He who has the gold makes the rules

May 10, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News-  What a character!  ‘He who has the gold, makes the rules,’ said President Donald Trump.  I agree with the man from Jamaica Estates, Queens, NY.  Suffering succotash!  I used to pass that bucolic setting weekly, since I lived on Highland Avenue.  Imagine that, li’l ole me rubbing shoulders within passing distance of greatness!  But the gold, back to the gold.

He who has it flaunts it.  In a well-secured storage chest.  The bigger the chest, the bigger the rules that are rearranged, given a little assistance to reform themselves.  Welcome to the Donald J. Trump University of Self-Enhancement (and Self-Empowerment).  No challenge here that gold prices are up 40% in the last year, proving yet again that the gold boat has an unerring compass when safety is a priority.  Fearful financial flight from turbulent storms that rock and cause retching.  I think that it is a good idea to name this American hurricane, Hurricane Donny.  If it is left for me to say, then I will say it: it’s a beautiful thing.  Go ahead! Find fault with that Ms. Universe.  Aright! Aright! since the nitpickers are out in brigade strength, I make adjustment: Mr. America.  But what about the gold, where is it, who has it?

Mr. Trump doesn’t have any gold to talk about, but that has not stopped him from rewriting the rule books to give his ideas a facelift.  Ask immigrants sent scurrying for cover in the barren wilds of New York City, the Windy City (Chicago) and Dodge City, which is Anywhere, USA.  Ask social security recipients, as they watch while their precious monthly gold haul gets refined and reweighed, with new rules.  A torrid time, it is.  Even men with names like Musk and Buffett, and places like Microsoft and Amazon, have had their rough voyages.  So, where is this gold that the Don is talking about?  Fort Knox seems just as shaky, not as heavy around the belly, which comes from rich living, i.e., many infusions of gold in any form – liquid or solid, because gold doesn’t get rancid.  Did somebody say a hedge against inflation?  A reinforced 10-foot fence is best.  Did another say the wealth of kings, from Croesus to comrades in the PPP Government?  Well, Guyanese have an unmatched reputation for buckets of black gold, yet their trousers and skirts are falling off, exposing their ‘hungry-belly’ state.  Involuntary fasting, brought about by callous PPP economics, and the ravages that only the poor and hungry know.  There are too many of them in golden Guyana.

I could agree with Demerara Gold (the rum, of course), but American gold looks like it is in need of some carats.  Nuisances and inconveniences like those have never slowed down Donald Trump, which is why he makes the rules, his own as he goes along.  It is why he is such a superhero and role model to the likes of Irfaan Ali, Bharrat Jagdeo, and Anil Nandlall.  Ever seen a rule that needs remaking, and these guys are it.  Their book has leaves taken from Trump’s book.  When I think of Mr. Trump on the move, I call that a spirit of rugged American individualism.  Mr. Marlboro out of the borough of Queens, a real frontiersman in the best American traditions.  It pains, but I must remind everyone that America is up to its knees in debt to the world, including competitors.  Hence, its horizons have narrowed, and its flexing of raw power has some, er, restraints.

However, fortune favours the brave, and Don Trump can be audacious.  Check his record.  Be a soldier and try to untangle his tangles.  He is still making the rules, his own and to damn the fallouts.  Who is strong enough to stand in his way, object?  The Congress?  The US Supreme Court?  How about that gang of Keystone Kops, aka the Democratic Party?  Due to that setting in the territory, President Trump is well within his rights to make the rules, even though that’s the last thing they represent (rules).  The road is clear, and the stoplights torn down.  Give a magnate, a mortgage and soon he either owns the bank, or has blown it up.  It is how capitalism and democracy work, with the Darwinian and Orwell’s 1984 in charge.  For look over there at those fine fellows in North Korea, Russia, and China who have made capitalism and democracy their game.  See anyone pulling them over and writing a traffic ticket for those Big Brothers?  For misreading the rules of the game, misleading the world?  What’s good for Xi Jinping is good for Donald John.

For too long America has been passive and on the defensive.  Sing that song, America: Goodbye, yesterday.  I agree with Mr. Trump: he who has the gold makes the rules.  And even when there is no gold, the first rule still holds.  It is the right to make a fool of everybody else.  Unfortunately, Donny has company in PPP Guyana.  Now, that’s a different bag of vipers, which isn’t so funny anymore.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)    

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• Donald J. Trump University, hard truths, New York City, President Donald Trump

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