Opinion

Mary Kelly: Would you like a criminal conspiracy with your burger?

The media keep falling for Donald Trump’s stunts ahead of next week’s presidential election

Mary Kelly

Mary Kelly

Mary Kelly is an Irish News columnist and former producer of current affairs output on Radio Ulster and BBC NI political programme Hearts and Minds

Donald Trump speaks from a drive-thru window (Evan Vucci/AP)
Donald Trump served up an image of an ordinary Joe working at McDonald's to a hapless media (Evan Vucci/AP)

You’ve got to hand it to the Trump campaign team for how well they are able to catch the attention of the hapless media.

First he is pictured serving burgers and fries at a branch of McDonalds, just like the average millionaire who never had a part-time job in his life, because daddy paid his college bills.

The stunt has apparently won him extra kudos from people convinced this showed he was “one of us”.

Donald Trump hands out fries (Doug Mills/The New York Times/AP/Pool)
Donald Trump hands out fries during an election stunt at a McDonald's branch (Doug Mills/The New York Times/AP)

But did the media not report that the restaurant was actually closed to the public for the duration of filming, with his staff playing the roles of customers, including a comely Latina who urged him not to let America become like her native Brazil, apparently unconcerned that he’d be locking up many of her compatriots before their blood infected the country.

Then team Trump files a legal complaint against the “far left” Labour Party for election interference because they’re sending volunteers to campaign for Kamala Harris, even though it’s been happening with both Tories and Labour for decades.

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Yet the British media fell for it, letting the non-story lead its bulletins, while the more sinister story of Elon Musk continuing to provide million-dollar bribes was completely overshadowed.

Elon Musk speaking at Donald Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday (Evan Vucci/AP)
Elon Musk speaking at Donald Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday (Evan Vucci/AP)

The true Halloween horror that’s maybe on its way next week was laid bare in a documentary, Trump: The Criminal Conspiracy Case, shown on BBC2 last week. I urge you to seek it out on iPlayer.

It was truly shocking to see the evidence of his criminal behaviour and that of his crooked acolytes: trying to pressurise officials from the state of Georgia to find extra votes, accusing the manufacturers of voting machines of vote-tampering, and publicly naming two election staff they accused of vote fraud. Both women had to seek police protection and go into hiding.

And this is the man that could well be back in the White House next week. Despite everything that has happened, Georgia is one of the states where he currently has a lead in the polls.

Luckily there was a bright moment this week featuring the other blond, charlatan politician, Boris Johnson.

The former prime minister has undertaken a series of interviews to mark the publication of his book Unleashed, which comes out next week
Boris Johnson undertook a series of interviews to mark the publication of his book Unleashed (James Manning/PA)

It appears his memoir, Unleashed, is not flying off the shelves, with a 62% slump in sales after the first week.

Apparently the rogue got a £2m advance on his 784-page account of life behind the scenes at Downing Street, but it has only sold just over 40,000 copies in the opening week and now looks set to be overtaken in sales by a cookery book.

By comparison, Margaret Thatcher sold 120,000 copies just after the release of her 1993 memoir and Tony Blair sold 92,000 copies of his.

And in the sweetest moment of karma, it hasn’t reached bookshops in Europe yet because of post Brexit red-tape.

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Like most of the world, I am lost in admiration for Gisele Pelicot, the French woman whose husband drugged her and allowed scores of men to rape her while she was unconscious.

Her brave decision to go public at his trial, so that the shame is placed where it belongs – with the perpetrators – has turned her into a modern-day Joan of Arc, a heroine of unmatched dignity and courage.

Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court (Lewis Joly/AP)
Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court (Lewis Joly/AP)

She told the court she was driven by her desire to change society and expose rape culture. She wanted to lift the shame felt by rape victims.

“I want those women to say: Madame Pelicot did it, we can do it too. When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have the shame, it’s for them.”

President Macron should give this towering woman the country’s highest award, the Legion D’Honneur, as soon as the trial is over and her wretched husband and those other disgusting men are behind bars.

He should also make sure that French law is changed to include a specific mention of the need for a partner’s consent to intercourse.