The cruelty is the point.
As Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday night, Donald Trump now has the Republican presidential nomination sewn up. But like a Roman emperor or mob boss, Trump used his victory speech in New Hampshire to humiliate his former opponents – and make sinister threats against his last primary rival.
The former US president had followed up his record win in the Iowa caucuses with victory over Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the UN, with a double-digit triumph in less favourable political territory. As Republican politicians and donors scramble to jump aboard the Trump train, it is clearly game over for the Never Trumpers.
Trump could have been magnanimous in victory and congratulated Haley on a race well run. Instead, he was palpably irked by her refusal to drop out of the race. Petty and vindictive, he became a playground bully punching down for the benefit of an audience that glories in metaphorical violence.
Trump “turns into sinister playground bully” is exactly the sort of corporate news spin that will doom us all.
Anyone who knows a goddamned thing would have said he’s always been a sinister playground bully - from when he threw rocks at a baby in a crib as a child - but the Grauniad just can’t help but goose the outrage by pretending it’s a “new” thing.
Corporate News Journalism is a flaming, screaming, unfunny joke.