Can the UK learn from Trump’s boldness without losing its moral compass?

11 February 2025, 16:48 | Updated: 14 February 2025, 16:07

There is something to be said for gradual reform and piecemeal change. I just can’t remember what it is.

Nor can Donald Trump. This is a positive. For, sometimes it is necessary to shake things up to get them moving.

By saying ‘You’re fired’ to many old and fruitless policies, the former Apprentice star is been a force for good – even if some of his policies were half-baked or even barmy.

From the proposal to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the eastern Mediterranean to the proposed tariffs on several countries, the 47th President of the United States may not have won himself many admirers - but he has kick-started debates we all have to confront.

Donald Trump is the Disrupter-in-Chief. And, disruption is a force for good. It rejuvenates. It shakes people out of their comfort zones.

As anyone who has paid scant attention to the discussion in management circles, disruption has been a buzz-word in Business Schools in the past decade. The entrepreneur Donald Trump, MBA, is merely articulating the common knowledge of the business school graduate. To wit, disruption generally increases customer satisfaction, helps open new markets, and leads to improved efficiency.

A couple of examples will suffice. Take immigration first. This is an area that we are often unwilling to confront for bear of being accused of racism.

But with over 3 million illegal immigrants entering the USA every year, something needs to be done. It is the same for Europe. Trump’s policies may not be the right ones, but they have spurred politicians of other stripes to consider policies that can address the issue.

The other issue is defence. Here too, something needs to change.

For too long Europe has been content and complacent; has relied on American largess to protect it from Russian aggression. That was never a realistic long-term policy. Sooner or later Europe had to pay its own way.

Paradoxically, the outcome may not be what Trump desired. The Businessman turned politician is no fan of the European Union, but the effect of leaving the Europeans to fend for themselves in face of Russian aggression, is leading to that ‘ever closer union’ that many people in Brussels have been hankering for.

Increasing defence spending will not only have political consequences. It will also strengthen the European economies by increasing production of weapons, which will create jobs.

But the main benefit of Trump is political – and even democratic.

Sometimes the ubiquitous elites get ahead of themselves. It is part of a healthy democracy, that the people can say ‘no’, and halt the advance of ideas that are not yet embedded in the national psyche.

Trump’s views on ‘Wokery’ and multiculturalism may not be those of the leader writers of liberal media – or those of the people who meet at Davos.

Populism gets a bad rep these days. Sometimes unfairly.

Of course, like all things, it can turn nasty. But kept within its bounds it provides a necessary course correction to elitist ideas that have never been tested in the real world.

Sometimes these ideas need to be challenged by disrupters.

This has happened many times before. Exactly 50 years ago today, in the 1970s, the ‘experts’ and ‘the elites’ were very critical of the new leader of the Conservative Party – one Margaret Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher took bold positions to reverse a trend that the people found unacceptable. She was a disrupter.

Donald Trump – albeit in other areas – is the the same. Stating unpalatable facts, like he does, serves a purpose.

It forces other politicians to pay heed to the sentiments of the people. Once this course correction has occurred, the political pendulum will swing to the other side. That is the beauty of democracy; people force politicians to change, to improve.

Without disrupters this would not happen. Democracy requires disruption, and this is provided by ‘The Donald’ .

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• Professor Matt Qvortrup is Director of Research at the Henry Jackson Society, and a Senior Research Fellow at the European Studies Centre at the Australian National University