Opinion

Patrick Murphy: It's not clear what we have done to deserve the appointment of Trump's special envoy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

Mick Mulvaney, the new special envoy to Northern Ireland
Mick Mulvaney, the new special envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney, the new special envoy to Northern Ireland

Dear Mick Mulvaney,

We hear that Donald Trump has sacked you as White House Chief of Staff. But since he sacks everyone (except his family) that was no surprise. Indeed he seems to appoint people just for the pleasure of sacking them.

Some say he is now sending you here as his special envoy to boost his electoral support among Irish Americans. Others believe you are here to monitor us in any trade deal between the UK and the USA and there is also the theory that he did not just dump you, he sent you here as a form of penance. (Being dumped is painful, but being dumped in Belfast sounds like punishment. You must have treated someone badly to deserve that.)

But the pain will not be all yours. Although you are welcome as an individual, we do not need the indignity of Trump or his politics in our lives. We have enough political insanity of our own, without importing fresh supplies from America.

Many here will find your own political beliefs unwelcome. In Politico magazine you describe yourself as "a right-wing nut job". (Repeat that here and you might find yourself quite popular in some areas.)

It is an odd self-description for a Catholic, particularly since Pope Francis says that capitalism causes hunger and gives "a moral cloak to inequality." (Many Catholics who left Ireland for America did not lose their faith - they just re-invented it.)

The Washington Post reports that at last year's USA National Catholic Prayer Breakfast (a chance for the well-heeled to display their piety) you said that the principles of our faith are manifest under Trump. Would this be the same Trump whom the Pope described as "not Christian" for his immigration policies?

The New York Times quotes you as describing Trump as "a terrible human being," who has said "disgusting and indefensible" things about women. That was before you got the White House job.

While in post, you admitted that the Trump administration mixed politics with foreign policy "all the time", as happened in Ukraine. Later that day you changed your version of events. (If you want to learn how to do that sort of thing professionally, read the RHI report. It will keep you right about U-turns and cover-ups.)

While all of your above views represent legitimate political opinion (well, sort of), there is an additional element to Trump's politics which is both dangerous and disturbing. He claims that the Chinese created the global warming concept to make US manufacturing non-competitive.

You too are "not yet convinced" that climate change stems from human activity. (As soon as you arrive off the plane, contact Sammy Wilson. You and he may have a lot in common.)

It gets worse. CNBC reports that you claimed the media only started paying close attention to the coronavirus because "they think this is going to be what brings down" Trump. Would you like to revisit that view?

Trump initially described the Democrats' attempt to highlight the virus as "their new hoax". He then claimed that the World Health Organisation's calculation of 3.4 per cent mortality rate for the virus is "a false number". Picking a figure out of his head, he said, "I would say the number is way under 1 per cent". Mr Mulvaney, we do not need that sort of irresponsibility here.

You see, we have this thing in Ireland called medical science. As far as I know none of the medical schools in our universities has yet to set an exam question asking; "Pick a number out of your head to decide the antibiotic dosage for children."

So, Mr Mulvaney, you will understand why we think that, after three years without a US envoy to the North, Trump might have been less hurried in his decision to dump you here. Although it apparently solves a problem for him, dumping someone in Belfast may not be the best decision in the long run. After everything we have been through here, a more considered approach to the future might have been a better option.