Donald Trump’s hotel in Doonbeg is booked solid for the week of the Irish Open next autumn. You can imagine the avalanche of spondulicks ready to pour into the US president’s coffers. A normal night there in September costs €1,414 for a “premiere suite” with a sea view and breakfast, according to online travel agency Sembo. Warmongering, it transpires, is no impediment to raking in the dosh.

A gag, doing the rounds since Trump’s army killed dozens of people while illegally snatching Nicolás Maduro and his wife, hails it as a historic first for a Co Clare hotelier to kidnap a country’s president. Patrons of his Irish establishment ought to hide their faces in shame as they enter and exit the premises.

Something has to be done about Trump. His sabre rattling is way past mere words. He gave a clue when he renamed the department of defence the department of war. He has been blowing up boats and their occupants in the Caribbean, conducting air strikes on Iran and Nigeria and entertaining Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu – fugitives from the International Criminal Court – while salivating about owning Greenland. He wants to build a tourist resort in Gaza where he has appointed himself chairman of the so-called Board of Peace. He is now the de facto ruler of Venezuela and Gaza. Next stop Colombia? Mexico? Cuba? Iran? Greenland?

Newsflash! The dreaded future is here. Any........

© The Irish Times