a ridiculous claim, however. D-Day was a major battle in a war fought against precisely the sort of aggressive, racist right-wing nationalism which I believe Trump represents.
“In my view, he besmirches the memory of the soldiers who sacrificed in that war by daring to try to bask in their reflected glory. They were fighting against people like him, not for him.”
He went on to say,
“The Americans often speak of ‘respecting the office, not the man'”. This is too glib. Every time we put Trump on a podium, or treat him with anything other than contempt, we normalise his actions – the lies, the hatred, the racism and misogyny. I believe he is responsible for the deaths of children in internment camps he built on the US border – that he has given support to the violent racism of the KKK. As we know from the Mueller report, he has introduced a deeply corrupt culture of lies, bribery and criminality into the heart of the US political system. If we fail to protest, if we treat him with a false ‘respect’, then we legitimize these actions. We tacitly agree with them. We tell the victims of his actions that they do not matter.
“I can’t condone that. As the soldiers on D-Day did, we should be fighting against everything Trump represents, not pandering to him. I’m embarrassed and ashamed that the Tory government has invited him to visit our country.”
Article edit
Comment from Julian Critchley added
Image: gageskidmore under CC BY 2.0
