The historian was once a critic of the president-elect, but now says he is glad that Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris — and has already visited him at Mar-a-Lago
Last month Sir Niall Ferguson entered the court of Donald Trump, attending a dinner at Mar-a-Lago where the president-elect gave a speech and had an almost “beatific air” as he basked in his election triumph. When YMCA, Trump’s campaign theme tune, blasted out, Ferguson took to his feet to join in the dancing.
The Scottish historian was just “joking around”. But while he is “ambivalent” about Trump, he was pleased he won the presidential election — a striking turnaround from his view of Trump four years ago when he charged him with whipping up a mob into an attempted coup to overturn the result of the election.
“Perhaps this is Trump at the height of his power, because he’s in his own palace, surrounded by adoring courtiers and supplicants,” he says of the Trump he saw in Palm Beach. “I was struck by the kind of glow that comes from something more than a mere comeback, that comes from surviving an assassination attempt, comes from defying the pundits and winning decisively. He’s got an air of tremendous ease about him which was not there before. The current ambience is remarkable and very different from eight years ago.”
Read complete article from The Times here.
