Bernard Ingham: Calm down, Mr President, the world needs a leader

If I were his Press secretary – and thank the Lord I’m not, sir – I would be prescribing sedatives.

We have had enough wild talk and rowing with television interviewers. He needs to calm down, think before speaking, stop tweeting and start behaving like a president with self-control.

As an optimist I assume that if he can play the fool he can also play the statesman. He had better. The stakes are high. We shall see.

He faces five fateful decisions:

Is he going to have a love-in with the predatory Vladimir Putin or tell him straight?

I hope he says: “We have both got to live together on this planet. We prefer to do so in harmony but we cannot do that unless you accept that the West covets not a square inch of Mother Russia and the Crimea sees the end of your expansionism. The world has much to gain from a respectful relationship between Russia and the USA. In the meantime I am strengthening America’s defences and demanding Europe does the same.”

Is he going to damage from the outset relations with China with what I suspect is his innate protectionism? He cannot build a strong America behind a tariff wall or import bans any more than China can live by dumping on the world market. He can only serve Americans and the world if the US economy is based on an ability to compete with the best.

How is he going to tackle Islamic terrorism, given that it is a global cancer that kills far more Muslims than “Westerners”? It isn’t practical to close your borders to Muslims any more than it is to build an impervious wall against Hispanics from Mexico. The answer is to join with Russia and every nation that values its security in squeezing out terrorism with intensified security co-operation.

Is he going to hold out the hand of friendship to the world and promote freedom and enterprise where it is held back, especially in Africa, by poor, malign, nasty or corrupt tyrants? He needs to march under the banner of freedom and goodwill to all men – including fellow Americans of different races – to serve humanity.

Does he recognise that a national 
debt of $16 trillion is not sustainable 
and that he needs to get the American dream into better balance? He cannot lead the world convincingly if Americans are mortgaged up to the gills.

If I were in the White House, I would expect the world to judge him – and potentially draw strength from him – from his performance on those five issues.

Ah, but you may say, what about Europe and the UK. Frankly, they 
are of secondary importance set beside those five strategic requirements. The 
EU – more fool the institution – is weakened by its single currency and its misbegotten “ever closer union”. It 
is stubbornly not going to ditch 
either and this, combined with its unwillingness to defend itself properly, puts temptation in the way of the Kremlin.

Thanks to the good sense of the British people we are saying goodbye – unnecessarily haltingly – to the EU.

We are in the process of becoming an independent voice. This could not have happened at a better time since, whatever else Trump is, he is an Anglophile – his mother was a Hebridean – and not noted for his worship, unlike Barack Obama, of the EU

Theresa May is no Thatcher and Trump is no Reagan. She is a much colder and less passionate fish. Trump lacks Reagan’s bonhomie, warmth and convictions. But the Anglo-American relationship is special, steeped in centuries of history, and has survived Anthony Eden (Suez), Harold Wilson (who kept us out of Vietnam), Ted Heath (Europhiliac) and the poodledum of Tony Blair.

In short, the special relationship is really special when president and Prime Minister get on and respect each other. Let’s hope today’s unlikely pair get on like a house on fire and that May’s natural caution and deliberation help to convert a volatile and unpredictable president-elect into a global hero.

They have four years to do it. Their job is to make my grandchildren – and yours the world over – more relaxed and secure.