In just one day, Donald Trump: pulled out US support of a free Ukraine, threatened a world-wide trade war and made the longest State of the Union address to both houses of the US Congress, one that has had media houses competing to check on the amount of lies he packed in it.

Not bad, isn't it?

In these few weeks since he has taken office Donald Trump has well and truly shaken up the whole world.

Trump has been compared to the Roman emperor Nero who set Rome on fire so that he and his successors could rebuild the centre of the empire with gleaming temples.

The lies, the innuendos, the exaggerations. Read reputable websites such as the BBC and study the long list of lies packed into one speech. And only one person, black, old and with a walking stick, bravely opposed him till he was carried out by security. The rest stayed silent.

All this, however, pales to insignificance when one considers the impact on the war between Russia, the invader, and Ukraine.

Trump has long sought to end this war and even before that, has long sought to mend relations with Russia.

In his speech to Congress, he has repeated the lie that the US had 'lent' $350 billion to Ukraine and now wants that money back as badly needed rare minerals.

The $350 billion figure is a lie.

 At most, the US seems to have given the Ukraine just $2 billion more than Europe has given.

Fundamentally, however, the US has long been bankrolling Europe. It tried to remain neutral in World War I but then only its help brought about the Allied victory. It then tried to stay neutral in World War II but the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and the US joined the war.

It helped mightily in the post-war reconstruction effort which gave new life to the countries of Europe. And it is still militarily present as Europe's first line of defence.

Now Trump wants the burden to be shared more equally. He is right but that means Europe has to increase its defence spend and break the deficit barrier.

This will not be easy and cuts will have to be made mainly in the social spend. You can hear the squeals of anti-Trump anger from Helsinki to Sicily.

There are those, however, who are not displeased about this, as Macron explained on Tuesday.

Others say this is now the time for Europe to learn to stand up on its own two feet and that maybe now is the time to establish favourable trade agreements eg the Mercosur agreement. Certainly Europe has a better image in the Third World than Uncle Sam (though that is not cast-iron).

And Europe, small nations, different languages, conflictual history etc, has its own unique way of doing things. It does not have to copy the American template even though it might still appear as an US colony.

There is still so much to do.

Five small NGOs reveal the truth

At the end, seek the truth not in big newsrooms nor in the Opposition's Net and its repeated ads for travel that lead you to conclude nobody is watching.

To my big surprise, don't seek either in the websites of the organisations themselves. What's the use of issuing joint statements when the originating websites don't include them?

I am referring to the joint statement by five relatively small NGOs issued this week on the government's Bill to reform justice.

First of all, it is not true this is a reform called for by the Venice Commission, as the government says.

Next: the system of justice is badly broken.

Legal proceedings take far too long and in far too many cases lead to the accused being found not guilty. A study by Lovin' Malta found that only a small percentage of violent crime has ever been punished.

It is very telling that even the very cases the present administration made such a fuss about when it was in Opposition are still blocked in the works of justice after all these years.

But the present Robert Abela government is only pushing on one small corner of the workings of justice and only that - that which will make it almost impossible to haul ministers to face justice.

I ask myself if there are members of Cabinet who know what they or their peers have been doing that can carry a jail term. Or else because they know that the prosecution service here is so weak it can only be protected by such a draconian law.

When all the past history tells us that it's well nigh impossible for a minister to be found guilty even with the law remaining as it is.

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