Fifty years after Apollo 11 blasted off for the Moon, President Trump uses racist tropes that deserve to be tied to a rocket and shot deep into space.
Reportedly it took 400,000 people to guide Apollo 11 to the Moon; today it takes one President Potty Mouth to drag the USA back 50 years.
Half a century ago, the language used by Trump about four black Democratic US congresswomen would have been less surprising, although no less regrettable.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib are all US citizens. Three were born in the USA, while Ms Omar was born in Somalia and moved to the US as a child.
After the quartet criticised the inhumane conditions of migrants being detained at the border with Mexico, Trump Twitter-spat that if they didn’t like America, they “can leave”.
He said the women had come from terrible countries that should take them back, adding: “If you are not happy here, you can leave! It is your choice, and your choice alone. This is about love for America.”
Nope, it’s about a president who hopes enough backwoods white racists will vote for him in 2020. In twisted Trump logic, racist rhetoric is his best hope of a second term. His campaign last time around was riddled with nasty nonsense, not least insisting that Barack Obama wasn’t American.
As Ben Rhodes, a former national security adviser to Obama, tweeted: “Trump launched his political brand 8 years ago saying the first African American President was born in Africa. It has always been about racism, and the fact that this has ever been a controversial thing to say is part of the problem.”
The four congresswomen dismissed his insulting remarks as a distraction, saying people should “not take the bait”. Wise advice, as Trump always creates noise and distraction, kicking up so much dust no one sees what’s going on.
Does this matter to us? It does when our likely next prime minister Boris Johnson (oh, God, did I just write those terrible words?) is eager to pally up to the President. All the pro-Brexit hooligans on the right, from Johnson to Nigel Farage and his chum Piers Morgan, love Trump, and wish to align our interests with the US.
A stronger relationship with the flaky president is a clincher for such Brexiters, and seemingly the only argument up their sleeve.
At yesterday’s final Tory leadership debate, organised by the Sun, Johnson and Jeremy Hunt did criticise Trump, although stepped back from calling his words racist.
As today’s Daily Mirror puts it, Johnson sides with Trump the “loathsome oaf” at every opportunity.
Over in the Guardian, former Republican aide Kurt Bardella wonders if the reason the Tories say nothing is because they “agree with Mr Trump and his racism”.
Let’s end by turning from racist Trump to misogynist Trump. Megan Rapino, co-captain of the US women’s national football side, is a purple-haired lesbian riposte to Trump, a proudly perfect image of everything he hates.
When her side played France, Rapino was recorded saying that if her team won and Trump extended an invitation, she would not visit “the f***ing White House”. Her outspoken remarks after the US victory infuriated her conservative critics even further. She has also annoyed our own Piers Morgan – a nice little bonus.
Former White House aide Sebastian Gorka blew his right-wing topper saying Rapinoe was out “to destroy everything that is wholesome in our country and in our Judea-Christian civilisation”.
In an interview with CNN, Rapinoe sidestepped such personal assaults and addressed Trump directly. She turned to the camera and accused him of excluding people of different sexuality or race. “You have an incredible responsibility as the chief of this country to take care of every single person and you need to do better for everyone”.
Between them, those four US congresswomen and this female sporting hero show a more positive side to the US. Rapinoe’s victory pose, arms flung out in exultation, was magnificent – and marginally more uplifting than all those shots of tubby Trump cheating at golf.