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Donald Trump’s Nether Universe, and Napoleon Bonaparte
By any measure, Donald Trump was trumped by Emperor Napoleon. Admittedly, the US President has a rather remarkable record for lies, distortions and paranoid visions; let us call it an imaginative nether view of the universe. On the other hand, there is a reason why Emperor Napoleon is remembered in the “colossal” category, as just about everything he did qualifies therein. A prime example is to be found in his celebrated Army Bulletins, issued before and after each major campaign. While Trump was exaggerating the size of his 2016 inaugural crowds in Washington, D. C., Napoleon had also boasted of his achievements during his Egyptian Campaign in 1799 and his failed siege of the Turkish-held fortress of Acre when he addressed his troops. “Having razed to the ground the fortifications of Gaza, Jaffa, Haifa, and Acre — leaving not a stone standing, we will now return victorious to Egypt,” he said. But these soldiers who had been there knew they had done no such thing — not only was the great crusader fortress at Acre still standing, but it remains a major tourist site to this day. When Bonaparte’s secretary and companion pointed out the absurdity of his claims, stating that in fact he had been defeated there and that every stone of this landmark was still in place, the general just laughed and called him “a simpleton!”
