Last Updated on Thursday, 3 September 2026, 22:36 by Writer
by GHK Lall
I have long observed presidents Donald Trump and Irfaan Ali. Who’s the leader, who, the imitator? Which one is the pretender, or are they both? Because of the grand and glorious natures of both Pres Trump and Pres Ali, the great pretender is more appropriate. The competition between the two is for the crown of who is the greater pretender. It’s a close call, almost a photo finish. Consider.
Pres Trump just finalized a secret deal with Venezuela, with a hapless and helpless President Delcy Rodriguez dragged along, while trying to keep her slip from showing. He instantly proclaimed it as the best oil deal ever. Mosey on over to Guyana, and there is Pres Ali’s PPP Govt. According to Guyana’s Ali, his PPP Govt is the most transparent in Guyana’s history. The pressures of his high, demanding, office made him forget access to information (denied), Exxon audits (hidden), and cost-of-living stats (distorted). An American and a Guyanese, both leaders who discredit themselves appallingly (without any help from others), claiming to be the best in class, the best ever.
Pres Trump has visions of Making America Great Again. He succeeded. In reimaging the KKK and reselling it as MAGA. Though no cone hats and white sheets for their uniform, there’s still white heat generated by a storm of white supremacy. I wonder how many of those characters are resident in Duke Street and Ogle. So that all Guyanese get my point, the U.S. Embassy and that projection of American imperial power, Exxon, respectively. Exxon’s red, white, and blue colors are not accidental. I should be proud.
In Guyana, Pres Ali very much likes the idea that he is the greatest. He isn’t named Mohamed I. Ali for nothing. Whereas, Mr. Trump has MAGA, Mr. Ali has One Guyana. Renegade Indians, tribal traitors, and parasites and naysayers from Guyana’s other tribes are not welcome inside the One Guyana tent. Though separated by 2,500 miles of ocean and islands, the American Donald Trump and Guyanese Irfaan Ali are the closest reproduction of those Siamese marvels that’s been my joy to encounter. To this point, the thrust has been that when Trump and Ali are lined up side-by-side, what differentiates? What separates?
Candidate Trump campaigned on a pledge to end wars. On assuming office, he promptly discarded that pledge and runs with one of the biggest moneymakers for the Republican base (Wall Street and America’s sprawling military-industrial complex). When there are no grounds for war, he manufactures one. Perhaps, he meant the thought of war, and not the practice of it. Candidate Ali campaigned on a pledge to review and renegotiate all contracts. On assuming Guyana’s presidency, he declared war on Guyanese interests, by settling for newfound solace in sanctity of contract. Identical to how Trump pays his debts to America’s war machine and business interests, so also Ali’s halter wrapped around his neck compels him to pay PPP indebtedness to America; those commitments made to Pompeo, Lynch, and others of that cabal.
Pres Trump has issued pardons left and right to insurrectionists and subversives. Those who laid waste to the Capitol in Washington, in the manner of Attila the Hun and Alaric I the Visigoth. Vandalism doesn’t come near to covering that wreckage. Yet, presidential pardons and Republican no objections have since led to those being doled out like donuts and free coffee. Pres Ali and his PPP have a cabinet, a Congress, a consulate or two, and a cohort, where there’s no need to look too long, or research too hard. Like America, so Guyana. Somehow those outstanding Guyanese emerge with untarnished hands and sanitized characters, compliments of some mysterious PPP pardoning process. Purest Guyanese patriots.
Both presidents Trump and Ali see the free and independent sections of the media as an enemy to be vanquished. Both Trump and Ali see the judiciary in a certain light, have their uses for it. Both leaders boast a compulsion to the outlandish and outrageous. Both seem to think nothing of immersing themselves in the injurious and infantile.
Summation time. In considering all this, the two earlier questions return reinforced. Donald Trump and Irfaan Ali: who is the leader, who the imitator? What differentiates, what separates? One more: who came first, who owns first place? A progressive, everyone.
