Politics

It was another date which will live in infamy. But whereas President Franklin Roosevelt declared war in sombre tones to a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump did it his way.

The US president wore a white cap “USA” cap, dark jacket and white shirt open at the collar. He stood at a blue lectern bearing the US presidential seal and a black microphone, with the Stars and Stripes behind him, presumably at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. He released a video on his own social media network, Truth Social, at 2.30am on Saturday – a time when most Americans are asleep but Trump is often found rage tweeting into the night.

In the space of eight minutes, Trump proceeded to upend half a century of US foreign policy, renege on his campaign promise to avoid the risk of forever wars and leave the Fifa boss, Gianni Infantino, with some explaining to do about why he gave Trump a made-up peace prize.

“There is also a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go,” the oleaginous Infantino had told Trump last December. Trump was not wearing that medal on Saturday. Instead he delivered a performance that would have had soccer fans chanting: “Are you George Bush in disguise?”